National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS) in collaboration with Amazon plans to roll out the Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) Programme in 54 Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRSs) across six states including Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Gujrat, and Andhra Pradesh. “The programme targets students between 6th-8th grade. The first batch of operation is expected to begin from next academic year,” Asit Gopal, commissioner, NESTS, told FE Education. Presently teachers are being trained for implementation of the programme.
Furthermore, AFE a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme has been designed in collaboration with the Learning Links Foundation (LLF). “It is designed as an additional course to the existing academic curriculum,” Akshay Kashyap, India Lead – Amazon Future Engineer, Amazon, said. He further added that the programme is funded by Amazon with Learning Links Foundation as an execution partner.
Interestingly, it is claimed that the programme has been designed in regional languages. It will offer teacher training courses to schools. “Teachers will be given training on basic computer knowledge. Students who do not have access to computers can also understand the basics of it,” Sudeep Dube, Partner, Learning Links Foundation, said. Further, the programme module includes fundamentals of computer science, basics of coding, learning loops, logical sequencing, block programming with open secure source platforms, interactive sessions, among others.
As of now, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has sanctioned 684 EMR schools, of which 378 are reported to be functional. “Depending on responses to the pilot AFE project, we plan to implement the programme in more schools in future,” Gopal added.