The government of Andhra Pradesh and the University of Cambridge have entered an agreement to improve the English language proficiency of the teachers and students of the municipal schools in the state.
The initiative to benefit 12,378 teachers and about two lakh students comes at a time when Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy has plans to shift the medium of education in the government-run schools from Telugu to English.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the University of Cambridge, and the urban development department officials, in the presence of Reddy, on Thursday.
As per the MoU signed by Vijay Kumar, commissioner, Municipal Administration and TK Arunachalam, Regional Director, Cambridge University, South Asia, the university will provide training to teachers and students without any charge, under their Corporate Social Responsibility head.
As part of the program, 14 language labs will be set up in the 13 districts of the state. Training will also be given for comfortable teaching and learning of science and mathematics.
The Municipal administration department will provide the required infrastructure.
“Already, 8,000 teachers have completed a 30-day training module to enable teaching various subjects in English and have passed the Cambridge Assessment English test. The remaining four thousand odd teachers are also undergoing the training,” officials said.
“Three studios will be set up at Visakhapatnam, Kurnool and Vijayawada. The teaching material will be prepared by the teachers in all the municipal schools, and provided to the children through these studios.”