Teams of officials, teachers and representatives of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) from Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh on a two-day visit to Andhra Pradesh to study the functioning of the Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) established as part of the Central scheme Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) in schools across the country have decided to replicate some distinctive components of the A.P. model in their respective States.
ATLs are meant to foster curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds and inculcate skills such as design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning and physical computing.
Impressed by the manner in which the UNICEF has facilitated collaboration of the ATLs with the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE), the Board of Community Development through Education (BCDE) and Vigyan Ashram, a Pune-based organisation, to explore the possibility of engineering and diploma institutions and ITIs with the ATLs to strengthen the ecosystem for innovation in the State, the visitors said they would replicate this collaborative mode in their respective States.
There was unanimity among the teams that integrating the curriculum with the ATLs is key for the success of the ‘tinkering drive’.
“In Andhra Pradesh, we have undertaken a mapping of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) curriculum with the ATL to facilitate use of the ATL space to illustrate selected competencies from the NCERT curriculum across different subjects,” said UNICEF Education Specialist for Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, Sheshagiri Madhusudhan.
“While curricular integration of the ATLs is important, it must be noted that the ATLs are not only intended as spaces to illustrate the curriculum but also to break the curricular boundaries through the application of a design thinking process,” he said, suggesting that teachers can explore how the ATL space can help explain concepts in different subject areas.
The deeper objective is to apply the understanding to solve real-life problems. “ATLs bring a new dimension to learning, moving away from the traditional exam-focussed learning,” he said.
Programme Officer, ATM, NITI Aayog Prateek Deshmukh underscored the need to popularise the concept of ATL for a wider reach.
During their two-day visit on July 15 and 16, the teams visited ATLs at Penamluru Zilla Panchayat High School, SMK Zilla Panchayat High School at Movva in Krishna district and Andhra Pradesh Model School at Moddulaparva, Reddygudem in NTR district.
The Jammu and Kashmir team comprised the Director of School Education, Jammu and Kashmir Ashok Sharma and Tassadduq Hussain Mir respectively, Educational Specialist from UNICEF for Jammu and Kashmir Danish Aziz, founder CEO of Pi Jam Foundation Shoab Dar, nodal officer Nisar Dar, senior lecturer and ATL Nodal Officer, Jammu Jagdish Raj Panotra, lecturers Jagjeet Singh, Ishfaq Ahmad Mir and Basharat Hussain and teacher Amit Kumar.
The Chattisgarh team was represented by lecturers appointed as ATL nodal teachers Anita Singh, Ritu Handa, B.N. Yogi, Dharmendra Ratre, Ashish Shrivastava and Sushil Patel, Assistant Director, Samagra Shiksha (State nodal-ATL) Ajay Pillai, UNICEF consultant for Chattisgarh State Ranju Kumar, Educational Specialist, UNICEF Chhaya Kunwar.
