Last month, the government of Andhra Pradesh signed an MOU with the edtech giant BYJU's, to have their online courses integrated into the AP school system, as well as signing them on to develop curriculum for schools in the state.

Andhra signs MoU with BYJU’s: Class 8-10 govt school students to get tablets

The government of Andhra Pradesh announced on Thursday, June 16, that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ed-tech major BYJU’s to help draft the curriculum for government school students from Class 4 to Class 10. Andhra Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy said that BYJU’s online courses will be integrated into the Andhra school education system, and students from Class 8 to Class 10 will all be given tablets to enhance digital learning.

thenewsminute.com

State CM Jagan Mohan Reddy claims that the initiative is set to be an equaliser, as the content is already available to children from private schools and others who could afford it- only that it comes at a hefty pricetag of Rs 25,000 per year, something out of the reach of most. Now, it will be available to government school students for free. Further, the government also to give tabs so that digital experience and digital knowledge is available to the children,” he said.

It is not just Andhra. The former education minister of Maharashtra, before the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Adithya Thackarey had also signed an MOU with BYJU's for their state.

Maharashtra Signs Agreement With Byju's At World Economic Forum

Maharashtra Department of Education on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Byju's Institute at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland's Davos to provide modern education to the students of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

ndtv.com

While on the one hand, as Mr. Reddy claims, this will bring digital devices and education to more people; on the other hand, there are other concerns.

The long period of school closures during the COVID pandemic saw the unchecked rise of online learning platforms such as BYJU's- more popularly called India's ed-tech companies. The problem is not something inherent in digital technology used for education, but rather when a commodified platform-app enters education as the government retreats from properly fulfilling their role in making better educational institutions and infrastructure.

How Byju’s became the world’s biggest ed-tech company during the Covid-19 pandemic

In the last year, the Indian unicorn has made a slew of buyouts that have helped it strengthen its core offerings.

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Some articles also point out how these companies' marketing practices are trying to scare concerned parents by highlighting the gap that occurred during the pandemic years.

How EdTech Firms Are Capitalizing on the Fear of a ‘Covid Learning Gap’

"I think the use of the education gap as a marketing tactic is really heartbreaking -- people buy into that insecurity, definitely."

theswaddle.com

From a conference on the issues regarding right digitalisation, "Lack of alignment with the aims of education, attempts to bypass the teacher, lack of regulation of data collection and privacy, learnification, endangerment of teacher and student autonomy, manipulative algorithms that may push education towards “radical behaviourism”, ownership by big-tech, possibilities of techno-determinism driving education , are some of the key issues" that was pointed out regarding ed-techs replacing traditional teaching rather than aiding it.

EdTech in India: No checks in place | IDR

As online learning becomes the new normal, the quality of content across EdTech platforms in India remains untested. What needs to change?

idronline.org

Right now, there are no assessments or studies on how this new form of digitalisation in education can impact teaching and pedagogy. They are centralised and concentrated on multi-billion dollar big monopolies, without any government regulation. There is also zero clarity on the data collected by these apps, and who owns them.

Edtech is treating students like products and violating their digital rights

A recent Human Rights Watch report has exposed children’s rights violations by providers of edtech endorsed by governments in Australia and elsewhere.

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As critics of the New Education Policy point out, ed-techs and pushing digital into education without due process cannot be a solution to everything plaguing India's education infrastructure.

Union Budget 2022: Fund offline classes, not edtech, for school children, say activists

Budget 2022: Educationists also want to see higher allocation for schools, teacher training to close learning gaps left during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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DEF is partnering with IT for Change, Internet Freedom Foundation, All India Forum for Right to Education, Right to Education Forum and Bharath Krishak Samaj on 'right digitalization - where digitalization was going wrong and how to geet it right.' You can read more in the previous TypeRight here, and stay tuned for more from the program.

For continued updates on this, follow The National Coalition on the Education Emergency, a group of individuals and organisations that have come together to work on issues relating to the impact on the pandemic on school education in India. They have already written to the Government of Andhra Pradesh highlighting the concerns with their signing MOUs with big ed-tech.

In Other News

Last week, after prolonged campaigns, protests and litigation, fact checker and Alt-News Co-Founder Zubair has been released from prison.

Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair walks out of Tihar as Supreme Court grants bail in U.P. cases

Supreme Court Bench slams Uttar Pradesh saying the exercise of power of arrest must be pursued sparingly

thehindu.com

Walking out of jail, Zubair mentioned how he would have used the time in prison to debunk the falls news against himself had he been given internet access there.

Would've Fact-Checked All Fake News About Me If I had Twitter In Jail: Zubair

Mohd Zubair speaks to The Quint about finding camaraderie in prison, and all the fake news about him and AltNews.

thequint.com

The amended bill that mandated a linking of Electoral IDs and Voter ID cards have been challenged in the supreme court. Read here to find out more on why the issue is contentious.

Law linking Aadhaar to Voter ID card challenged in Supreme Court, Surjewala's plea to be heard tomorrow

A Bench comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna will hear the petition challenging The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill passed last year.

dnaindia.com

And some updates from the Facebook whistleblower story we had covered earlier on TypeRight:

An important Opinion piece from The Hindu on how technology in governance can sometimes be dehumanising in democracies:

Updates from DEF

First, some updates from our Smartpur Workshop

Some updates from the Gully Classes Foundation we had been working with in Mumbai:

From our Data Rights Workshop as part of the A-CODE project:

Don't forget to join us for the second series of CNX 2022, this 29th. Register in the link below.

From our Digi-Gyan Project in Haryana:

Until next week, we stay in solidarity with our journalists, fact-checkers and other defenders of democracy: