The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has relaxed its norms for setting up Atal Tinkering laboratories (ATl) in Uttarakhand. The Aayog intends to set up 500 labs in schools across the country in the first phase. The aim of the lab is to motivate the students so that they are involved in scientific innovation and creative brainstorming.
The schools with a minimum student enrollment of 400 and with a laboratory space of 1500 sq ft are eligible to apply for the scheme. In view of the geographical conditions of state the Education Secretary D Senthil Pandian had requested the Aayog to relax its norms for Uttarakhand. Pandian said that the Aayog has accepted the request of the state and the schools with student strength of 200 and laboratory space of 1000 sq ft can apply for establishment of these laboratories. Pandian said that the Government recognised schools can apply online for ATl. The last date of online application on website of Aayog www.niti.gov.in is July 17.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Niti Aayog Amithabh Kant and Secretary education Government of India, S C Khuntiya held a video conferencing session with the education officers of all states of the country on Wednesday and informed about the scheme.
Named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee the vision of the scheme is to ‘cultivate 1 million children in India as neoteric innovators. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked its schools to apply for the scheme. The Aayog would provide a onetime establishment cost of Rs10 lakh for these labs. A CBSE statement informs, “The objectives of the scheme are to foster curiosity, creativity among students, to inculcate computational thinking, adaptive learning, and physical computing and to help students in understanding the basic concepts of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) by providing them an opportunity to work with tools and equipment.”