Goa signs up with Gujarat to get AI tech and improve education quality in state schools

The state government's Directorate of Education will collaborate with an agency from the Gujarat education department to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, which will collect data points from several hundred schools in Goa, and help stakeholders to improve educational standards in the coastal state.

The Directorate of Education (Goa government) and the Gujarat Education Department's Vidhya Samiksha Kendra signed on Friday a memorandum of understanding to set up a branch of the latter agency in the State Council for Educational Research and Training.

“We will first collect all key data points in the easiest way from schools of Goa at one point and disseminate to all stakeholders for their use. The technology will play an important role to reduce the time of office staff as well as teachers in data feeding,” state director of education Nagraj Honnekeri told reporters after the signing.

“Introduction of conversational AI technology to capture various data points from schools will help the state's ability to monitor, evaluate and improve learning. This state initiative will help improve learning outcomes through data-driven monitoring of every school and student,” he added.

In April this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Vidhya Samiksha Kendra's Gandhinagar centre, where he was provided a live demonstration of the AI technology at work.

According to EdTech social enterprise ConveGenius co-founder Shashank Pandey, with the introduction of the National Education Policy, India’s education sector was poised for transformation.

"In order to achieve the transformation, we need to move faster. Technology lets us do this. Hence, we have built a 'Swift Chat Bot suite' to enable all states to set up their own monitoring systems within days and not years without having to invest in heavy infrastructure or build large systems,” Pandey said.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who also holds the Education Ministry portfolio, in June this year, had threatened to put the state government teachers under the Central Civil Service (CCS) conduct rules, while expressing concern about falling education standards in the state.

Sawant's ire came after the latest National Achievement Survey report revealed that education standards in Goa were ranked below national average in several subjects, including mathematics.