Andhra Pradesh government signs pact with International Baccalaureate to issue joint school certificates

AMARAVATI: The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with International Baccalaureate to collaborate with the State Council of Educational Research and Training to jointly issue certificates to school and junior college students, said an official. The agreement is aimed at making students of the state globally employable and equip them with futuristic skill sets such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, large language models, data analytics and others.

"The IB will be a better choice for preparing students and aligning them for future jobs and making them globally employable, which requires skills like critical thinking, design thinking, problem-solving and application of knowledge," said Principal Secretary Praveen Prakash in a release. As part of this agreement, IB and SCERT will conduct a six-month survey to determine what changes need to be made across grades 1 to 12, to align the 10th and 12th standard education boards in Andhra Pradesh with IB standards.

Over a period of 14 years' time, IB Primary Years Programme, IB Middle Years Programme, IB Diploma Programme and IB Career Related Programme will be introduced in schools across the southern state. Under the phase-I of this collaboration, the Andhra Pradesh government will pay Rs 5 crore to IB for deploying 26 specialists to study school infrastructure, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and others.