AP Ranked Second in South India in Terms of Internet Connectivity in Government Schools
According to the School Education and Literacy Department (SELD) of the Ministry of Education, 45 percent of the government schools in AP have internet access; this helped AP secure a second rank in terms of internet connectivity in government schools in South India. Kerala topped the list, with 94.57 percent of government schools having internet access. 24.68 percent of Tamil Nadu government schools have access to the internet, followed by Karnataka with 10.68 percent and Telangana with 9.23 percent.
Delhi, Chandigarh, and Puducherry have 100 percent internet connectivity in government-run schools. P. Goutham Reddy, Chairman of Andhra Pradesh Fibernet, added that with the support of the state's Sachivalayams, internet connectivity to government schools will be expanded further, and the government is working to provide internet connectivity in all government schools. This will also apply to college students who received government laptops.
The School Education and Literacy Department (SELD) has asked all the states to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the BSNL to provide fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) internet connections to every government school that has computers. SELD also advised the states to pay Internet charges from schemes like Samagra Shiksha and Management Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research (MMER) funds. Currently, only 24.15 percent of the government schools in India have access to the internet; this number will increase when the states work towards providing more government-run schools with internet connectivity.