Along the lines of the New Education Policy, Telangana will be a pioneer in implementing the first of its kind School Innovation Challenge across all the Government School Students of 6th to 10th standard. The challenge chaired by UNICEF has already seen Education Minister, Smt. Sabitha Indra Reddy and Spl. Chief Secretary Smt. Chitra Ramachandran launching the event. Following the same, Principal Secretary Shri Jayesh Ranjan has launched the online application for the students to register and take part in the state-wide challenge. Also present at the launch were School Education Commissioner & Director, Smt. A Sridevasena (IAS), and Mr. Salathiel Nalli, WASH Specialist, UNICEF.

Speaking about the challenge, Jayesh Ranjan, said, “To drive the spirit of innovation as an approach to problem-solving amongst school children, TSIC and UNICEF, in collaboration with the School Education Department and Inqui-lab foundation are implementing a state-wide school innovation challenge for students in grades 6th-9th studying in government and social welfare schools. The challenge encourages the students, working collectively in teams, to go through learning modules and come up with frugal solutions for the most pressing issues faced by their community.”

Education Commissioner said that the poster launch has already led to a tremendous response in terms of schools registering across the state. Adding, “We are extremely happy to have online application launched by IT Principal Secretary Sri Jayesh Ranjan garu and extend our gratitude to the department for supporting us through Telangana State Innovation Cell.” The Commissioner is ensuring that the District Education Officers (DEOs) and District Science Officers (DSOs) are playing a crucial role in Information Dissemination and motivating the headmaster and teachers to take part.

WASH Specialist from UNICEF, Mr. Salathiel Nalli shares his happiness to see the departments of the State Government coming together to fostering the young minds. He adds, “The online application can be used by the registered schools to start taking part in the challenge. The platform is inclusive of learning modules and assessments to nurture and students and make them reflect on their thinking abilities at every stage. The final selected innovative ideas will be supported and implemented through global platforms.”

Inqui-Lab Foundation, which holds expertise in nurturing design thinking among school students, will serve as Knowledge Partner for the program extend their gratitude to Telangana State Innovation Cell and UNICEF to be part of the initiative. Director of Inqui-Lab, Vivek said, “We will do our best to unleash every child’s innovation potential with support from the teachers and department of school education.

The Challenge that looks at nurturing innovation among the students from 6th to 10th standard, will be panned out from September to December 2020.