M. SUHASINI, a class nine student, sat in her school’s computer lab practising mathematics on a Chromebook. Through audio and video lessons, she practised mathematics formulae and improved her English pronunciation. Each chapter opened only after she cleared a test; another test after completion confirmed her learning. Suhasini was learning through the Personalised Adaptive Learning (PAL) system introduced by the Andhra Pradesh school education department in government high schools.
PAL works offline, allowing students to avoid distractions. “The best thing is that it helped me crack the national merit-cum-means scholarship (NMMS),” Suhasini said.
The government high school in Kalaparru of Eluru district has had a PAL lab for three years. “Earlier, it was difficult to get even one NMMS scholarship a year,” said headmaster P. Bheemaiah. “Last year, three students secured it; this year, we are expecting six.” The system is helping 3.81 lakh students in 1,502 schools. A study by Nobel laureate Prof Michael Kremer found that students in PAL-enabled classrooms learnt 2.25 times faster.
PAL is among a series of reforms rolled out after Nara Lokesh assumed charge as IT and education minister in 2024. Andhra Pradesh had for long prioritised access over quality in school education. Today, the state has 44,292 government schools with 33,41,584 students and 1,85,022 teachers. Even though the student-teacher ratio is 18:1, thousands of schools remain understaffed.
After assuming charge, Lokesh initiated a series of structural reforms, prioritising foundational literacy and numeracy until class five. To achieve the goals, more than 33,000 teachers and 45,000 anganwadi teachers were trained, said Akula Venkataramana, officer on special duty for school education.
Lokesh also ordered the redeployment of teachers to develop model primary schools with at least one teacher for each class. Today, the state has 9,600 such model schools.
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Under the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), schools were star-rated based on infrastructure and academic performance. To improve the interface among teachers, students, school management committees and parents, Lokesh initiated “mega parent-teacher meetings” for schools and junior colleges. So far, three such mega PTMs have been held. The second event, held on July 10, entered the Guinness Book of World Records with 52,34,863 people participating at multiple locations. “The PTM helped reestablish the connection between teachers and the community,” said Venkataramana.
Lokesh also directed the streamlining of teacher transfers and promotions. Earlier, transfers used to happen throughout the year, and thousands of teachers spent time lobbying for them. The government introduced the Teachers Transfers Act, 2025, which confined transfers to the summer and automated the process. “We have made 60,000 transfers with a single click. Promotions were also given en masse. Unless for some humanitarian or extraordinary reasons, no transfers happen during the academic year,” said Venkataramana. To tackle long-standing vacancies, the government filled 16,347 teacher posts in 2025. These measures, he said, have improved overall learning outcomes in the state.