The Ministry of Education (MoE) is setting up virtual labs for school children to teach vocational skills. The labs will utilize 3D simulations and virtual reality, made available through its DIKSHA platform. This flagship project will impact 100’s thousands of children, helping them to learn and practice skills for priority sectors free of cost. DIKSHA stands for Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing and is an initiative of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (Ministry of Education, Govt of India)

AMMACHI Labs, a multi-disciplinary research center at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, has been invited to design and develop the virtual labs for skills in collaboration with Pandit Sunderlal Sharma Central Institute of Vocational Education (PSSCIVE), a unit of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), government organization that has been set up to assist the qualitative improvement in school education in India.

Prof. Bhavani Rao, Director of AMMACHI Labs, has been selected as a Committee member to oversee the strategy to establish the relevant skills and framework for design and development. The other members of the Committee include representatives from NCERT, NSDC, NCEVT, NITTR, and IIT Kanpur among others.

The Committee members will discuss the objective of the projects and form a strategy for execution. The Committee is to report on the selection of skills and project approach as the first outcome.

AMMACHI Labs, the lead development partner for this project, has designed and developed several learning and teaching innovations and products over the past decade. Industry, vocational training institutions, secondary schools, and other partners are active users of these products