Mission TEJAS: Eleventh-grader leads Smart Innovation Schools initiative in Telangana

An eleventh-grade student from Warangal has launched Mission TEJAS, a pilot project designed to transform government schools in Telangana into Smart Innovation Schools. The initiative focuses on mentorship, peer learning, and holistic development, supported by professors, industry experts, and startup founders.

Hanamkonda: Aiming to transform government schools in Telangana into Smart Innovation Schools, an eleventh-grade student has initiated Mission TEJAS (Telangana Jnana Avishkarana Sankalpam) as a pilot project in Warangal district.

Its purpose is to prepare students for the future and shape them into a generation that builds the future itself. Through Mission TEJAS, he intends to build a unified ecosystem and a strong mentorship system that begins at the school level; scales upward through cluster, mandal, district, zone and State levels.

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Explaining the objectives of the mission to Telangana Today, the student Gundu Anirudh stated that there are initiatives like Atal Tinkering Labs and Digital Learning programmes, but they operate in silos without a connected approach unable to harness their full potential.

Under the TEJAS mentorship system, professors, degree and engineering students, industry experts as well as startup founders play a key role to ensure that every student grows as part of a living, breathing ecosystem. A key element is the peer learning ecosystem, where one student becomes a guide for another, creating a continuous knowledge exchange system that never stops.

The system rests on the belief that every student must develop the ability to think, capacity to create, confidence to lead and vision to transform society. It focuses on 360-degree development and holistic growth of students that goes far beyond academics and changes the mindset of youth, Anirudh said.

Through the Virtual Tinkering Lab (VTL) model and live mentorship, children learn to design, simulate, and prototype entirely on their own, transforming them from passive learners into active creators.

The mission is implemented with consent from the State government’s Samagra Shiksha in GHS Matwada, Shambunipet, ZPHS, Parvathagiri, Dharmaram, Narsampet, Narendra Nagar, Nallabelly, Upparpally, Rayaparthy and Wardhannapet since last November.

As many as 20 mentors, who are trained at MNCs under CSR initiative, help students from Classes 6 to 10 towards the right career path based on their abilities, interests and skills using an AI-based guidance system.

A centralised digital dashboard tracks student growth in a systematic and outcome-driven manner. After the pilot project is finished a report would be submitted to the government urging that it be scaled across the State, Anirudh added.