NITI Aayog on Friday partnered with BYJU'S to provide school-going children in 112 districts across the country free access to the edtech company's learning programmes. "Technology has played a key role in helping ensure continuity and a lot of classrooms have moved to an online format. In many ways, this has catalysed the development of innovations in the education space and it is imperative for us to reimagine education and keep pace with these innovations," NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said in a statement.

The collaboration will feature two main components: BYJU'S Career-Plus programme, under Aakash+BYJU'S, will identify and provide high-quality test prep coaching to 3000 meritorious students of classes 11 and 12 who aspire to appear for NEET and JEE. A voluntary programme for children of school-going age, classes 6-12, who can opt in to receive scholastic content from BYJU'S Learning App for 3 years, under its social impact initiative, Education for All. "Through our Education for All programme, we have been empowering and impacting millions of children across the country, and by partnering with NITI Aayog, our efforts are being strengthened further. Education holds the key to driving society forward, and we believe that every child, irrespective of their socio-economic background, deserves to have access to quality education," Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, BYJU'S, added.

For the Career-Plus programme, students will be selected through a pre-designed test and provided teaching and content material, along with mentoring support and guidance. This initiative will combine the best of classroom and online learning, thus providing a hybrid model of education. Apart from dedicated centres for implementing support, students will also have access to digital infrastructure in the form of devices (tablets/smartphones).