For schools · one of the two rooms
Most ATLs are well-built and underused.
We revive quiet labs, keep working ones running, and build new ones. Equipment is bought. Capability is built.
The scheme, plainly
Generous on hardware, silent on the teacher.
₹10 lakh one-time establishment, plus ₹2 lakh a year for five years for operations and maintenance (AIM Grant-in-Aid Fund Utilization Guideline).
Construction and salaries. Nothing may be charged to students or parents. The grant explicitly cannot buy a person.
10,000 ATLs, 722 districts, 35 States and UTs, 1.1 crore+ students (aim.gov.in). Budget 2025 added 50,000 more, in government schools, over five years (PIB, 01.02.2025).
Any government or private school running classes 6 to 12 with a valid U-DISE code, with at least 1,500 sq ft for the lab (1,000 in hilly and island states), rooms connected (AIM ATL FAQs). The grant arrives as ₹12 lakh in year one and ₹8 lakh over the next four.
What we've noticed
Why good labs go quiet.
Our founder set up ATLs across northern India with AIM (2019 to 2021) and watched well-equipped labs go quiet within six months.
The equipment rarely fails. Confidence does: a teacher asked to run electronics, coding and fabrication with no curriculum, on a full timetable. So the lab opens for inspections and stays locked in between. No utilisation report shows it. The only symptom is silence.
The fix is not more equipment. It is a teacher certain of what happens next.
Three ways into the programme
We will say which fits, including when the answer is the smallest.
Each one is Think Inside the Box, entered at the point your lab is at. A Reset can begin in any term except the exam months. A quiet lab should not wait for the new session. See the programme.
The handover
The handover: your lab, on your people, by Year Three.
- Year One: we run alongside. Co-facilitated sessions, co-designed curriculum, documentation habits set.
- Year Two: teachers lead, we coach. Less building time, more calls.
- Year Two to Three: handover. The lab runs on your people, your plan, your budget.
The training behind it: ATL & CSL Management Training, four weeks, hybrid, six modules.
Honest answers
What ATL in-charges ask us.
Our ATL has been quiet for two years, and nobody here has a technology background.
Reset is built for that. A quiet lab is a confidence problem, rebuilt in 6 to 8 weeks from a curriculum that assumes no prior expertise. We need a named in-charge with protected time.
Can the AIM grant pay for it, and what does the programme cost?
Read the AIM Grant-in-Aid Fund Utilization Guideline yourself, not a vendor's word. Ours is scoped per school: a 6 to 8 week Reset and a two-year Steady-state are different work.
Can a private school get one of the 50,000 new ATLs?
No. That tranche is for government schools (PIB, 01.02.2025). Build-out covers a self-funded space instead.
Can our ATL also serve as the CBSE Composite Skill Lab?
Separate schemes. CBSE requires a Composite Skill Lab (one 600 sq ft lab for classes 6 to 12, or two of 400 sq ft) by 22 August 2027 for existing schools. The overlap is equipment: CBSE's tools list is explicitly "suggestive" (Skill-13/2026). Bring your floor plan.
Talk to us
The easiest thing is to talk.
Tell us where your lab stands and we will say which model fits. Institutions get a free 30-minute consultation.