Samsung Pavallion at the Dubai Shopping Festival

KERALA: TARGETTING CENTPERCENT COMPUTER LITERACY

Biju K. Mathew

A K Antony: hi-tech Chief Minister

The Kerala Government has officially launched its ambitious programme to also make school students computer literates . To complete its goal, the programme ‘IT @ School’ envisages making computer education part of the school syllabi from eighth standard onwards with effect from the next academic year. Students of over 2,600 schools in the State will get the benefit of the programme.

The programme does not perceive computer education just as a subject of study but it also aims at empowering students to use computers as excellent tools for education. Nearly 6 lakh students will be covered by the programme during the first year of its implementation. The IT @ school programme will be extended to ninth and tenth standards in subsequent years. By then over 17 lakh students will have the computer training and awareness programme as part of their curriculum.

One of the primary aims of this prestigious programme is to take school students to the world of Internet and make them use the wide possibilities of net-based education. The programme is designed in such a way that the students as well as teachers are made proficient in exploring the world of Internet for collecting the information.

The syllabi and programme of study have already been finalised. Science subjects and related study material will be made available in audio and video CD’s. Teachers will be trained on priority basis. Around 108 teachers have already been trained as master trainees while 500 more are on the list to be trained. The trained teachers will train 60,000 high school teachers throughout the State by June 2003.

More than 500 Government schools and almost all private schools in the State have already arranged computer facilities in the school premises. By the time the programme is in full swing, all schools will become IT centres. The functions of the school centres will be regularly monitored. The public can make use of the computer labs after school time and the money thus gained can be used for IT education development by the school.

Each school has to make computers available for the study. Schools will have to prepare local plans for cooperation with the local bodies. The Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) at their end have to create IT @ School Advisory Council in each school. Computer labs can be either prepared by the schools themselves or with the help of Kudumbasree, a government project or any other government-recognised agency. A nominal fee can be collected from the students for the maintenance of the computer lab. It is decided that the fee should not exceed Rs. 25 per month.

There will be 10 computers in each centre at the initial stage. The number of centres in the schools will be varied according to the number of students. Preference in appointment will be given to women. The labs which the students use during class hours can be utilised for commercial purposes during holidays. PTAs will be allowed to appoint computer instructors till teachers get enough training and are able to handle classes by themselves. They will be paid from the fees collected from the students. The programme is designed in such a way that computer will be a subject in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate Exam. After three years, this move will further push forward the State which gained 100 per cent literacy for the first time in India, towards the march to gain cent per cent computer literacy in the State.