Finland ties up with Kerala govt to implement 'Little KITEs' model

Finland has expressed interest in implementing the Kerala Education Department's Little KITEs programme in their country's schools.

Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) will provide technical assistance for this and a Special Working Group will be constituted for this programme, an official statement said here on Thursday.

This was decided in the meeting held at Helsinki, Finland's capital city, between Finland Education Department's team and a high-level delegation from Kerala comprising state chief secretary V P Joy, State Planning Board Vice-Chairman V K Ramachandran and General Education Department Principal Secretary A P M Mohammed Hanish, it said.

The Little KITEs IT clubs initiative is one of India's largest information and communications technology (ICT) network of students across more than 2,000 schools, totalling 1.70 lakh student members.

"I congratulate all who are part of Little KITEs programme, which has gained global attention to the digital revolution of the state in the education sector," said V Sivankutty, Minister for General Education.

KITE is equipped to provide consultancy support in free and open-source software (FOSS)-based digital education activities to other states and countries, said K Anvar Sadath, CEO, KITE.

Little KITE members will be trained in electronics, animation, hardware, cyber-safety, 3D modelling, artificial intelligence (AI) and so on. This year, they have trained over four lakh parents in cyber-safety.

Further, 9,000 robotic kits would be deployed to schools this year through the Little KITEs units, he added.

The Little KITEs programme was launched by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in 2018.