45,000 school class rooms in Kerala to go digital

As many as 45,000 classrooms in Kerala will soon be digitised under a state government initiative that aims to impart IT education to schools.
The IT@School Project, envisaged a comprehensive upgradation of various elements of classroom learning such as infrastructure, textbooks, learning materials, teacher training, handbooks, monitoring and evaluation, and e-governance using ICT, is being implemented in classes from Standard 8 to 12.
The implementation of 'Hi-Tech' school project which commenced in September last is being piloted in Alappuzha, Puthukad, Kozhikode North and Thaliparamba assembly constituencies, an IT@School statement said here today.
Detailed activities for expanding the programme to the remaining 136 constituencies are progressing and online school survey starts from November 15, it said.

"This project aims to make Kerala a fully digitalised state in education sector," C Raveendranath, Minister for Education said.
The state government would facilitate necessary physical, academic and digital contents which are required for implementing ICT education as part of this programme, he said.

All teachers would be provided with basic IT training, specific training for classroom teaching using ICT equipment, ICT enabled subject training, training on ICT content development and its technical aspects, the statement said.
Under this programme, all schools would be equipped with Digital Interactive Textbooks, Digital Content Collection for easy learning of all subjects, Resource portal which would ensure a round-the-clock learning atmosphere to all, E-learning/M-Learning/Learning Management system and evaluation mechanisms.

A well-equipped computer lab would feature in all
'Hi-Tech' schools as part of ICT enabled education, the release said.
"A detailed online school survey would be initiated as a first step for implementing this programme.
The list of ICT equipment for the schools would be finalised based on the inputs from the IT audit and also after reviewing the school's individual plan for implementing this programme," K Anvar Sadath, Executive Director, IT@School Project, said.
Under the programme, a team comprising school IT coordinators and student school IT coordinators would be set up in each school, he said.
These IT Coordinators in each school would be provided training to extend technical support for supplementing digital content development locally.

A state-level call-center mechanism would be set up for resolving the technical issues in each Hi-Tech school, in a timely manner.
A detailed plan for addressing the pile of 'E-Waste' being accumulated in schools would be finalised subsequently, the official added.
Necessary monitoring systems such as real-time feed back collection, school visits, online monitoring systems, regular review meetings and essential upgadations etc would be implemented in a time-bound manner.
This programme would be closely monitored and evaluated by the panchayat-constituency-district-state level mission teams and task force, which would be formed as part of General Education Protection Mission, the release added.