All government high schools in Kerala to get laptops

All the 1,016 government-run high schools in Kerala will be supplied with a laptop each as part of the IT@School project. Speaking to reporters here Saturday, K. Anwar Sadat, executive director of IT@School project, said Kerala would become the first state in the country to implement this project. "This project is run under the central government supported ICT in School Scheme and they would provide Rs.1 lakh (Rs.100,000) each and the state government would chip in with Rs.33,000. All the schools would get the laptop this academic year itself and the inauguration would take place here on Monday," he said.

Wipro model laptops will be supplied to the schools after the firm was selected in a tender floated by KELTRON.

Apart from the laptops, the project is for supply of 1,300 printers, 750 scanners, 400 handycams and 400 generators to schools that need them.

"This project would also be extended to 3,055 schools in the private sector. This would be based on their request and we expect to deliver this also at the earliest," said Sadat.

The IT@School project was launched in the state in 2000 and each year, 1.6 million students in the state are initiated into the world of computers.

"As a result of IT being extended to even the upper primary classes, from the next academic year a total of three million students in the state would enjoy the benefit of IT. As of now, more than five million students and two lakh (200,000) teachers have learnt the nuances of computers and this was achieved with the help of 200 master trainers and 5,600 school IT coordinators," added Sadat.

As many as 97 percent of the schools in the state have broadband Internet connections.