A college has launched an initiative to provide computer literacy programme to rural students of Tiruchi and Karur districts.
The post graduate students of departments of Information and Communication Technology and Computer Science of St. Joseph’s College will visit 12 government and government aided schools in Tiruchi and Karur districts to take classes on computer literacy. Shepherd, the extension department of the college, will coordinate the programme with the support of United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia. It will be conducted for four months.
A syllabus that covers the basic theoretical and practical knowledge of computer and its functioning has been framed by the college. It has allotted a team of five students to each school. They will visit two-time a month to the respective school to take computer literacy class.
“In spite of exponential growth of information technology, the percentage of computer literacy is poor among rural students. The initiative will address the issue at least to an extent,” said Rev. F. Andrew, Principal, St. Joseph’s College, who inaugurated the programme on Thursday.
Rev. S. John Britto, Rector, St. Joseph’s College, said that 1800 students of rural schools and 150 teachers would benefit from in the programme. Basic functions of computer would be taught to them. Besides computer programmers, 55 MCA students would take classes.
P. Vijayakumar, Coordinator, Extension Department, Shepherd, said that most of the rural schools had been provided with high performing computers by the government. However, they could not be utilised properly due to insufficient knowledge of computer operation. Moreover, in some areas, the government sponsored laptops had not been used for constructive purposes. The initiative would address all issues.
Rev. A. Antony Papuraj, secretary, Rev. S. Aruldoss, Director, Extension Department, D.P. Jeyapalan, Head, Computer Science Department, I. Arul Rayappan, Chief Coordinator, ICT, St. Joseph’s College participated.
