Students in 1,000 government high schools across the State will finally get access to computer aided learning. The project, called Technology Assisted Learning Programme, is a modified version of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Phase 3 project, which was approved in May 2011.
The project has been revived with the State Cabinet on Wednesday giving a nod for it to be implemented in a new format. The ICT Phase 3 project would have benefited at least 50 lakh children in 4,396 government and aided high schools, if it was implemented during the 2011-12 academic year. Sources in the State government said that with the Cabinet nod, the project will be for the first time a “pragmatic” approach to bring IT-enabled learning into classrooms and there would be no outsourcing. The focus will be to re-skill teachers to move beyond blackboard teaching.
The Cabinet approved a five-year project that would cover all government high school and PU colleges. In the first phase, Rs. 85 crore has been allotted to cover 1,000 government high schools under this project.
The budget would be used to repair and upgrade the existing hardware, create e-content and train teachers.
An Education Department official pointed out that computer learning in schools covered under the ICT was poor as they lacked teachers. The schools were also unable to gather funds to repair the computers.
