The State’s education system will reach another milestone soon with a total of 45,000 classrooms in public schools going smart as part of the government’s high-tech school project.
The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), formerly IT@School of the General Education Department, has completed the tender proceedings for the procurement of equipment to transform the classrooms in 4,775 schools in the State.
In one of the biggest IT tender in the government sector, an order for 60.250 laptops and 43,750 projectors has been placed as per the decision of the KITE director board.
Four brands took part in the tender process for supplying laptops and three for projectors. The tender for laptops was awarded to ACS Technologies for suppying Acer laptops at ₹24,960 plus 18% GST, and that for projectors to Uneecops Technologies for supplying BenQ projectors at ₹17,750 plus 18% GST.
As Keltron, which came second in the projector tender proceedings, expressed willingness to supply these at the lowest rate, it will get 40% of the orders as per the tender norms. However, in the laptop tender, the companies in second and third position had clarified that they would be unable to supply at the lowest rates.
For the first time, the warranty of five years will cover laptop battery and power adaptor and projector bulb. The laptops will have processors more advanced than sixth generation Intel Core I 3.
The first phase of high-tech school tenders were completed in a record two-and-a-half months. The G. Jayasankar technical committee appointed by the government supervised the tender process. Of the ₹493.5-crore high-tech school project approved by the KIIFB, ₹299.95 crore was for purchase of laptops and projectors. However, after the tender proceedings, the equipment will be purchased for ₹71.91 crore less than the approved estimate.
It will also save ₹900 crore by using free software instead of proprietary software. Owing to the comprehensive five-year warranty, schools will not be burdened with maintenance cost.
The KITE will also arrange for a call centre to address complaints and a web portal.
Steps to make 20,000 classrooms high-tech by January had been completed, KITE vice chairman K. Anvar Sadath said.
