The Ministry of Human Resource Development will soon distribute tablet PCs in schools across Chhattisgarh so that teachers can record routine details that can be accessed by a central server.
This will enable better and regular assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of a school, which in turn will help the authorities to devise ways to improve educational standards.
Each tablet will cost just under ₹10,000. The scheme is likely to be implemented between July and September, 2017. The model, if successful, could be replicated across the country.
“We are starting with Chhattisgarh, as the State sent us a proposal,” School Education Secretary Anil Swarup told The Hindu on the sidelines of the News Education Conclave here. “A school can feed in data on teachers’ attendance, students’ attendance and even the midday meals served,” he said.
Even if there is no immediate connectivity, the data will be transferred to our server the moment the teacher accesses the internet. This will help us to better assess the quality of education in schools. Teacher training videos and educational videos for students can also be made available on the tablets as an aid to teaching.”
Earlier, in his address, Mr. Swarup said he had noticed during his visits to schools that teachers spent a lot of time each day writing down the details physically.
According to the latest Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) of Pratham, only 28% of Class-3 students in Chhattisgarh can read a Class-2 text.
This was 56% in the case of Class-5 students and 73.5% in the case of Class-8 students.
Mr. Swarup said technology could be used to supplement the efforts of teachers for better educational outcomes. The commitment of teachers was also a crucial issue, he said.
