Kerala has frittered away the chance to get Rs.550 crore as Central funding under the IT@School programme, the former Education Minister M.A. Baby has claimed in a Facebook post.
Under this programme 4,071 schools could have received Rs.2.7 lakh each, as recurring expenditure, for five years beginning 2012. Kerala need not even have prepared a special proposal for this Central fund, Mr. Baby has pointed out.
The IT@School was first implemented in 1,016 government schools during the academic year 2007-08. Next year the Union HRD Ministry gave the nod to expand this programme to 3,055 schools. In 2008, Kerala had the distinction of having the maximum number of schools in this programme. It was thus that Kerala implemented the Rs.270-crore scheme in five years.
Even though the Central scheme has a recurring expenses component, the present government did nothing to get it sanctioned. From 2011, the recurring expenditure allocation per school was raised from Rs.1.34 lakh to Rs.2.70 lakh. Each school would have received Rs.13.5 crore over five years. Schools could have utilised this fund for various purposes including computer stationery (Rs.80,000), electricity charges (Rs.1,000 per month), fuel for generator (Rs.1,000 per month), telephone charges(Rs.500 per month), internet charges (Rs.10,000) and teachers’ pay (Rs.10,000 per month). Of the 4,071 schools that would have received the funds, more than half are aided schools, Mr. Baby’s post reads.
The LDF government had initiated various e-governance measures under the IT@School programme. These included the printing and distribution of textbooks, transfer and posting of teachers, the noon-meal scheme and the conduct of youth festivals.
