Nearly 10,000 primary schools in the State are poised to go high-tech when the new academic year begins in June. The government will install high-tech laboratories in all primary schools in three months.
The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) has published the tender for procurement of ICT equipment for the proposed high-tech labs.
According to Minister for Education C. Ravindranth, Kerala will become the first digital State in education in the country with the completion of the primary school high-tech lab project. The government turned to high-tech laboratory after completing a project by which 45,000 classrooms were made high-tech.
As per the tender, 55,086 laptops, as many USB speakers and 23,170 multimedia projectors will be procured for primary schools. The project is being implemented with ₹292 crore from the Kerala Infrastructure and Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). Over 20.86 lakh students in the State will benefit from the project.
KITE officials said that a tender for 3,348 LED TVs and 5,644 printers would be published in May. More than three-lakh ICT equipment, including 59,772 laptops, 43,422 projectors, speakers, and DSLR cameras, were installed in schools in the first phase of the high-tech project. The KIIFB had sanctioned 493.5 crore for the project.
K. Anvar Sadath, vice chairman of KITE, said the project was done in record time, rolling out the Samagra Resource Portal with more than 8.89 lakh micro-plans. Mr. Sadath said the high-tech school project was the largest IT tender in the State. The project has mandated a five-year warranty for laptop’s battery, power adaptor, project bulb, and several other vital parts.
“The new tender too has sought five-year warranty for all ICT equipment, along with web portal for complaint redressal, call centre facility and insurance coverage,” said Mr. Sadath.
He said that with the completion of training for teachers, as many as 9,941 government and aided primary schools in the State would go high-tech by June.
