Hi-tech labs will be set up in 9,941 primary schools in the State this academic year.
The labs will be set up by the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), which has made 45,000 hi-tech classrooms in 4,752 schools from Classes 8 to 12.
Under the hi-tech lab for primary schools project, which is funded by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), supply orders for 55,086 laptops and USB speakers and 23,170 multimedia projectors have been issued. The ICT equipment will reach primary schools by July.
As part of the hi-tech school project, schools will be provided with a multi-function printer this month.
In addition to schools being equipped with high-speed broadband Internet connectivity, the networking of classrooms will also be completed this month. Subsequently, the labs will be provided with a server for easier content dissemination in schools.
Summer training
A total of 1,83,235 teachers in primary, high school, and higher secondary sections were given training during the summer vacation on digital mechanisms for effectively using ICT in classrooms and content generation.
The updated version of the Samagra resource portal that facilitates learning activities using digital resources for teachers and students will be made available this academic year.
The offline version of the portal will also be made available. As on date, Samagra features 27,811 digital resources for Classes 1 to 12.
In 2018-19, 5,411 teachers successfully completed online training through massive open online courses (MOOC) named the Kool (KITE’s open online learning) platform and received certification.
An array of new courses will be introduced through this platform for teachers and for the public in the coming days, K. Anvar Sadath, vice chairman and executive director, KITE, said.
The Little Kites clubs which were set up in 1,898 schools with 58,247 members will get an additional 60,000 students this year.
Cyber safety clinics will be established in schools with the help of the Little Kites clubs.
The clubs will also take up new initiatives in environmental awareness, drug-and-narcotic-free campuses, waste disposal, and IT awareness programmes for parents.
“This year, KITE will introduce several new programmes to improve academic excellence and implement effective monitoring and e-governance with the help of ICT,” Mr. Sadath said.
