Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 9 - Kerala's Education Minister M.A. Baby Sunday inaugurated the first phase of Internet broadband connections to 1,200 schools in the state.The initiative is part of the IT@School project launched by the state government in 2003 for imparting IT education to high school children across the state.'All the 2,800 high schools in Kerala will be connected through broadband Internet by June as part of the project,' the minister said while inaugurating the first phase from the State Secretariat.'We are planning to extend the services to upper primary schools (between 5th-7th classes) as well. In the first phase, we will start with 38 schools in this academic secession,' said Baby.'This is an exciting phase for the schools, since for the first time in the country schools will be connected through broadband Internet. Students from 8th, 9th & 10th classes will have the opportunity to surf Internet,' he added.Since the launch of the project, students have been learning the theoretical aspects of Internet. Now, they will start using the technology.The project is implemented in collaboration with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), which has endeavoured to give special tariff rates for the 2800 schools in the state.'The security deposit, modem rental and installation charges has been waived. Each school has also been offered a nominal rate Rs. 5000 per year to avail the services,' said K.S. Sreenivasan, chief general manager of BSNL.The project aims to improve the conventional learning system by equipping the teachers with computers as an educational tool.'The project has brought computers closer to children. We will start an impact study to find out the areas for improvement,' said director of public instruction M. Sivasankar.Currently, as part of the project, about 40,000 computers have been put into use at the high schools. More than 60,000 teachers have been trained in IT and nearly 1.6 million students have benefited.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
