The state government will set up hi-tech labs in 9941 more primary schools in the state from the new academic year starting Thursday. This is in continuation to the 45,000 hi-tech classrooms in 4752 schools from Std VIII to XII. Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) the implementing agency, will set up the hi-tech Lab for primary schools project which is funded by Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). As part of it, 55,086 laptops, USB speakers along with 23,170 multimedia projectors will be set up in the classrooms. This ICT equipment will reach the primary schools by July.
Many international agencies have expressed their interest in assessing the impact of the hi-tech school project. “This year, KITE would introduce several new programmes to raise academic excellence to its best and to implement effective monitoring and eGovernance with the help of ICT”, said K.Anvar Sadath, Vice Chairman and Executive Director, KITE.
As part of the project, 59,772 laptops, 43,422 multimedia projectors, 4714 DSLR Camera, 4545 LED TVs, 4720 webcams, 23104 Projection Screens, 41878 HDMI Cables, 40614 HDMI Faceplates, 41789 Ceiling Mount Kits and 42739 USB Speakers have been installed to 4752 secondary schools in the state. These schools will also be provided with a multi-function printer each. In addition to all these schools having equipped with high-speed broadband internet connectivity, the networking of classrooms will also be completed by this month. Subsequently, the labs would be provided with a server for easier content dissemination in schools.
The little KITES clubs which were set up in 1898 schools with 58247 members would be boosted with an additional number of 60,000 students this year. The Little KITE members who were trained in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D Character Animation, etc last year, would, in turn, become trainers for their counterparts who are interested to learn these domains. The Student Reporters in schools who are capable of all-around news-making process, starting from script preparation, shooting, audio/video editing will be active from this academic year onwards.
