DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand is mulling to provide tablets to government schools students of Class 11 and 12. Total 1.36 lakh students will be benefitted with the decision. The proposal which is pending with the government is likely to be approved soon.
State education minister Arvind Pandey said, "Our government is committed to work to boost education standards in the state. We will be implementing our plans in phased manner." However, the officials from the state education department did not divulge any time limit for the distribution of the tablets.
The tablets will be upgraded with education material which will benefit the students in case of bad internet connectivity in the hilly and remote areas of the state. In February this year, center approved the BharatNet Phase II project in Uttarakhand under which as many as 12,000 villages of the Himalayan state would be connected with high speed 4G internet.
According to data provided by Information Technology Development Agency, Uttarakhand out of total 15745 villages in the hill state 434 villages did not have mobile network coverage till May 2020. The decision is said to prove a push for mobile connectivity in IT era and amidst Covid epidemic when mobile connectivity.
Uttarakhand border villages are compelled to use Nepalese Sim cards due to no or poor availability of Indian network providers including government owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).