VIJAYAWADA: The government schools in Andhra Pradesh are far from digitisation, as there are no computers in more than 70 per cent of schools.
For an instance, the government high school at Nunna village, which usually receives annual funds worth Rs 2-3 lakh, has spent nearly half of the amount to buy two computers. After getting the same, the school management submitted the bills to the Department of School Education for reimbursement. It’s been over six months and the school authorities did not receive any amount from the department. The same is the case with many other schools across the State, as the department is not sanctioning either computers or refunds to the schools.
The hunt for computers majorly started with the implementation of digital classes. Earlier, the schools used to have one computer for both office use and occasionally, for teaching students. But, after the implementation of digital classes in all government schools, the Department of School Education should supply the required number of computers to every school, based on the student strength. Instead of taking up such practice, the department asked the school managements to procure the systems themselves and put the bills for reimbursement of bills.
Majority of the schools spent Rs 80,000 to Rs 1,20,000, from the funds allocated for school development works, for purchasing 2-4 computers. Also, the bills put forward by the schools were not being cleared in the department, thus delaying the developmental works.
“Our school is in need of many things like benches, blackboards, repairing works for toilets and construction activities. But, with a circular from the education department, we spent most of the funds on purchasing two computers. Later, we submitted bills in July 2016. But, till date, none of the official sanctioned the amount. Adding to the woes, the computers were not yet installed with digital class material and we are feeling bad to use it for office purposes,” opined M Satyanarayana, Vice-Principal of ZPHS, Nunna.
There are 44,399 government schools in the State and the actual requirement of computers is 1,76,000 where each school would have at least four computers and the number increases for ZP schools.
But, as of now, there are only 45,760 computers in all the schools across the State. Of them, 32,341 were sanctioned directly by the Department of School Education to 18,000 schools and the rest were procured by the school managements.
As per the government report (DISE-2016), only 23 per cent of the schools have been enabled with computers. The primary and upper primary schools got the least number of systems and the number is still zero in a majority of the schools.
“We are supplying computers in multiple phases to all schools and also clearing the bills of the schools at the earliest. There are some hurdles like procurement of computers in bulk, choosing the schools on priority, etc. We are also getting a good number of donors from various places and donating the equipment. We would resolve any issue that comes to our notice,” said K Sandhya Rani, Commissioner of School Education.