THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State Government has received a pat on the back for putting in place an exemplary model of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) education programme in schools. A study has revealed that the integrated model developed by the State by perfectly merging computer education with curriculum outpasses the outsourcing model adopted by several other States in the country.
‘IT for Change’, a Bangalore-based organisation which enjoys Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, has brought out a study on ‘ICTs in School Education’, which has turned out to be a boost for the Kerala model.
The policy brief will now travel to Education Ministers and Secretaries in all the States across the country, to give them a peek into the Kerala Model ICT education programme.
The study attains importance in the context of mounting protests by leading educational experts in the country against the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s (MHRD) latest policy brief to outsource computer education projects in schools.
To drive home the point, the study has highlighted the ICT education programme of two neighbouring States, Kerala and Karnataka.
It states: “The integrated model followed in Kerala’s IT@School program where the accent is on developing inhouse capabilities anchored around the role of school teachers has shown considerable success. This has been in terms of higher levels of teacher participation, integrating computer learning with regular learning process and collaborative content creation process. It has led to the overall strengthening of education system.” It goes on to say: “The alternative model of outsourcing or ‘BOOT’ (Built Own Operate Transfer) employed by the ‘Mahiti Sindhu’ program in Karnataka, where private vendors were paid to run the program, does not show positive outcomes.
Funds were spent on vendor payments instead of building in-house capacities and hence the system itself did not benefit from the program outlays and is largely unable to sustain beyond the BOOT period.”