Union Human Resources Development Minister Pallam Raju inaugurated the Vidhyajyothi Educational Encouragement Programme at St Theresa’s College auditorium on Sunday. The Vidhyajyothi project is the brainchild of Union Minister for Food and Civil Supplies K V Thomas.
Under the project, 266 students from different assembly constituencies in Ernakulam, who have secured A+ in all subjects in last SSLC exam, were given free tablet computers.
A single student from all assembly constituencies had the privilege to collect the tablet from Pallam Raju. K V Thomas, who presided over the function, said advanced computers were given to help grooming the young talents in Ernakulam.
“The tablets contain e-books, question banks and other references for academic study,” said K V Thomas. He added that awareness about cyber crimes were conducted amongst students, parents and teachers. This was done to inform the stakeholders about the two sides of the technology, he said.
In the second phase of the project, all plus-one students of the St Peter’s School, Kumbalingi will be given tablet computers. This programme will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on January 21. The project is sponsored by central and state governments, different public sector undertakings and certain private companies. The project is meant to democratise knowledge production by ensuring access to modern facilities to students coming from different backgrounds.
The minister also declared that another educational project baptised as ‘Vinjanveethi’ will be initiated in Ernakulam parliamentary constituency. The project is aimed at increasing the general knowledge of the students to enable them to prepare in national and state-level competitive examinations. Standard year books, academic CDs and DVDs will be given to selected students in all assembly constituencies. Veteran journalist T V R Shenoy will inaugurate this project on January 21 at Cherai Rama Varma School.
Fisheries and Port Minister K Babu, PWD Minister V K Ibrahim Kunju, Kochi Mayor Tony Chammany, K P Dhanapalan and Charles Dias MPs and Hibi Eden, Benny Behanan, Dominique Presentation, S Sarma and V D Satheesan MLAs were present.