As part of the State Government’s efforts to turn all classrooms in the state schools as smart classes, at least one smart class will be set up in every school during the 2012-2013 academic year, Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb has said.
He was inaugurating the state-level distribution of hardware under the Centrally-sponsored ICT scheme, at Vimala Hridaya Girls Higher Secondary School here on Tuesday.
The minister said that as part of the government’s ambitious project to provide textbooks through tablet PCs, steps are being taken to prepare digital content for the textbooks. The minister said that the government was considering to launch websites for all schools.
The second phase of the Hartia Vidhyalayam project will be launched soon, he said. The ICT scheme will benefit about 4071 government and aided schools, TTIs, DIETs, model residential schools and technical schools.
About 7060 laptops, 5615 desktops, 225 multimedia projectors, 823 UPSs and 693 printers will be distributed under the scheme.
The maintenance and repair of the equipment distributed under the scheme will be carried out by Keltron. The meeting was presided by A A Azeez MLA.
Protests Against Minister
There were tense moments outside the venue of the function attended by the Education Minister, as activists of several organisations tried to enter the venue and stage protests against the minister in the wake of recent controversies in the educational sector. Yuva Morcha activists tried to enter the school premises but were blocked by the police outside the school premises.
SFI and DYFI activists too staged protests marches to the venue, which were blocked outside the school campus. Activists tried to break the police barricades resulting in tension. Later in the afternoon, when the minister was at the Rest House, Chinnakkada, a group of AISF activists staged protests against the minister.