Kerala Finance Minister Allots Rs 10,000 Crore For Government Schools

In a bid to prioritise information technology education in the state, Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac has designated Rs 10,000 crore for state-run and aided schools for the five year term of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Democratic Front government.

The [email protected] project has been entrusted the responsibility of forming a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to oversee the programme. The project was launched in Kerala in 2001 to promote education on information technology in schools and to facilitate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled education on a longer term.

The money will be used in setting up of around 60,000 hi-tech classrooms in all government and govt. aided schools from standard eight to 12. The second segment focuses on elevating 1,000 schools to international standards.

Rs 450 crore has been set aside for the first year by Thomas Issac, a former professor who is now the finance minister of the state.

The hi-tech classrooms will be enabled with state-of-the-art computer labs and will provide qualitative improvement in the curriculum of the students. It is aimed to bring a thousand schools at par with international standards, quality infrastructure including indoor stadiums will be provided.

So far, the pilot project has been started in four schools.

Literacy rate of Kerala is 93.91% which is highest in the country (according to Census 2011) and it was declared the first digital state in the country last year. This is a brilliant initiative from by the government to enhance the stature of the state.