Thiruvananthapuram: The general education protection campaign by the state government seems to have hit the bullseye. Even as the enrolment figures at three major districts are still awaited, the number of students who newly joined the government and
aided schools in the rest of the state has touched 1. 6 lakh.
The number of new admissions at government and aided schools are decided by considering the classroom attendance on the sixth working day after the school reopening. The sixth working day of the year was on Friday. Schools in Malappuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad districts and Thalassery education district in Kannur are yet to be reopened following Nipah virus threat. Once schools in these districts also open on June 12, the number of students who have freshly joined the government and aided schools would further increase. Last year, the total number of students turned up for fresh admission in government/aided schools was 1.46 lakh.
Meanwhile, the campaign to set up 45,000 smart classrooms is also nearing completion.
Kerala infrastructure and technology for education (KITE) vice-chairman and executive director K Anvar Sadath said the smart classroom project has almost completed. As many as 39,000 smart classrooms have already been set up and the work of the rest would also be completed in two months, he said.
Each smart classroom is equipped with laptop, multimedia projector, white board and sound system. Each hi-tech IT lab in the schools will feature multifunction printers LCD TV, webcam and an HD camera. Specific security features are installed in schools. The IT labs and classrooms would be connected via a network. High speed fibre-based broadband internet would be made available in all classrooms.
Malappuram district tops in terms of the number of hi-tech classrooms. The district has got 3,782 classrooms. Kozhikode and Thrissur are in the second and third positions with 3,446 and 3,085 hi-tech classrooms, respectively.
“Around 10% of schools are facing infrastructure issues, with regard to the setting up of hi-tech classrooms. We are about to address such issues separately,” Sadath said. Smart classrooms are being readied with a funding of Rs 493.5 crore from KIIFB.