CM declares state’s public school sector ‘fully digital’

Thiruvananthapuram: The state’s general education sector is now ‘fully digital’, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan declared on Monday, claiming to have spruced up over 16,000 secondary and primary schools with hi-tech classrooms and labs for a whopping Rs 595 crore.
The facelift for government and aided schools that were going through a rough patch over the years has accentuated the alternative development agenda of the ‘Left’ when governments across the world continue to withdraw from funding the public sector, the CM said while announcing completion of the ambitious project at a virtual meeting in which general education minister C Raveendranath and several other ministers participated. According to the CM, Kerala has become the first state in the country to achieve the distinction.
Under the general education rejuvenation mission, one of the flagship projects of the LDF government, as many as 45,000 classrooms in 4,752 secondary schools have been upgraded to hi-tech classrooms. Similarly, 11,275 primary schools have been equipped with modern lab facilities.
“Kerala has set models for the rest of the country and the world by scaling heights in several fronts such as general literacy. However, we lost the momentum somewhere and were not keeping pace with developments we once achieved in the sector. This is an attempt to fill that gap. The successful completion of the flagship project has ushered in unparalleled change. This is a collective victory. The sharp increase in the influx of students to government and aided schools in recent years is the result of this intervention. There is no reason why anyone should not be elated. By modernizing public schools, we want to ensure that quality education is accessible to all children, irrespective of their financial background,” Vijayan said.
He said the cost of the project was brought down from the original estimate of Rs 793.5 crore to Rs 595 crore as a result of the selfless contribution of local bodies and people from all walks of life. “Public contribution to the project is Rs 1,365.5 crore. Apart from this, the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) saved at least Rs 3,000 crore by way of using free software for two lakh laptops distributed to schools as part of the project,” he said.
Vijayan called for earnest efforts of the teaching community, which he said should shoulder the responsibility to maintain the momentum and change with the times by adopting technology-aided academic transactions. “The ongoing virtual classes through Victers television and online channels are not an alternative to physical classes. Given the spread of Covid-19, we are not in a position to say when exactly we could reopen schools. But schools would be opened at the earliest,” he added.