Government Schools Fail to Log into Computers

BENGALURU: It was click-started with much fanfare, but computer education in government schools in Karnataka has failed miserably.

The government, which wants to increase enrolment of students in government schools, has failed to provide computers in schools. As a result, students are not getting quality education.

According to a recent report of the  District Information System of Education (DISE), only 55.74 per cent of the schools had computers, and 30.68 per cent had Internet connectivity.

 The report was released by the National University of Education Planning and Administration in association with the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development.

During a visit to many high schools in the city, Express found that even schools with computers made little use of them. And there were no trained computer teachers.

Even though the Mahiti Sindhu project was envisaged in 2001 to impart computer education and provide Internet, a majority of the schools lag behind. Though computer education was stopped due to poor implementation, there are plans to revive it.

Computer education and computer-based education have also been introduced in 150 government secondary schools under the Revised Class Project and in 88 government secondary schools under the Eleventh Finance Commission Project from 2003-04.

Under the first phase of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at schools scheme, the Centre had sanctioned computer education in another 480 secondary schools during 2005-06, which was implemented in 2007-08. The scheme was extended to 1,571 government high schools in 2008-09.

Almost 15 years after the ICT project was envisaged, it has failed to take off. Jayakumar, director, Department of State Educational Research and Training, said the project was hit by legal hurdles. He said they had now been cleared, and computers and Internet would be provided to schools soon.