Govt to begin field trial of low-cost computer soon

Making a presentation on the low cost access-cum-computing devise at a meeting of State Education Ministers here, presided over by Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, a HRD official said arrangements were being made to procure about one lakh such computers. These devises would be made available to the states within three months for their distribution among students for “field trial”, the official added.
On the basis of the feedback of the field trial, the computers will be made available for distribution among students under National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology. The HRD Ministry has already released Rs 47.72 crore to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),  Rajasthan,  for acquisition and testing of the 8.9×7-inch touch-screen computer and optimization of their hardware and software.
Under the scheme,   low cost computing devise would be made available to all the students, from secondary to higher level, by sharing fifty per cent of the total cost.
The  tablet computing devise, weighing about 1.5 kilogramme, has been developed jointly by Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur, Delhi and Jodhpur. The mini computer with network connectivity using WiFi and three-hours of battery back up will come with a price  tag of around $ 35.
The day-long meeting of the state education minister reviewed the status of ongoing scheme of the ministry and discussed issues relating to elementary and higher education.It also discussed the issue of setting up of 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology and 2,500 schools in the country under public private partnership (PPP) framework.

Sibal said that a PPP model had been finalised for opening of new schools in the country at par with Kendriya Vidyalayas. This would soon be placed before Cabinet for its approval.

The minister said that as per the plan for setting up of schools, private partner would enter into an agreement with the government for a period of 10 years. The Centre would  share 50 per cent of the total expenditure while 35 per cent of the cost would be borne by the states. It will be the responsibility of the private partner to purchase land for the school under the programme. “States supported this plan,”the minister said.
Sibal said that government wanted to increase the ambit of Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan to cover classes  11th  and 12th under the scheme. “This will be done in 12th plan,” he said. At the meeting, the centre also called upon the states to fill up the vacancies of teachers at the earliest and also formulate a time bound programme to provide training to untrained teachers.