Rural areas lag behind in computer training

The State is hailed as a leader in information and bio-technology. But it has evinced little or no interest in training youth in computers in rural areas.

Talking to mediapersons on Tuesday, members of the Karnataka State Computer Teachers’ Association said basic computer training will be given to students in as many as 2,500 schools in rural areas, selected on a random basis. 

The State’s project of introducing computer training in as many as 12,000 schools in rural areas, in a phased manner, has been in effect since 2006.

Every school is enrolled under the computer training programme for five years. At the end of it, schools are left in the lurch as the government shifts the programme to a different region in the State. 

The government, instead of increasing salaries and regularising services of computer teachers, has been exploiting them in the guise of contract labour, the association members alleged. “While the State government pays the outsourcing company Rs 5,902 per faculty, the computer teacher gets Rs 3,332,” said Balakrishna Shetty, vice-president of Karnataka State Computer Teachers’ Association.  

The government is only helping the outsourcing company to make a profit of over Rs 60 lakh every month, he added. 

The Association plans to hold a strike on August 6 across the State. “If the government fails to act, we shall go on an indefinite strike from September 12,” said Shetty.