Kerala Set To Become First State With 100% Hi-Tech Schools, Swimming To Be Part Of Curriculum

Kerala which has been leading by leaps and bounds when it comes to the education sector is set to achieve another milestone.

Kerala, the first in India to attain 100 percent literacy and primary education is all set to be the first Indian state with 100 percent hi-tech classrooms.?

While speaking at an event to mark the inauguration of the new academic year on Thursday, Kerala Education Minister Professor C Ravindranath said the state is all set to become the first state in the country with all its schools elevated to hi-tech category.

CMO Kerala

He added that already over 4,500 classrooms from Class VIII to XII in 4,752 schools have been made hi-tech. Hi-tech laboratories will be set up for the students from Class I to Class 7 in 9,941 schools in the state before Onam.

The initiative is undertaken by the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), a state-run agency which was formerly IT@School, a project under the state General Education Department to promote IT education in state schools.

BCCL

"Hi-tech labs would be set up in these schools from July. As a prelude to this, 76,349 teachers in these schools were given specific IT training during the vacation time," K Anvar Sadath, Vice Chairman and Executive Director, of KITE told IANS.

A total of 20.86 lakh schoolchildren 9,941 state-run schools will benefit from the initiative which is estimated to cost Rs 204.90 crore.

BCCL

In addition to all these schools having equipped with high-speed broadband internet connectivity, the networking of classrooms would also be completed by this month.?

BCCL/ REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE

From this academic year, Kerala has also introduced swimming in the state education curriculum.

Prof. Ravindranath said the move was aimed to reduce the deaths caused by drowning. As part of this, the minister said at least one swimming pool will be set up in all 140 assembly constituencies in the state.