Kerala has become the first state in the country to have high-tech classrooms in all its public schools when CM Pinarayi Vijayan has declared the state public education sector completely digital.

“This is the achievement of our State which benefits the next generation. LDF government has led the mission. Four missions have announced to rejuvenate public education. All missions were under local body governments. Even though the State has a better public education system it could not develop timely,” the Chief Minister said at the ceremony.

He said that a school in our village should have the same standards as the best school in any part of the world and in the last years 5 lakhs students joined in government schools.

According to an official release

    • Public education rejuvenation missions were implemented in the State as part of the Public Education Rejuvenation Mission

    • Over 3.74 lakh digital equipment were distributed in 16,027 schools for the smart classroom project

    • In the first phase, 45,000 high-tech classrooms for classes 8 to 12 were readied in 4,752 government and aided high schools and higher secondary schools. This project was launched on January 21, 2018

    • High-tech labs were started in 11,275 primary and upper primary schools for classes 1 to 7. The programme was started on July 5, 2019

The high-tech classroom project was implemented by Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) with financial assistance from Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KIIFB). MP and MLA funds, local self-government institutions fund were also utilised for setting up the classrooms.

Earlier in 2016, former President Pranab Mukherjee declared Kerala as the first digital state in India. At that time, Kerala has achieved:

    • 100% mobile connectivity & 75% internet literacy

    • Kerala has the highest record of digital banking, bank accounts linked to Aadhar and e-governance

    • Internet connectivity to Panchayat as well

    • First state to successfully link its villages with Broadband connectivity under the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) programme

    • Over 600 e-governance applications cover almost all departments of the state.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)