Important Facts For Prelims
Kerala & Digital Education
- 13 Oct 2020
- 2 min read
Why in News
Kerala has become the first state in the country to have high-tech classrooms or high-tech labs in all government-run and aided schools
Key Points
- As part of this flagship project of the government, high-tech labs have been set up in primary and upper primary schools and 40,000 classrooms in high school and higher secondary schools have been converted into smart classrooms.
- High-speed broadband internet has been ensured in 12,678 schools.
- The high-tech classroom project was implemented by Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), the nodal agency for ICT education in schools.
- The Kerala government has also started digital classrooms known as ‘First bell’ to impart education to 41 lakh students in the state after schools shut due to the lockdown
- The Kerala State government is also carrying out a unique programme called “Namath Basai”of teaching tribal children in their mother tongue.
- The programme is being implemented by the Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK).
- Recently, the Central government has proposed long-term measures to address social inequities in online education, as highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
- However, digital education in India still faces many challenges like lack of internet penetration, economic inequality, lack of trained teachers etc.
