Smartphones to be given to 10K meritorious Himachal students

Tribune News Service

Bhanu P Lohumi

Shimla, June 12

Smartphones would be distributed to meritorious students of Class X and XII for the academic session 2020-21. The procurement committee has given its consent and the proposal has been sent to the state government for approval.

Each phone to cost Rs 15,000

• These will be distributed to meritorious students of Class X and XII for the academic session 2020-21.
• The cost of the smartphone bought in bulk would be Rs 15,000 per piece
• The Education Department has collected 3,000 mobiles under ‘Donate-a-mobile’ campaign launched in July last year for poor students who cannot afford smartphones.

The cost of the smartphone bought in bulk would be Rs 15,000 per piece and the mobiles would be distributed to 10,000 students, said Director Higher Education Amarjeet Sharma.

The Education Department has collected 3,000 smartphones under the phone donation campaign “Digital Saathi — Baccho ka Sahara, Phone Humara” launched in July last year to provide cellphones to poor students of government schools who cannot afford smartphones.

During the Covid pandemic, the way of imparting education had changed as classes were running online and mobiles or computers had become a necessity. As per a rough estimate, about 10% of students of government schools were without smartphones and there were about 14,000-15,000 below poverty line (BPL) students currently studying in Classes X and XII, who were to be provided smartphones on a priority.

Under the campaign, the donors (individuals and corporate) were invited to donate a mobile phone for poor students to ensure that their education was not hampered due to lack of mobile and contribute to a child’s online learning, said State Project Director of Samagra Shiksha Virender Sharma.

The mobile phones were provided to the needy students at the school level. Now, we are back to the offline mode of education and therefore the initiative is not running in campaign mode but people interested in donating mobile can visit the Digital Saathi portal www.hpdigitalsaathi.in to give mobile phones which would be distributed to needy students to help in learning purpose, he added.

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