Govt school kids becoming tech-geeks a far cry

LUDHIANA: Children these days are often dubbed as ‘tech-geeks’ and are using computers and tablets with ease, but talk to students at government schools in the district, the picture all together is different as computer education has taken a back seat here.

Despite the visible infrastructure, computer literacy among students of government schools remains low. Photo: Inderjeet Verma

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 1

Children these days are often dubbed as ‘tech-geeks’ and are using computers and tablets with ease, but talk to students at government schools in the district, the picture all together is different as computer education has taken a back seat here.

Students of higher classes said they hardly visit the computer lab. Anmol, one of the students, said he visited the computer lab just twice during the current academic session. Karamjit, who claimed to have the knowledge of computer basics, said he had learnt MS Office from a computer centre and not from school.

Another student said they’ve not been taught to use the internet, which he learnt at an internet café. He said they mostly use the internet to either download songs or use it on the mobile handset only. Some of the girls said they’ve learnt how to type in English and Punjabi. Asked about the use of computers, a Class X student replied that these were used for typing and feeding data. Another student said they were allowed only two classes in computers in a week, which are not enough for gaining practical knowledge. Students said they were taught more theory.

Computer teachers on the other hand, said they are not able to devote enough time for students as they are burdened with non-teaching work in schools. The absence of clerks is one of the reasons for the extra work they have to handle. “We have to prepare and respond to several mails from the DGSE office, prepare and feed data, prepare reports sought under the Right to Information, upload data on portals such as e-Punjab, details under the UDISE-survey, make a correspondence with school authorities, send across several lists including scholarships, marks of students and what not. In the absence of any clerk and staff for such work, it has become the job of the computer teacher in most government schools, which apart from tiring us steals away the precious teaching time,” said one of the computers teachers.

“Most students in government schools come from underprivileged section, who do not have computer access at home, so they are not able to practice anything taught to them in schools, which is also a reason why they are not able to become proficient in the use of computers,” another teacher said.

“But computer teachers must be let off the non-teaching work. Moreover, the number of computer classes must be increased. There should be one computer class every day for each student,” she said.