Rs 1.4 cr released for defunct computers
Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service
Faridkot, December 28
With a large number of computers sprovided by the Punjab Information and Communication Technology Education Society (PICTES) in government middle schools lying defunct, the School Education Department has released a grant of over Rs1.41 crore for providing Internet facility and maintenance.
About the project
Known as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) project, the computers were installed in middle schools to provide opportunities to students to strengthen ICT skills and learn through a computer-aided learning process.
However, teachers feel the sum is too little as the number of government middle schools is 5,000 in the state. The fund would not be even able to pay the arrears of Internet bills, said the teachers.
The PICTES, a wing of the department, provided the computers in five phases, starting April 2005, to impart computer education to the students of Classes VI to XII in the state.
Known as the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) project in the schools, the computers were installed to provide opportunities to students to strengthen ICT skills and learn through a computer-aided learning process.
Run under the integrated scheme, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, it is funded jointly by the Centre and state. While the Centre has slashed the fund allocation to the state, there was no release of maintenance and Internet grants to the government middle schools for the past over two years, said an officer of the department, requesting anonymity.
In Government Middle School, Pacca, in Faridkot, all six computers are lying defunct in absence of allocation of any fund for maintenance. Similarly at Government Middle School, Bazigar Basti, Faridkot, and Bhilewala village, most of these computers are lying in store rooms. Contributing funds from their own pocket, the teachers are managing to keep one system operative for their own use, not for students, to receive communications from the department.
Faridkot district has about 154 government schools, having Internet connection. So releasing just Rs 1.41 crore for the state, is not enough to even pay the arrears of the Internet bills and repair of the computers procured 10-14 years back, said the officer.
Sandeep Nagar, state project director, PICTES, said Rs 1.41 crore were released mainly to pay Internet bills. “We are releasing Rs 2,400 per school for maintenance,” he said.
