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Kerala computer literacy initiative marks new milestone
Sunday, 20 January 2008, 20:30 IST
Kalloopara: Micro geeks, as young as first graders, are clicking the Start icon on their computers in Kerala under an ambitious programme that has brought computers with Malayalam software to 15,000 schoolchildren.
The schoolchildren in remote Kalloopara, some 100 km from state capital Thiruvananthapuram, are learning what computers are all about right from primary school, at a time when computer education in the state starts from the eighth standard. Now they will do it in their mother tongue too.
This unique initiative entered a new phase Friday at the Kalloopara assembly constituency in Pathanamthitta district, some 100 km from state capital Thiruvananthapuram, when all government and government-aided schools get a full set of software in Malayalam developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing.
The software package includes English-Malayalam and Malayalam-English encyclopaedia, Malayalam keyboard driver, font manager and a host of software.
The initiative started in February 2005 when Kalloopara legislator Joseph M. Puthussery decided to bring computers closer to the underprivileged in his constituency. He supplied computers to all the 106 government and government-aided schools in the constituency.
"We went in for Malayalam software because all these schools follow the Malayalam medium curriculum. We felt that the grasping power of these children would be better and computers would become an education tool if the software too was in Malayalam," Puthussery told IANS.
Today every lower and upper primary school in the constituency has an average of two computers and printers and high schools have an average five computers. Now, every week, three hours of computer classes are held for classes 1 to 7.
If it were not for this scheme, schoolchildren would have had to wait till class 8 - when IT becomes part of the school curriculum - before using a computer.
Since its inception, the unique initiative has gone through five stages. First, computers were supplied to schools. Second, a curriculum for the lower and upper primary classes was developed. Third, every year a competitive IT festival is held. Fourth, every school was equipped with a CD Library. Fifth, all the two-dozen high schools under the scheme were linked to Edusat, the satellite-based educational initiative of the Indian government.
Close to 
10 million ($250,000) has been spent on the programme, a major chunk of which has come from the legislator's local area development fund, as well as donations from his well wishers.
M. Shivsankar, director of public instruction (the state body that looks after school education), said he was impressed by the consistency in the programme at Kalloopara, which was one of the main reasons for its success.
"The programme has been evolving through stages and I am going to be there to take part in the next IT festival to be held there next month," Shivsankar told IANS.
Source: IANS
10 million ($250,000) has been spent on the programme, a major chunk of which has come from the legislator's local area development fund, as well as donations from his well wishers.
M. Shivsankar, director of public instruction (the state body that looks after school education), said he was impressed by the consistency in the programme at Kalloopara, which was one of the main reasons for its success.
"The programme has been evolving through stages and I am going to be there to take part in the next IT festival to be held there next month," Shivsankar told IANS.
Source: IANS