About 700 students and teachers of Kayakkody Panchayat Educational Society High School in the otherwise nondescript village are in the midst of a silent revolution. Reason: the school is aiming for a 100-per cent e-literate panchayat, and that too in the open source software field.
“We are conducting classes for parents and others residing in the panchayat for the last two years since the project started,” IT coordinator of the school, Mr K.T. Kunhammad, said.
As part of the e-literacy project, the school is now distributing open source software CDs and giving technical guidance to users. “We want to promote open source technology among people because it is free and one of the most easily available technologies in today’s world.”
The school has already won several laurels in the field of information technology. It was adjudged having the best IT lab among schools in the state, while many projects from the school have won prizes at state-level IT contests.
The school is also the overall champion at the district-level IT fair for the last six years. He said the school gets support and backing from the PTA in promoting open source software. “We provide support in installing and using software like Ubuntu. We also conduct hardware workshops for parents.”
According to him, the school began helping the public after training its students. It has a WiFi connection and all computers of teachers are networked for effective teaching.
