Over 70 per cent government schools lack computer facilities in Karnataka

Bengaluru: Out of the 81,346 government schools in Karnataka, only 26.45 per cent have computer facilities. According to the data provided by Nammashale, a state government website, more than 70 per cent schools still do not have proper facilities to impart computer education.

“Computer systems which they have given are quite old and are lying unused. There are also no dedicated teachers to teach computers to students. Few years ago teachers were provided training, but now even that is not happening” said Latha (name changed), headmistress of a Government school.

She pointed out that many government schools in the state do not even have adequate power supply and hence wondered how they can impart computer education.

The state government’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Phase 3 project was not implemented during the 2011-12 academic year, despite being approved in May 2011. This project would have benefited at least 50 lakh students in 4,800 government-aided high schools.

P.C. Jaffer, Commissioner, Department of Public Instruction said, “Some of the computers are old and some would often face technical problems. The life of a computer is limited and we had to often get them replaced.”

Later in May 2016, a project called Technology Assisted Learning Programme (TALP), which is a modified version of ICT-3, was revived and it also got State Cabinet approval.

The old project, ICT-3 had run into legal and training problems. “Now that we have a new programme and NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training), we are focusing on almost every government schools in the state by giving them a projector or the laptop,” Jaffer added.

The Annual Education Status Report (ASER) 2017 had revealed that despite the state capital Bengaluru being an IT city and home to many well known technology companies, 70.5 per cent people in the 14-18 age group in the state have never used a computer.