Chennai, Dec 19 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu school education department will hire IT companies to set up high-tech labs in Classes 6 to 8.

Presently the high-tech labs are set up in the government high schools and higher secondary schools. The state school education department will direct the IT companies to procure computer systems for the projects.

Sources in the state school education department told IANS that each high-tech lab would be provided with 10 computer systems, a projector with a mounting kit, web cameras, LAN connectivities with a hard disk capacity of 1 TB annually. High-tech printers, headphones, and CCTV cameras will also be installed.

The computer firm will provide UPS, and generators will also be kept available for uninterrupted power supply. The operating system will be open software and Linux will be provided. The IT firm will maintain each laboratory for five years and the company will also replace the worn-out equipment.

The company will appoint service engineers in each district to monitor the functioning of the labs and uninterrupted Internet connectivity will be provided to all the systems.

Extensive training will later be provided to five selected teachers from each school for properly handling these high-tech laboratories.