From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Nov 18: In a novel initiative to help the rural students studying in State Government run schools internet-savvy, the State Government has broadbased the Students’ Internet World Scheme.
Under the scheme, students of 7th to 9th standards in select government schools in rural areas would be provided a hands-on training on using the computer as well as various applications of internet – by increasing the number of students to be trained this year to 4 lakh.
Announcing this at a press conference in Bangalore on Tuesday, Karnataka’s IT and BT Minister S R Patil said the scheme was operational only in the schools located around cities and prominent towns in the past.
But the Siddaramaiah-led Cognress government had decided to take it to remote areas also, in a bid to spread computer literacy in villages.
Each student would be given intensive training for three days, the minister said.
About 400 centres, which are mostly computer labs in the nearby colleges, had been chosen for training these school children, he said.
The programme was being taken up jointly with Intel Technology India Pvt Ltd, which had developed the training software, he said.
The main intention was to ensure that every rural household in the state has a computer literate in the years to come.
Spreading computer literacy would not only open up different opportunities in jobs, but also go a long way in ensuring transparency in administration and making e-governance a success, he said.
Pointing out that the Union Government has taken up a programme for providing broadband connectivity to all the village panchayats, he said focussing on taking computer literacy to rural areas would help utilise various opportunities to be provided by the broadband connectivity.
Intel Technology India Pvt Limited Country Manager (Education) Anil Misquith said the process of providing elementary training on computer and internet applications would open up a wide range of opportunities for children.
It would also help in online education in the coming years, Anil Misquith explained.