Laptops for teachers in government’s next digital push

So far only government students were given free laptops, which was the pet project of late and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa. For the first time and in line with the students’ scheme, the School Education Department has come out with the idea of offering laptops to teachers working in government schools across the State.

A senior official from Education Department told DT Next that the laptops would be procured by the State-owned Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), the nodal agency for providing IT solutions to various government departments.  ELCOT would soon begin the tender process to identify the supplier of laptops. As per the plan, government teachers in high schools would get laptops, as a pilot project, by the mid of this academic year.

“This initiative will encourage the teachers as they will be able to get more information with regard to their subject using the laptop,” the official pointed out.

The government schools will be identified to ensure uninterrupted power supply in addition to the internet connection for the laptops. The teachers will also be given special training to handle the computers. The laptops would also be loaded with textbooks, the official said. 

Pointing out that many government high and higher secondary schools in several districts have already been provided with desktop and other accessories, the official said, “However, the teacher should go to that particular point for accessing the computer, which was viewed as tedious process.”