Free laptops to be given for govt school teachers soon

Till now students studying in government schools, colleges and polytechnic institutions were given free laptops, which was the pet project introduced by the late former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

A senior official from Higher Education Department told DT Next that government school teachers between Class 9 to 12 would get laptops with the latest information pre-installed, during the first phase of implementation of the scheme.

Stating that there are nearly 10,000 government high and higher secondary schools functioning across the State, the official pointed out that around 80,000 teachers would benefit from the new scheme.

He said, the laptops to be procured through Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), would not be of the same version as distributed to the students.

“Each laptop will contain pre-installed applications to inform the teachers, the portions of the subjects, video lectures, daily news updates from government and other latest software, which will be used for teaching purpose,” he added.

According to the official, the laptops would be of compact size so that teachers can carry it anywhere. “It can even be kept in a handbag,” the official said.

ELCOT would soon float the tender to decide on the supplier of the laptops. As a pilot project, government teachers would receive their laptops by next year.

“Once tender process is finalised, a circular will be issued to all high and higher secondary schools across the districts to identify the beneficiaries,” the official added. The free laptop computer scheme was introduced in 2011 soon after AIADMK came to power and from 2011 to till date, around 37.71 lakh laptops have been distributed free of cost to students at a total expenditure of Rs 5,574.37 crore.