IT@School

INTRODUCTION
The pace of change brought about by new technology has lent significant changes in the way people live, work, learn and play worldwide. But the education system in the developing countries like India is yet to catch the bandwagon. Though the Information Technology revolution has brought in radical changes in all walks of life, it is quite disheartening that our classrooms and teaching system could not encompass this advancement in technology in the journey towards a quality education system.

IT@SCHOOL is the project of the General Education department, Government of Kerala to introduce IT enabled teaching and learning in over 2600 high schools (984 Government High schools, 1260 Government Higher Secondary Schools and 375 Government Vocational Higher Secondary Schools) of the State. The project commenced its operation during the year 2002-03 with the introduction of IT in standard VIII. The project aims to integrate information technology into the mainstream curriculum of the high schools and higher secondary schools with a view to enhance the intellectual productivity of teachers, to improve students’ learning capabilities and to increase the management efficiency of school administrators. Right from the inception, the Project has been making efforts to strengthen the Information Technology resources required to usher in IT enabled education system. There were only around 2000 computers across the schools of the State when the Project took off in the year 2001, which has now reached to 30000 plus computers, with almost all high schools having at least one computer lab. The project has completed the first phase of its objective, i.e., to provide training to teachers and to provide the basic infrastructure requirements in schools to facilitate IT education. Now the project is in second phase of its realisation i.e., transferring of the complete high school teaching into IT enabled one.

Activities
MAIN ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN SO FAR :
Syllabus and Textbook: A text book for VIIIth Std. classes (high school starts from VIIIth std in Kerala) has been prepared and introduced in the high school. The text book could not only be used for teaching VIlIth std students but also for students of other classes wherever infrastructure facilities are available. NCERT guidelines were followed with necessary modifications to suit the State's requirements and that the exercise was undertaken with active guidance and leadership of State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT) 10 - 20 textbooks are given free of cost to all the 2400 high schools to be placed in computer labs for reference by the students attending lab sessions. The IT -1 textbook has been prepared with contents that are capable of familiarizing the basics of the information technology. At the same time, practical exercises have been included in the textbook, which enables students to use the technology skills in the context of the subjects they are studying. The respective subject teachers themselves are instructed to supervise these exercises in computer labs with the help of agency or PT A appointed instructors. The department has already issued guidelines on the timetable, the methodology and association of private agencies empanelled for this purpose.
Training of High School Teachers: The IT orientation training of the Head Masters of 2400 high schools is almost complete. Training of HS teachers has also commenced in 41 training centres of the project. In fact this is the most enormous task which the project confronts. There are over 60000 schools teachers in the High schools. The State has already set up 41 training centers with 10 computers in each centre and 75 HS teachers have so far been trained as Master Trainers. Government of Kerala had entered into an MOU with Intel to adopt their 'Teach To Future' programme for teachers training. In order to train 60000 teachers, some 350 Training Centres are to be set up throughout the length and breadth of the State. These training centres set up in Government schools can be used as Computer labs of schools for teaching students by the trained teachers once their training is over.The teachers once trained at the Training Centres are not provided with any opportunity to learn more about the technological upgradations as the training centres established in schools will, by then, converted as school computer labs. They should be exposed to emerging trends in technology to update their knowledge. The project also envisages setting up, at a later stage, permanent facilities at District Institutes of Education and Training teachers (DIETs) for periodic re-training of the trained.Conducting of IT Practical Examination : The “need” for embracing this technology is to be sustained through compulsions, here, the achievement of IT@School is worth noting. As a result of constant persuasion of IT@School, Government of Kerala declared Information Technology as a compulsory paper in the High Schools of the state and revamped IT curriculum in the Standard X so as to allocate 5 marks for the IT practical examination. Accordingly, IT practical examination for the last year SSLC batch was held impeccably throughout the state, a small step in the way of conducting examination, but a giant leap in the education history of Kerala.Technology offers no magic solution to the academic backwardness in schools: It can only provide tremendous support to the efforts to improve the quality of school education. The ground for implementation of the project is being prepared and will definitely be tested before launching full-scale implementation. Very little can be achieved without the support and participation of the major stakeholders - children, parents, teachers and school managements, parent teacher associations and community leaders. The project has been visualized with the teacher, as the key implementer. Therefore enlisting of stakeholder participation would be a major component of the project. The state will take major initiatives for building a stakeholder support and for teacher empowerment in the first phase of the project itself. The project is conceived as a dynamic one, constantly refined and corrected on the basis of changing perceptions during implementation. The project when implemented will have a far-reaching impact in producing a new generation of young men and women who can fully participate in the knowledge based information age.