Kerala has become the first state to have hi-tech classrooms in all public schools, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Monday. He described it as “a proud achievement” for the state. He informed through a video conference there will be an up-gradation of all classrooms to international standards and Hi-Tech IT labs will be set up. Children in the state will have access to learn and grow with the help of advanced learning systems.
How Kerala built its hi-tech classrooms
The announcement rests on two decades of work by a single state agency. A task force headed by Prof. U.R. Rao recommended in 2000 that the education department set up a dedicated wing for information technology in schools, and the IT@School project followed in 2001, according to a presentation on the agency published on NITI Aayog’s platform for states. IT became a compulsory school subject in 2003, school computing moved to free and open source software in 2007, and in 2017 IT@School was turned into a Section 8 company, the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE).
The hi-tech classrooms themselves came through two projects. The Hi-Tech School project, which ran from 2016 to 2020 at a cost of Rs 493.50 crore, covered 4,752 secondary schools; the Hi-Tech Lab project for primary schools, which began in 2018, reached 9,941 lower primary and upper primary schools with Rs 300 crore of funding from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and put 54,916 laptops, 23,050 projectors and 54,916 USB speakers into them, the presentation says. KIIFB also paid Rs 38.53 crore for broadband to 12,637 schools, 7,887 of them primary and 4,750 secondary, and to 248 education offices, through tie-ups with BSNL and RailTel. KITE was the first special purpose vehicle to receive funds from KIIFB.
More than three lakh digital equipment, including laptops, projectors, webcams and printers, have been provided as part of the Public Education Rejuvenation Mission. “Kerala has become the first state to have high-tech classrooms in all public schools”, immensely enhancing the education sector, Vijayan said. The government emphasised on providing education and presented before the world, a Left alternative, “a Kerala model of education for our future generations,” he said.
“It was the firm decision of the Left government to make education accessible to all sections of society. Now, all students in the state have access to the opportunity to learn and grow with the help of advanced learning systems. It’s a proud achievement for the state,” the chief minister said.
As per the government, it was possible by the Public Education Rejuvenation Mission aimed at upgrading all classrooms to international standards and set-up Hi-Tech IT labs. The Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) was assigned the task, with funding from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). As part of the mission, currently, a total of 42,000 classrooms from classes 8 to 12 have been equipped with laptops, projectors and screens and networked with school studios. All lower primary and upper primary schools must have at least one smart classroom with a computer lab, according to an official release.
All 16,030 public schools in the state are now equipped with 3,74,274 IT equipment, inclusive of 1,19,055 laptops, 69,944 multimedia projectors, 23,098 projector screens, 4,545 LED TVs, 4,578 DSLR cameras, 4,720 Full HD webcams and 4,611 multi-functional printers along with high-speed Broadband Internet connectivity to 12,678 schools, it said.
What the classrooms were used for in 2020
With school buildings closed, the network built for hi-tech classrooms was turned to remote teaching. KITE began broadcasting First Bell digital classes on its VICTERS educational channel, which has been on air since 2006, from 1 June 2020, with the first week run as a trial and regular classes from the second week of June, according to the KITE presentation. The classes were also streamed on Facebook and YouTube. Teachers had already been given online training, with 74,000 of them trained in March 2020, as the schools closed.
The state set out to make sure that no child was left without a screen. Through a laptop and television drive that drew in schools, local self-government institutions, voluntary organisations and parent-teacher associations, the number of students recorded as having no television or laptop at home fell from about 0.26 million in the second week of May 2020 to 12,000 in the first week of June and to zero by the second week of June, the presentation shows. The government described First Bell as an interim arrangement and not an alternative to classroom teaching, the same point Vijayan made in October.
Vijayan said that the online classes averted the loss of an academic year due to COVID-19, besides the schools in the state will open once the conditions improvise. However, online classes are not an alternative to classroom learning.
”We were forced to do it due to the pandemic. When the situation returns to normal, schools would reopen,” the Chief Minister said.
The state government had on October 4 said that in light of the problematic COVID-19 situation in the state, schools were not likely to open at this point. Vijayan said the equipment has five-year comprehensive onsite warranty and insurance and to address complaints, a web-portal and call centre is also functional. He also informed that at least 1,83,440 teachers were given special training as part of, implementing the digitisation mission. The Public Education Rejuvenation Mission seeks to transform schools into centres of excellence. It was possible due to focused efforts by peoples’ representatives, local self-government institutions, parent-teacher associations, former students, and individuals, he added.
Since then: the hi-tech classrooms after the pandemic
First Bell ran from June 2020 until 30 May 2022, with about 18,000 digital classes prepared by teachers, according to KITE’s presentation, which was updated on 8 March 2023. By that date, the agency counted 15,476 schools, 47 lakh students and 2 lakh teachers among the beneficiaries of its programmes. More than 36,050 teachers had completed its 45-hour online training course on KOOL, its open online learning platform, and its Samagra resource portal held 56,970 digital resources for classes 1 to 12.
The hi-tech classrooms have also fed a student technology network. Little KITEs, the student IT clubs that KITE started in 2018 across 2,173 high schools, were the subject of a UNICEF India study published in July 2024. The study found that students “moved beyond simply using software” by working independently in robotics and artificial intelligence, which, it said, turns them from consumers of technology into designers and creators. KITE describes the clubs as the largest student ICT network in India.
