:-
(a) the steps the Department of Information Technology have taken to ensure free fund flow for its ambitious Rs. 6,000 crore Vidya Vahini project that aims to take computer education to 60,000 schools across the country in three years;
(b) the districts in the States where this pilot project is being introduced; and
(c) the latest position of this scheme?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY(DR. SANJAY PASWAN)
(a)and(b): Department of Information Technology has formulated a specific programme `Vidya Vahini` to integrate technological tools and Internet in the learning environment. The focus of the project is to use computer-aided learning techniques to develop and train the faculty to impart education to students, teachers and encourage them to develop course content and lessons in the digital form. The emphasis is to develop and provide content in the local language.
The programme is proposed to be implemented in 60,000 Government
and Government-aided senior secondary schools in the country. Each
school is envisaged to be provided with one computer lab having
10 PCs, Server and other computer items, Internet connectivity of
128 Kbps and course content as per CBSE syllabus. The project
proposes to set up fully networked training labs with similar
equipment as proposed at each school to train the teachers on use
of IT tools and development of course content. The entire project
is estimated to cost Rs. 6,000 crores.
Before taking up the main project, a pilot project has been
initiated. 140 Government schools in the rural and semi-urban
areas across the following seven districts have been included.
1. Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
2. Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh
3. Hazaribagh, Jharkhand
4. Gandhinagar, Gujarat
5. Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh 6. Parli Vaijarnath, Maharashtra
7 South 24-Parganas, West Bengal