Computers rot in Telangana schools

Khammam: The Computer Education Programme introduced in government schools to offer training to children in computer education has not yielded expected results in the district.

The computers supplied by the secondary government schools have been kept idle in many of the schools due to lack of initiative and understanding among headmasters and scarcity of trainers.

The government implemented the CEP in 2008 in 5,000 schools under a special IT project across united AP where English is also taught. The Rs 300 crore CEP project was executed under build, own, operate and transfer model.

Computers have been sanctioned in 225 schools in the district and Central government grants some funds to the project. Interestingly, computers have been kept idle in 92 schools and the CPUs of the computers have become scrap.

The equipment and spare parts were not visible in many schools. Some parts of the computer were shifted to the homes of the staff.

NIIT and AMG were given contract in placing computers in these schools and sent trainers for some time. N Sitarama Rao, a retired teacher said, “The CEP concept is good, but the programme failed due to lack of responsible persons.”

A classic example for the failure of the project is CEP implementation in Naguloncha school. About 20 computers, printers and scanners with back up were sanctioned to the school and placed in a room. Ironically, there was no person to open the room.

A total of 49 schools have been provided computers in Kothagudem division and even generators have been supplied to the schools where power supply facility does not exist.

But, the generators disappeared from the school and were seen in the houses of some of the school staff. There is a plan to appoint computer trainers in success schools where teaching is in the English medium. The government is delaying in taking a decision on it.