Government school students are digital have-nots here

The Hindu: Puducherry: Monday, March 24, 2014.

Thousands of students in government-managed schools in the city continue to be deprived of computer education. The reason: computers remain mere show pieces at these institutions for want of minor repairs and lack of instructors.

All this when many private schools, including unrecognised ones, are alluring students by offering free computer studies, a fact that officials themselves admit.

The city has around 700 government schools, of which about 300 have been provided with computers by government agencies and NGOs in the last few years.

Only 900 functional computers:

“The idea was to equip the students of government schools with computer knowledge. But the computers have been dumped in a corner, with no repairs and no instructors,” says the principal of a school at Bahadurpura.

According to information obtained under the RTI, around 300 schools in 16 mandals of Hyderabad were provided around 1,800 computers in last few years. However, only 900-odd are in working condition.

“Whenever a computer develops a snag, teachers dump it in a corner as they themselves are not well-versed with its mechanism. As though a formality, they inform higher-ups about it and later forget it,” complains S.Q. Masood, who obtained the information.

Such is the situation that in some schools, there is not a single computer that functions. For instance, at the government high school at Dhoolpet, none of the 16 computers function. It is a similar situation at the schools at Mustaidpura, Kulsumpura, Chaderghat and Golconda and GGHS Chaderghat, to name a few.

Teachers blame officials:

On the other hand, teachers blame the higher officials for the present state of affairs.

“At the most, we can inform officials about the problems, but cannot always spend money to undertake repairs,” complains a school principal on condition of anonymity.

Officials said the contract of maintenance and imparting training in computers was allotted to a private company for five years starting 2008, and the term ended recently. As of now, the headmasters have been asked to conduct the classes.

When contacted District Education Officer Subba Reddy acknowledged the problem and said, “We have informed the higher authorities and a decision will be taken shortly.”