Shimla: For providing quality education in middle schools that impart education to Class 6 to 8 level, chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has asked Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry for extending the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) @School scheme to them.
The ICT @School is under implementation in senior secondary schools and has the approval of the union ministry of human resource development (HRD).
Writing to Kapil Sibal, the union HRD minister, Dhumal said that by extending the scheme to students to middle schools would bring about qualitative changes in the educational curriculum for there had been a marked improvement in the educational standards in senior secondary schools where ICT @ School scheme had been introduced.
“Multi-media teaching aids had transformed the teaching and learning process in state owned educational institutions, he said.
There were about 1000 middle schools in the state and for extending the scheme to these schools would entail an expenditure of about Rs 40 crore. With a cost sharing of 90:10, the state was ready to contribute its 10 percent should the HRD ministry approve the project, says Dhumal.
This would also go a long way in capacity building of the teacher for applying interactive and multimedia applications for attracting attention of the students in classrooms. A poll of teachers had been trained to implement the project, he said.
Including the middle schools classes in the scheme would also help bridge the urban-rural divide in educational standards, he added.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
