Following is an excerpt from a news report in Hindustan Times.
Kerala’s Education Minister M.A. Baby Sunday inaugurated the first phase of Internet broadband connections to 1,200 schools in the state.
The initiative is part of the IT@School project launched by the state government in 2003 for imparting IT education to high school children across the state.
“All the 2,800 high schools in Kerala will be connected through broadband Internet by June as part of the project,” the minister said while inaugurating the first phase from the State Secretariat.
“We are planning to extend the services to upper primary schools (between 5th-7th classes) as well. In the first phase, we will start with 38 schools in this academic secession,” said Baby.
The project is implemented in collaboration with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), which has endeavoured to give special tariff rates for the 2800 schools in the state.
“The security deposit, modem rental and installation charges has been waived. Each school has also been offered a nominal rate Rs. 5000 per year to avail the services,” said K.S. Sreenivasan, chief general manager of BSNL.
Currently, as part of the project, about 40,000 computers have been put into use at the high schools. More than 60,000 teachers have been trained in IT and nearly 1.6 million students have benefited.
December 11th, 2007
Following is an excerpt from a news report in New Indian Express.
The State Government will open 933 primary and 708 upper primary schools in the current financial year.
The new schools will be located in areas having no schools as per the national parameters of having one primary school within 1 km radius and an upper primary school within 3 km radius.
… 449 primary schools and 392 upper primary schools had already been operationalised and the remaining schools will function by January-end.
About 300 centres under the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) has been converted to primary schools while a few primary schools have been upgraded to upper primary schools.
The Government has made a budgetary provision of Rs 120 crore for the new primary schools and Rs 41 crore for upper primary schools.
Each of of the new schools will be given a financial assistance of Rs 4.80 lakh for infrastructure development.
The funds will be provided to the Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA).
The State has 34,953 primary schools, 3,979 upper primary schools and 12,376 nodal schools having both elementary and upper primary classes.
Two teachers will be appointed to each new primary school in the first year while each upper primary school will have three teachers.
While education volunteers working in the EGS centres converted to primary schools will be absorbed, preference will be given to local youth during appointment of teachers in these new schools.
December 11th, 2007
Following is an excerpt from a news report in New Indian Express.
The Government is required to acquire 1.42 acres of private land for construction of the proposed 200-foot wide road that will connect the AIIMS site to the National Highway No. 5.
… Another 2.25 acres of land of the State Police Academy in Patrapada village will be acquired for the project.
The Chief Secretary directed the Home Department to take necessary action and report compliance.
He also directed the General Administration Department to identify the private land falling under the site earmarked for AIIMS under emergency clause.
The meeting was informed that the Orissa State Cashew Development Corporation had already handed over the required land, coming under its area and construction work of a 40-foot wide alternative road along the AIIMS boundary wall to Patrapada village, to Roads and Buildings Division of the Works Department.
The Khurda Collector further reported that the process had been initiated to dereserve 0.803 acre of gochar land coming under the project site.
The Public Health Department in coordination with the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation will supply water for the construction works.
A 132-KV double circuit tower existing within the site will be shifted for which the Energy Department will deposit Rs 1.34 crore to the Orissa Power Transmission corporation Limited.
The meeting also decided to take the public-private partnership route for construction of a bus stand, market complex, yatri nivas and other facilities for public convenience.
December 11th, 2007