Smart classrooms for 7,500 schools soon: Sengottaiyan

Speaking at a function in a private school to grant an extension of government recognition to 275 matriculation schools including 61 aided schools in Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur and Tiruvannamalai districts, Sengottaiyan said the aim was to ensure removal of blackboards in all schools within two years. Averring that measures taken by the Tamil Nadu state government had been lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said such measures had resulted in 15.50 lakhs students joining government schools, this year.

“Another 3 lakh students had joined from private schools because government school education was now on par with that provided by private schools,” he said.

“In a bid to ensure that state students were on par with their counterparts elsewhere in the country, the government had provided free laptops to 52.48 lakh students which no other state has done,” he said.

“In another innovative bid 4.80 lakh students were being trained in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in which students of high and higher secondary schools could download information from school computer systems onto their laptops for further study,” he detailed. To meet the shortfall of Chartered Accountants (CA) in the country, the state was presently providing free training in this to 1000 students, he added.

Stating that private channels had to be thanked for beaming state’s ‘kalvi’ channel he said the toll-free number 14417 was available for students to have their doubts cleared. The minister also ruled out reopening of schools in state due to pandemic. Citing Andhra Pradesh, he said, reopening of schools there led to more spread of virus.

Earlier, director of matriculation schools A Karupusamy welcomed the gathering and those present included ministers KC Veeramani (commercial taxes) and Nilofer Kafeel (labour), school education secretary Dheeraj Kumar, school education commissioner M Veketesh, MLAs S Ravi, G Loganathan and G Sampath, Katpadi PTA president SRK Appu, M Anandan Vellore Sugar Mill chairman and V Ramu, chairman of Vellore Central Cooperative Bank.