TN to tie up with IT firms for high-tech labs in govt middle schools

CHENNAI: The State government has decided to hire IT companies to set up high-tech labs in middle schools across State.

At present, there are about 6,000 government and aided middle schools catering education to more than 10 lakh students from Classes 6-8. High-tech labs are present only in government high and higher secondary schools.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next authorities will soon identify spaces in all the middle schools for high-tech labs, which would start functioning from next year.

“The identified company will procure computer systems and other,” he said, adding, “later experts will provide extensive training to five teachers in each school for effective handling of the labs.”

The official said each high-tech lab would be provided with 10 computer systems, a projector with a mounting kit, external speakers, web cameras, LAN connectivities with hard-disk capacity of 1 TB each, high-tech printers, and headphones. CCTV will be installed too,” he said.

Stating the operating system of each lab will be pre-loaded Linux, the official said, “For uninterrupted electricity supply, both UPS and generators will be available.”

Intelligent integrated infrastructure labs will include environmental controls such as rack-mounted air conditioning, smoke detection, water leak detection temperature, and humidity sensors, and fire security devices.

He said that each lab will be maintained by the selected computer firm for five years and after that period, the company will identify lab devices which are worn out and replace them with new ones.

“They (company experts) will also continuously monitor all the labs on a regular basis and will have service engineering in each district to attend to the faults immediately. They would also ensure that each lab is equipped with uninterrupted internet connectivity,” the official added.