Ludhiana: Classes hit as computers at govt schools ‘inoperative, outdated’

Students of government schools are not being able to attend the practical classes due to outdated and inoperative computers, said the educators.

The middle, high and senior secondary schools in the district have obsolete computer sets in the labs, only as a showpiece due to lack of maintenance for past many years, said authorities of various schools.

A government senior secondary school principal said, “Our school has more than 15 computer sets in the lab and none of them is operative due to lack of maintenance and outdated software.” Though, the computer as a subject is part of the curriculum for classes 6 to 12, the students are only attending the theoretical classes. Practicals have been halted from a long time, the principal added.

A Class 9 student said on the condition of anonymity, “Students are generally intrigued by subjects which include practical learning. No matter how many theoretical classes we attend, we would not be able to operate a computer if not instructed practically,” the student added.

Another government school principal said we have 24 computer sets in the lab, but only four of them are completely operational. “Our school is managing with the available resources. We make our students learn the basic computer operations by using a rotational method,” the principal added.

The school heads mentioned that in 2012-13, under the e-library programme, 24 computers were provided to the schools across the state. Post which. neither any more sets were given, nor the existing ones got updated. The computer fund, revoked during COVID-19 has still not been reintroduced. This is posing an additional burden on the schools dealing with financial crunch.

Another school head said the authorities have managed to arrange fifth-generation computers either by themselves or through donations. “We group the students together for using a single computer, otherwise it becomes difficult to give a fair chance to every one,” the school head added.

Director general secondary education Vinay Bublani informed about the pilot project of the government and said, “The concerned issue has already been sorted out. A pilot project was launched in which few schools were approved for the issuance of latest generation computers. The tenders have already been invited on Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal, but the process has been halted due to code of conduct in force. We have asked all the schools to submit their requirements which would be fulfilled in the upcoming phases of the project.”