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Computer classes crash in government schools in Odisha
The Odisha government has started computer classes in schools. However, the program is a miserable failure as many schools don’t have either electricity or internet or even teachers.
In yet another display of ignorance towards ground realities by the political establishment, the much talked about computer classes in Odisha government and aided schools are a miserable failure. All this from a government which has adopted E-governance as its latest slogan.
Move out of Bhubaneswar and the reality hits you with computer education in schools remaining no more than an exercise on paper. The ground reality in Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts in the prosperous coastal belt could be an eye-opener for the authorities. 14-year-old Radhashyam Rout, a Class IX student of government-run Sanjay Gandhi Vidyapitha at Paradipgada on the outskirts of this port township, has no access to computers, because his school does not have electricity connection and is yet be brought under the purview of the computer-learning programme.
According to sources, things weren't much better in schools that had electricity because there apparently was no computer study curriculum for the students. Consequently, the programme has failed to take off in several government and aided high schools in Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts.
In Jagatsinghpur district, 16 schools without electricity could not be covered by the computer learning programme. The programme is running in 151 government high schools. Students are taking part in the learning programme though there is no syllabus and examination.
School after school, district after district you will find the same story playing itself out. Computers have definitely made their way to the classrooms, but ironically in schools without power, or in certain cases, in schools with no teachers. Then there are cases where power back-up, photocopy machine, printers and projectors are all in place, but the computer sets are not in running condition and no funds available to fix them. There are also examples of computers installed in schools with no Internet connectivity.
"My ward is in Class VIII at the government-run Singiri High School at Balikuda. The computer sets are lying idle there because the school does not power supply," said a guardian, Raghab Parida.
In Kendrapara Government High School, the oldest in the district, the computer room has been converted into a storehouse with rice packets for the midday meals stocked there while the computers gather dust.
This is a sign of rot in our system. When politicians promise something and actually deliver it without understanding the context of delivery things are bound to fall flat. Delivering computers to classrooms without power or without internet or without teachers or without a set curriculum and exam pattern just shows that the public and the public money is taken for granted. Ultimately, all the money spent on computers is a sheer waste if they are lying idle. When will the politicians get the basics right and promise the moon only after setting things alright on earth?