October 3, 2015 by admin

Govt cash-starved, refuses to pay for internet in schools

Faridkot, October 3
Facing a ‘financial crunch’, the School Education Department has declined to pay the bill for broadband connection in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) labs in all high and senior secondary schools.
In a letter to District Education Officers (DEO), the Deputy State Project Director, ICT, asked them to pay for internet from the “amalgamated funds” for ICT labs. These funds are collected from high and senior secondary students in all government schools in the state. The Education Department will pay for the service for elementary schools since the fund is not collected from students there.
The ICT project is aimed at making 14.5 lakh students of Class VI to XII in government schools ‘digitally literate’ in the state. Under this Centrally sponsored ICT scheme, the Punjab ICT Education Society (PICTES) was set up four years ago and new computer labs with broadband connections with unlimited download facility were set up in all elementary and high schools. Every elementary and high school was also provided generator sets.
Since the start of the financial year (2015-16) on April 1, no government school has received funds to pay internet bills and purchase stationery. They haven’t even been paid for the monthly maintenance of the ICT labs.
Jagtar Singh, Deputy State Project Director, PICTES, said the funds to pay the internet bill for elementary schools had been released. But the high and secondary schools will pay for the service from “amalgamated funds”.