Govt to train public on school computers,earn revenue

In a move to make the best use of available resources and to earn revenue,the Punjab government has decided to use the computers installed in the government schools to train the general public after school hours.

In a move to make the best use of available resources and to earn revenue,the Punjab government has decided to use the computers installed in the government schools to train the general public after school hours.

As per the first of its kind policy formulated by the Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD-BJP dispensation,a six-week training course would be launched for the general public interested in mastering computers. The course fee has been fixed at Rs 1,000. The computers installed in all the middle and higher schools run by the government in the state would be used for the training purposes after school hours. The computer teachers appointed by the state government would train the interested persons. Also any government and non-government organisation can use such computers for their work after paying nominal charges.

Instructions to this effect have been issued by the office of Director General School Education under its Punjab Information Communication Technology (ICT) education society.

Deputy Manager of ICT,Brigadier (retd) Jagtar Singh,said that the move aims to maximise the usage of our resources,to harness the computer skills of general masses and to earn some revenue too. The fee is nominal and has been designed keeping the general public in mind. Also,the computers teachers would be compensated adequately for their services, Jagtar Singh added.

It may be noted that there are nearly 8,000 computer teachers who have been employed in the government schools. Often such teachers have to wait for months on end to get their monthly emoluments as the government has no budget to pay their salaries. Even at present,such teachers have not been their salaries for the past six months.

As per the 2011 Census,only 12.8 per cent of the 54.09 lakh households in Punjab own a computer or laptop. The data was based on the house listing operations carried out during May 1 to June 15 last year.

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