Computer education unable to boot in Haryana

CHANDIGARH, OCT 31: The Haryana Government has deferred the launch of computer education in its schools and colleges. The IT education pro...

CHANDIGARH, OCT 31: The Haryana Government has deferred the launch of computer education in its schools and colleges. The IT education programme was scheduled to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala on November 1, but it has been put off indefinitely. The reason: the state authorities have failed to work out the terms with private computer training institutes in time.

It is learnt that the Education Department and IT education firms – NIIT, Tata Infotech Ltd and Aptech which bid for the project – had differences over the fee structure, programme implementation schedule and other conditions. The state authorities had twice invited top executives of the three firms in the last two weeks for a discussion on these issues, but both the meetings were cancelled.

The three leading firms had quoted fee structure in the range of Rs 110 and Rs 150 per month in their offer to the Haryana State Electronics Development Corporation (Hartron), but the fees was considered to be substantially high by the Education Department. “The fee proposed by the bidders is not workable as there would not be many takers for computer education at that cost in most of the government institutes where education is virtually free,” an Education Department official says.

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While the state authorities want the IT firms to reduce the proposed monthly fee, the training institutes feel that the project would become completely unviable for them if the fee is brought substantially. “The government has not made computer education mandatory and introduced it only as an optional subject. There are no clear indicators about the enrollment level,” points out a senior executive of one of these three firms. What the firms, it seems, want is an arrangement similar to that in Andhra Pradesh, where the government ensures a minimum revenue to the service providers.

Education Department officials admit to the delay in finalising financial agreements with the IT firms, but they are hopeful that the terms would be finalised shortly. “There are irritants, but we will fix a meeting of senior executives of the computer training firms with the high-powered purchase committee headed by the Chief Minister in the next two to three weeks. The project will take off thereafter,” they say.

The government plans to introduce computer education from Class VI in 2,242 high/higher secondary schools, 55 colleges and 192 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and Vocational Education Institutes (VEIs) in six zones covering the entire state. While NIIT made a bid for four zones, Tata Infotech expressed interest in all the six zones. Aptech opted for only two zones in response to the advertisements floated by Hartron inviting offers from IT education firms for exclusive rights to impart computer education in the state.

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