An Initiative by Tamil Nadu Government

In a pioneering initiative  by the Tamil Nadu  is quite 

admirable step towards the education of rural and needy children. Chief Minister Jayalalita is providing free laptops to students of government-run and government-aide higher secondary schools,arts and science colleges. The scheme, which will cover 912,000 students this year at a cost of Rs. 912 crore, is designed to give a major boost to information technology literacy. Social welfare programmes intended to increase enrollment and reduce dropout rates in schools are not to Tamil Nadu, which was first state to introduce a comprehensive mid day meal scheme.Boys and girls in the schools run by government are being provided free uniforms and text books. From this year, under another novel scheme envisaged by the chief minister, pupils in classes 10th, 11th and 12th will be given cash incentives to complete schooling. Even in this context, the free laptops scheme is exceptional-backed by a serious pedagogic effort, it could have a far-reaching impact on improving access to higher education for boys and girls from poor and needy families across the State. All higher secondary schools in Tamil Nadu have computer labs but students do not get sufficient exposure to computing, not to mention coding and programming. The free laptop scheme could open up a whole new world of knowledge based opportunities to a generation of students who hope to do well in higher education and then in the job market.

Equipping and appointing trained computer teachers should be the next big step towards achieving the universality in computer education.