The State Government will soon equip every school—government and aided—with electronic colour coded kits and Raspberry Pi kits, said Chief Minister Shri Oommen Chandy.
Speaking after the inauguration of the Electronics @ School project today, initiated by the state IT Department, the Chief Minister said that 6,000 government schools would be given the electronics kit to support and nurture a maker-culture among kids.
“Besides providing Raspberry pi kits to 10,000 students selected on a merit basis, steps will be taken to provide every government and aided school with a Raspberry Pi kit for common coding practices,” said the Chief Minister.
Shri Oommen Chandy also inaugurated the distribution of electronic kits under the Electronics@School project and gave away the prizes to winners of the coding competition held as part of the first phase of Learn to Code project. The projects are being implemented jointly by the Kerala Startup Mission and IT @ School.
Manas Manohar of Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Higher Secondary School, Mokeri, Kannur, took the first prize and Rs 2 lakh cash award, in the coding competition held as part of the first Learn to Code. The Class 9 student built PiAttendance, a device to view attendance at government offices from personal computers.
Minister for IT and Industries Shri P K Kunhalikutty launched the second phase of Learn to Code project and inaugurated the distribution of Raspberry Pi kits to 7,500 school children. The Minister suggested that it will be appropriate for the Department of General Education to take up these projects initiated by the IT Department for better implementation. “The projects aim to skill up Kerala’s school children to cope up with the future revolution in technology and entrepreneurship,” said Shri Kunhalikutty.
Education Minister Shri P K Abdu Rabb said that both the Learn to Code and Electronics @ School projects will be made a part of the curriculums. “The electronics kit, which is aligned with the Physics syllabus of classes 9 and 10, has been reviewed and approved by the curriculum committee,” added Shri Abdu Rabb.
“The projects aim to produce 40,000 talented youngsters from schools to the vibrant maker community being developed through the community participation programmes initiated by the Kerala Startup Mission in the state,” said Shri PH Kurien IAS, Principal Secretary to the Department of IT and Industries.
Prizes for the District level winners were also awarded at the function. IT@School Wayanad District Coordinator Shri VJ Thomas has been acknowledged facilitating and guiding a maximum number of projects.
In the pilot phase, launched by the Chief Minister in February, 2,500 selected students of class eight were given Raspberry Pi kits and trained in programming by IT experts in all the district centers.
Additional Secretary to the Department of General Education Shri V S Senthil IAS, Startup Village Chairman Shri Sanjay Vijayakumar, Former Executive Vice Chairman of Infosys Shri Kris Gopalakrishnan, Startup Mission CEO Dr Jayasankar Prasad and IT@School Executive Director Shri K P Noufal attended the function held at Govt Model HS LP School, Thycaud.
