Kerala govt schools to get 36,366 more laptops

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 7 (IANS) As part of beefing up the infrastructure in government schools, Education Minister V. Sivankutty on Tuesday said Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) will deploy 36,366 more laptops in state-run schools. The laptops will be used for the IT Practical Examinations in the ongoing academic year.

Sivankutty said this is part of the Hi-Tech School and Hi-Tech Lab projects- the largest ICT project in education ever undertaken in India.

"It would also be the first time that AMC support and insurance coverage are facilitated to as many as 5 lakh ICT equipment at the same time," said Sivankutty.

"The new supply of laptops will include 16,500 laptops for laboratories in Hi-Tech schools, 2,360 laptops through the new tender for Vidyakiranam project and 17,506 laptops through re-distribution through the Vidyakiranam project. This is in continuation to the 4.4 Lakh ICT equipment deployed in state schools as part of the Hi-Tech project worth Rs 760 crore," said Sivankutty.

These laptops are equipped with either the Intel Core-i3 processor or Celeron processors.

The Minister further pointed out that KITE has facilitated annual maintenance contract support for 32,000 laptops for which the 5-year warranty expires from this year onwards. This would be expanded to 90,000 laptops and 72,000 projectors on expiry of their respective warranty.