Large number of students of 11th, 12th to get benefit of project
All 9th, 10th classes to be covered under Second Phase
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 30: Twenty one Government Higher Secondary Schools in Jammu city will have 286 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled classrooms for the 11th and 12th students by the end of August this year as installation of equipment has already been started by National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT). In the Second Phase of the project, all the 9th and 10th classes in the Government schools will be covered by the Directorate of School Education, Jammu.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that project titled “Smart Schools and Modernization of School Infrastructure” conceptualized by the Directorate of School Education Jammu was taken up under Jammu Smart City Limited in the month of April last year and an amount of Rs 11.37 crore was earmarked for Smart Classes and Rs 16.77 crore for civil works in 21 Government Higher Secondary Schools in Jammu city.
“To upgrade the classrooms into ICT enabled it was necessary to improve the school buildings by providing new classrooms, renovation, laboratories, libraries, parking area etc and the task was assigned to Public Works Department, which has almost completed the civil works”, they said, adding “now all out efforts are being made to install the equipments for making 286 classrooms of these 21 schools ICT-enabled and hopefully on the reopening of schools after the summer vacations large number of students studying in these schools will be able to avail the benefits of ICT-enabled classes”.
“In today’s education system, the smart classroom concept is a great innovation as the traditional approach of giving lectures and taking notes has lost its effectiveness in modern education”, they said, adding “with the advancement of technology new teaching methods are being incorporated into the curriculum and one of these is Smart Classroom which uses videos, animated 3D modules and instructional materials to help students understand”, sources said.
The schools which will have 286 ICT-enabled classrooms are Higher Secondary School, Channi Himmat, HSS Gandhi Nagar, HSS Sunjwan, Girls Higher Secondary School (GHSS) Bahu Fort, GHSS Shastri Nagar, Shri Ranbir Higher Secondary School, HSS Hari Singh, HSS Jullaka Mohalla, HSS Paloura, HSS Bakshi Nagar, GHSS Bazar Qasaban, GHSS Bakshi Nagar, HSS Muthi, HSS Sarwal, GHSS Rehari, GHSS Mubarak Mandi, HSS Purani Mandi, GHSS Canal Road, HSS Nowabad, GHSS Nowabad and GHSS Satwari.
“The ICT enabled classrooms will provide different opportunities to make learning more enjoyable as the lessons will be taught in new ways. Moreover, this will improve knowledge retention among the students, encourage individual learning, promote collaboration and help students in learning skills which will be useful to be successful in future”, sources said, adding “moreover this step will be advantageous for the teachers also as technology will make teaching less cumbersome and interesting”.
When contacted, Dr Ravi Shanker Sharma, outgoing Director School Education, who had taken the initiative of making the classrooms ICT enabled, said, “NIELIT has already started installation of equipment and hopefully by ending August 286 classrooms of 11th and 12th students in 21 Higher Secondary Schools will become ICT enabled”, adding “learning is considerably more effective when it is supported by visuals, which makes it easier for students to comprehend complex concepts”.
“It has already been decided to extend the benefits of ICT enabled classrooms to 9th and 10th students in the Government schools of Jammu city and detailed exercise is going on in this regard”, he said in response to a question.
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