Ringing in a new era of smart education, the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday paved way for distribution, by November, of 1,73,823 smartphones to government school students, both boys and girls, preparing to take their Class XII Board exams this year through online education amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Distribution of the first batch of 50,000 phones, which has already been received by the State Government, will begin shortly,” said an official spokesperson after a meeting of the Council of Ministers, which has approved the modalities for distribution.
The phones will be equipped with various smart features such as touch screen, camera and pre-loaded Government applications like ‘e-Sewa App’ with e-content related to Class XI and Class XII, as approved by Department of School Education.
The second batch will be procured soon, and the entire distribution process will be completed by November, said an official spokesperson.
The Cabinet noted that four months of the academic year 2020-21 had already elapsed without regular on-campus classes, and while private schools were undertaking online classes, the students of Government Schools faced a competitive disadvantage, especially those studying in Class XII.
Though the Government had initially announced that the first batch of the smartphones, received just a few days ago, would be given to girls, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh said: “Both boys and girls of Class XII government schools, who do not have smartphones to access the online classes that have currently replaced physical education, will be provided the same.”
This was necessary to ensure that these students do not suffer in the times of the pandemic due to lack of access to education, he added.
With this, the State Government will fulfill yet another of its election promises and implement the scheme ‘The Punjab Smart Connect scheme’, which it had announced in its budget for the Financial Year 2018-19.
The scheme was aimed at providing digital access to youth, as well as information regarding education, career opportunities, access to skill development and employment opportunities, in addition to basic citizen-centric services through government applications etc.
In September 2019 meeting, the Cabinet had decided to distribute mobile phones to about 1.6 lakh girl students not owning a smartphone and studying in Classes XI and XII in the Government Schools during the fiscal 2019-20. The contract was signed with M/s Lava International Limited after open competitive bidding process.
However, during the process of procurement and delivery of smartphones, the country was hit by COVID-19 pandemic and resultantly, the delivery and distribution of the smartphones could not take place in the academic year 2019-20.