President to declare Kerala as first digital state today

President Pranab Mukherjee will declare Kerala as the first digital state of the country on Saturday, pinning another feather on the cap of the southern state that boasts of many firsts in the human development index.

With high e-literacy rate and mobile penetration (32 m connections) it will be the first fully digitised state. It is also the first to complete the national optic fiber network project which helps to provide high-speed internet in all gram panchayats and remote areas. Many key government offices will be paperless soon. More than 3000 offices in the state, including motor vehicles and land registration departments, have achieved this feat.

At a function to be held in Kozhikkode, the President will also launch a digital empowerment campaign aimed at bridging the digital divide by 2020. For this services of Student Police Cadets (SPCs) will be used.

As part of the campaign 40,000 student police cadets will train 10 lakh people in panchayats and remote areas of the state. Tablets will be provided to these cadets and a committee will monitor their training sessions on real-time basis. 

“As a pilot project in Thiruvananthapuram we trained student cadets from 10 schools and distributed 100 tablets to them. Results are really encouraging_ in three months these cadets made 10,000 people e literate,” said state IT Mission director Mohammed Safirulla.

Two projects started by the government in 2002 -‘Akshaya and IT@School’ - helped it to attain e literacy. Over 2.500 Akshaya service centres functioning in rural and urban areas have helped generate awareness in e-governance.

The President will unveil a cyber park in Kozhikkode.

E Link | Click Here

Kerala becomes 1st state in country to achieve 100% primary education 

"Kerala has become the first state in the country to achieve total primary education. This has been achieved through the primary education equivalency drive of the state literacy mission — Athulyam. The equivalency programmes have proved a huge success and the ultimate objective is to achieve total Plus-Two education in the state," education minister P K Abdu Rabb said here on Monday.

The declaration will be made at a function at Kerala University Senate Hall.

 

 The second phase of Athulyam was carried out across the state as part of the Mission 676 of the government, launched to mark its third anniversary. The programme offers a chance for those who failed to get primary education due to various reasons to achieve the education qualification equivalent to fourth standard.

 

Those aged 15 to 50 were beneficiaries of the programme and were identified through family registries prepared by anganwadis under the social justice department and also through ward-level surveys carried out by instructors in continuing education programmes.

Around 2.6 lakh candidates appeared for the 4th standard equivalency examination in June 2015 and 2.2 lakh candidates qualified. The equivalency examination was held in 6,613 centres across the state and those who scored 30/75 in English and 20/50 in other subjects were declared winners.

 

Source | Times of India | 12 January 2016