The Tamil Nadu government plans to distribute free laptops to over 2.5 lakh government and government-aided school teachers in the state. School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan said that an announcement will be made after discussing with Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.
Currently, the school education department gives away free laptops to all teachers who are post-graduates for them to be able to teach classes 11 and 12 using online resources.
Additionally, as part of a central government initiative to make classrooms smarter, all blackboards in the state will be switched to smart boards, the minister was quoted as saying.
A revamp of the vocational education system in the state is also planned. KA Sengottaiyan and school education secretary Pradeep Yadav had recently visited Finland to study the latest technology prevalent in classrooms and the vocational education system of the country, according to reports.
Sengottaiyan added that the vocational education system in Finland is much more superior, and that students are turning into professionals right after school. Sports is also an important aspect of vocational education in schools, which attracts students. Teachers from Tamil Nadu will be sent to Finland to learn the vocational education systems there, he said. After a detailed discussion, the training and other aspects will be finalised.
At a function on Thursday - which was also Teacher’s Day - over 300 teachers from Tamil Nadu received Dr Radhakrishnan award for the best teacher which includes prize money of Rs 10,000, a certificate and a silver medal.