GSTU Attingal

Monday, Jun 11, 2012 

CABE to adopt Kerala’s 

edu system

Avanavanchery Model accepted.

                The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) has decided to adopt Kerala’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) - enabled education as a base model for the other boards in the country. Sources told DC that CABE had approved the report of the subcommittee on National ICT Policy for Education, recommending the Kerala model as the base model. The CBSE and ICSE streams will also have to follow this model once this becomes a part of national policy. The subcommittee finalised the report after a visit to the IT@School state office, Trivandrum district resource centre and two schools namely Cotton Hill government girls higher secondary school and Government higher secondary school, Avanavanchery. Aspects like the decision to empower existing teachers to handle ICT, instead of bringing outside IT experts to schools to handle computer science, the use of free and open source software, the emphasis on academic perspective and the cost effectiveness were viewed as the major advantages of the model. While most states outsourced digital content through private vendors under the ‘built, own, operate and transfer’ (BOOT) models, the state prepared its own digital content through collaborative content development practices. The model also insisted that computer literacy should be avoided at the primary stage. The IT@schoool devised a special strategy for this. The ICT textbooks in primary school, instead, focused on an approach of getting different skills to kids through various games and interesting exercises. Former executive director of IT@school K. Anvar Sadath, who was the special invitee to two of the sittings of the subcommittee, told DC that some members were skeptical about the feasibility and sustainability of the Kerala model. Following the request from the state, it was decided to host a separate meeting in the state. This helped the state’s cause, he said.