Free laptop scheme for the govt school students to start once again in TN
Posted on: 25/Dec/2020 9:26:31 AM - No. of views : (4104)
In the academic year 2019-2020, the government of TN was not able to distribute free laptops for the students studying in the government as well as government aided schools due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Now from March 2021, this free distribution of laptops would start once again.
It has been decided in the 2020-21 TN state budget that an amount of Rs 950 crores would be spent to procure more than 5 lakh laptops for the students. The number of Covid-19 cases increased in TN from March onwards and due to this reason the government and government aided schools in TN were closed. Truth is that the procurement and distribution of laptops were not carried out for the students.
This free distribution of laptops scheme is being monitored by a Special Programme Implementation Department. It was mentioned by a senior official belonging to this department that every year distribution of laptops took place soon after the schools and polytechnics were reopened in June month. He revealed that the distribution of laptops would be completed in October normally so that the board examination students in the schools and polytechnic students would have sufficient time to prepare for their exams. He spoke about how the Coronavirus pandemic has created many issues and how the distribution of laptops could not be done in this academic year.
Transportation issues and 5.3 lakhs computers procurement:
The transportation issues in the lockdown period have been cited as the reason for the delay in the procurement of the laptops from the multinational companies. The TN government has floated an internationally competitive bid to procure 5.31 lakh laptops.
Who all will get free laptops?
The free laptops would be distributed to 5.19 lakhs students belonging to class 11, as many as 11533 laptops to be distributed to the first year polytechnic students, 463 laptops to be given to differently able students of class 11 and 1293 laptops would be given to physically challenged students of class 12 in TN. Information is that the students who have cleared the board examinations would get the free laptops.
Important details about laptops:
It is said that these laptops would come with 2.0 GHz Pentium processor and 500 GB hard disk plus integrating graphics supporting 128MB VRAM of higher version. It is worthy to note here that each laptop would be Windows 10-pro national academic edition and would have a warranty period of 1 year including battery.
