Computer Aided Learning in School

The SSA has proposed to the state that "information technology, business product outsourcing and software are the sunshine sectors of Goa's economy, which traditionally depends on mining, tourism and related activities. The IT/software sector is intensive in terms of skilled labour. Goa, with its highly literate and dominantly English-speaking population, needs to sharpen its competitive edge in this sector. This industry is also friendly to the fragile ecological conditions of Goa."

 After several years of running the computer literacy programme in schools, the state is set to introduce computer-aided learning programmes for children belonging to the upper primary level from the next academic year. There are 421 upper primary schools in Goa consisting of 61,518 children. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the Directorate of Education (DoE) have proposed to provide computer assisted learning from Std V to VII. While the hardware and the furniture for the purpose will be provided by the DoE, some of which already exists in schools under the department's computer literacy scheme, the salary component of teachers is proposed to be borne by the SSA.

The SSA has therefore proposed to nurture and groom this sector with the provision of computer education and computer aided learning to the students studying in upper primary schools. Sources in the SSA said that they have nearly completed training of key resource persons in computer aided learning programme in English, Mathematics, Science and Social Science. These key resource persons will subsequently train computer teachers involved in the project. Training is expected to be completed by the current academic year and computer-aided learning is set to be implemented from the next academic year.

Each computer teacher will handle a batch of 40 students for theory and practical classes. The computer teacher will also be required to train other teachers working in the respective schools by organizing separate classes once a week. tnn