THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: High school students of the city’s Government Girls HSS, Cotton Hill, can now draw not just ‘old-fashioned’ paper books but PCs too from their school library. As many as 150 Intel Classmate PCs, donated by Intel Corporation, were distributed on Tuesday to the students under the Smart School initiative of the IT@School Project. Cotton Hill had gone tech-savvy two years ago when it was declared an ICT Smart School. Now, by providing access to Intel Classmate PCs, the idea is to acquaint each student with the vast possibilities offered by Information Technology, IT@School officials said. Most students lack a personal computer at home, a situation that hampers their experience with information and communication technology (ICT). The Classmate PCs will help them overcome this handicap.The big attraction about the project is that students get to take the PCs home after class hours. As the number of PCs is limited, they will be rotated among the various divisions. ‘’On Tuesday, the laptops were distributed to the students of 8-A. Next week, the students of 8-B will get them, and so on,’’ K K Sajeev, the district co-ordinator of IT@School project, said. Operating on Ubuntu, a free software, the PCs, however, lack internet connection, which prevents the possibility of misuse. The handy computers come in leather cases and are hardy enough to withstand rough treatment - at a reasonable level, of course, according to IT@School Project officials.At Cotton Hill, IT training is not confined to the computer lab alone, but it spills over to the classrooms also, where regular subjects can be taught with ICT facilities, IT@school officials said. IT@School executive director Anwar Sadath inaugurated the distribution of the Classmate PCs. Ward councillor K Suresh Kumar presided over the function. IT@School district coordinator K K Sajeev, PTA president Dr K S Sivakumar, master trainer coordinator S Jayasree and principal Mary Sislet were present.
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