Delhi govt to provide free laptops to 1,200 meritorious students; set up ICT labs in 175 schools

NEW DELHI: Delhi government on Tuesday decided to provide free i7 laptops to 1,200 meritorious students who have passed Class 10 with good marks, and set up ICT labs in 175 schools run by it, Education Minister Ashish Sood said. Addressing a press conference, Sood said these "historic" decisions were taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.

Under the Mukhya Mantri Digital Education Scheme , i7 laptops will be given to students of Delhi government schools who scored good marks in Class 10 exams. The move will fulfil their future digital education needs aligned with the National Education Policy, the minister said. The scheme will incur an expenditure of Rs 8 crore, he added. Sood also took a dig at the previous AAP government's claim of "education revolution", saying not one of the 1,074 government schools had any functional computer labs.

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CBSE-standard labs to feature 40 computers each

He said the Cabinet meeting chaired by the chief minister has decided to set up Information and Communication Technology (ICT) labs in 175 schools in the current session. Each ICT lab set up following the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) parameters will have 40 computers, Sood said. The education minister said that recently, Delhi government inked an MoU with a private organisation to set up 100 ICT labs in 100 government schools under the corporate social responsibility scheme.

Sood also claimed that the previous AAP regime did not set up a single computer lab in schools and could not run even those built under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan. Computer labs were set up at 907 government schools from 2015 to 2019 during the AAP rule in Delhi, with funds provided by the Centre under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan. However, all these labs remained non functional, Sood claimed. The minister also announced that an orientation programme will be held at all the Sarvodaya Vidyalayas under Delhi government on Wednesday for students of nursery to Class I and their parents.