New Delhi, June 11: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today launched the school computerisation programme "vidya vahini" aimed at connecting 60,000 government and its aided schools through Internet and Intranet. "This is the beginning of a good work, we have to take it very far. Science plays an effective role in minimising and ending distance and therefore I say even a village school will now have the capacity of a university if it is run properly," he said launching the programme through video-conferencing. The Prime Minister spoke to Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda, West Bengal IT Minister Manavendra Mukherjee and UP Urban Development and Housing Minister Lalji Tandon about the progress of the IT sector in their states.
Communications and IT Minister Arun Shourie was also present on the occasion.
The programme would provide the schools with computer labs to facilitate it education, access to Internet, online library, academic services, web broadcast and E-learning. The Department of Information Technology has formulated vidya vahini programme and Ministry of Human Resource Development is operating the technological overlay on the existing schemes.
The entire project has been implemented by Ernet India, an autonomous body under the DIT.
The curriculum has been provided by three content providers -- Super Infosoft, Vision Info Solution and JIL Information Technology Ltd. Bureau Report