The Indian Express         27.11.2013

AMC school board goes tech-savvy, e-mails set to replace postal mails

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation School board opened email accounts for 456 of its school heads on Monday even as the Internet facility is yet to reach these schools. According to the authorities, the e-mail scheme has been launched for real-time communication in place of postal mails or sending and receiving information by hand. Apart from routine matters, circulars and policy documents will also be communicated through e-mails. "In recent years, we have witnessed a lot of communication gap as relevant information could not reach schools or vice versa on time. With this service, all school heads and teachers will have instant information released from the school board," said AMC school board chairman Jagdish Bhavsar.

However, it remains to be seen how many takers will the proposal have as few school heads are Internet-savvy and can access e-mails. "Leave alone heads, I am not sure how many students in our school know how to use Internet as we hardly have this facility in our school. The students in municipal schools are from economically weaker sections who hardly have computers or Internet at home," revealed a school head at the municipal school in Vadaj.

With an aim to make its staff, teachers and students computer-savvy, AMC school board had launched its official website last year. Though the website's pages are still being developed, it started by uploading important announcements by the board and Education Department.

With the introduction of Computer Science as a subject since previous academic session, it was proposed to connect all schools to Internet. "Shala Telephone Internet Vayudoot Suvidha" was launched to provide Internet to all municipal schools. The project was aimed at keeping students abreast with Internet and technology updates. The move is being seen as an attempt to compete with private schools. However, there are questions being raised on the validity of the move as several municipal schools lack even the basic infrastructure.