Tamil Nadu government was unable to distribute the full quota of free laptops to students studying in the State-run schools this academic year 2019-2020 due to lockdown, the scheme is now set to be back on track from March 2021. Tamil Nadu state government allocated Rs 950 crore in the 2020-2021 state budget to procure more than five lakh laptops. Due to the Pandemic induced lockdown, government and government-aided schools were closed since March and the procurement and distribution of laptops were stopped.
A senior official from the Special Programme Implementation Department, which monitors the scheme, said, every year, the distribution begins soon after the schools and polytechnic colleges reopen in June. “The distribution will be completed by October so that board exam students in the schools and pupils in government polytechnic college will have enough time to prepare,” he added. He added, “However, it could not be distributed this academic year due to the pandemic. Even the purchase of laptops from multinational companies were delayed since they were not able to supply it due to transportation issues in the lockdown period ".
Due to the reduced Covid 19 cases, government decided to announce an internationally competitive bid to purchase 5.32 lakh laptops. These laptops will be distributed to 5.19 lakh Class 11 students, 11,533 to first-year polytechnic students, 463 differently-abled Class 11 students, and 1,293 Class 12 physically challenged candidates who clear their board exams. From 2011 till 2020, around 51.67 lakh laptops have been distributed free of cost to students at a cost of Rs 7257.61 crore. This year laptop comes with configuration, 2.0 GHz Pentium processor and 500 GB hard disk besides integrated graphics supporting 128 MB VRAM or higher version, Windows 10 pro-national academic edition with one year warranty including battery.
Smart Card attendance for Teachers, Tamil Nadu
Education Minister announcement to recruit 2018 TET batch stirs row, Tamil Nadu
