Shortage of computers, training obstacles to technology-based education in UP state-government schools

It has been a year since the education department brought basic coding, computational thinking, and artificial intelligence (AI) into the curriculum of UP state-government junior high schools (Parishadiya Vidyalayas), and teachers assert that it has been a challenging job to impart technology-based education with the "shortage of computers and lack of proper training for them.".

The idea of technology-based education was floated by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) two years back. Subjects such as coding and AI were included in the science syllabus books of classes 6 to 8 in more than 45,000 schools last year to help more than 50 lakh students.

The move was designed to close the gap between the government schools and the private ones. But it is turning out to be challenging for students who have barely set their eyes on computers. Science teachers in schools bemoan that they are teaching computers without possessing a machine in their institutions.

One of the instructors in Lucknow, who did his Master's in physics, opined: "A mere five-day training course cannot offer us detailed know-how on prime subjects like coding, python and AI."

One other teacher in Mohanlalganj bemoaned: "We are among a few such schools, which don't even have a single computer.we were teaching the children by telling them to visualize a computer. When students inquire about computers, we inform them that whenever they go to a bank or to a railway station, they may see individuals sitting on something and typing on it, which is a computer. How can we even teach these children how to use software.

The training was provided to science teachers by the SCERT in association with some of the top institutions. "The training is a continuous process, and will be held as and when needed," said Ganesh Kumar, director, SCERT.

According to the SCERT books, the students of Class 6 are learning – Computer, MS Paint, MS Word 2016, Step-thinking, Scratch, Python and Intelligence. Chapters covered in Class 7 are – Computer, MS Word, MS Excel, Critical Thinking, computational thinking, Python Tokens and Artificial Intelligence. In addition, students of Class 8 are learning Networking, Cyber Security, MS Word, MS Excel, Coding using Scratch, User Input in Python and Artificial Intelligence.

Provincial president, Prathamik Shikshak Prashikshit Snatak Association UP, Vinay Kumar Singh stated that many government schools don't have computers.

"The introduction of chapters related to computers is an extra workload for teachers. When authorities compel them to deliver these lessons according to a five-day training, it would never have a constructive effect on the learning aspects of students.". When students were forced to try questions based on these subjects last year, they were unable to because even their instructors were not trained on the topic. The subjects may appear great on paper, but the course will only work when all the schools have operational computers, and concurrently, there are new appointments of trained computer teachers. This is the only way students will become digitally literate," Singh stated.

The director of SCERT said additions to the syllabus have been made according to the need of the times. "Though all 45,000 junior high schools have computers, 28,000 of these also have interactive panels. "