Connecting schools the IT way

Updated on: Thursday, March 03, 2011

A school student in Kasaragod in the northern end of Kerala working — in real time over the Internet — with a peer in Thiruvananthapuram on a project. A ‘cluster' of schools scattered across the State logging on for a joint classroom activity. The department of education sending Class 10 question papers to schools at one go.

Come April 2011 and all these scenarios may become commonplace in around 4,000 public schools in Kerala that would be part of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) over broadband.

Under a Rs.4-crore deal between the IT@School programme and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the VPN will be created with a 100 Mbps leased lined connection — supported by MLPS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) — with 20 Mbps bandwidth as its backbone.

This facility is being set up under the ICT@School scheme of the Central government, wherein it will bear 75 per cent of the costs involved. BSNL is providing the VPN facility at one-fifth of existing market rates.

The new VPN-based broadband connectivity will be provided to 2,461 High Schools, 1,236 Higher Secondary Schools, 377 Vocational Higher Secondary Schools, 233 Upper Primary Schools, the offices of Deputy Directors, District Educational Officers and Assistant Educational Officers, District Institutes of Educational Technology, and 35 Block Resource Centres in Kerala.

Easy transfer, access

Once the VPN is deployed, schools can easily transfer and access any computer file regardless of its size.

“Hence, activities such as accessing ICT-enabled content, School Wiki, Content Management framework softwares, School Management Systems, Skoool Kerala Portal etc., will be hassle-free from now on,” Anvar Sadath, executive director of the IT@School programme, told The Hindu.

Numerous e-governance applications such as dissemination of SSLC and Higher Secondary results, single window system for admission to Plus One courses, online transfer and posting of teachers, administration of the State Kalolsavam and Sports Meet and of the IT and Science fairs would be made more effective.

“The State Data Center, which is part of this VPN cloud, would enable unlimited data sharing within the institutions at a higher speed without facing any difficulty such as jamming of Internet bandwidth,” Mr. Sadath said.

Faster, flexible

In addition to ensuring high connectivity speeds, the VPN will also allow for encrypted data transfer between institutions in the cloud. Unlike the conventional and expensive dedicated leased line model, the VPN connectivity provided by BSNL to IT@School is faster, easily deployable, and more flexible.

Gateway filter

IT@School will set up a “central gateway filter” to prevent misuse or unauthorised use of the Internet within the VPN. Moreover, all classrooms in the five ‘Smart Schools' in Kerala will be given “wired broadband connectivity,” enabling students, teachers and administrators to access the Internet from anywhere within that institution.

The Smart Schools are: The Government Moyan Memorial Girls Higher Secondary School, Palakkad; the Government Tribal Higher Secondary School, Poomala, in Idukki district; the Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Cotton Hill in Thiruvananthapuram district; the Government Higher Secondary School, Karuvarakundu, in Malappuram district; and the Government Higher Secondary School, South Ezhippuram, in Ernakulam district.

In four schools in Idukki, Kottayam, Kozhikode and Pathanamthitta districts where neither broadband nor WLL connectivity can be set up, arrangements will be made to set up a VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) facility.

“For the first time in the country, all schools in the State were equipped with broadband connectivity by the IT@School programme in 2008 itself, two years ahead of the planned period as decided in the IT Policy of the State government,” Mr. Sadath said.

Connecting schools the IT way

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