Goa govt. to conduct IT literacy and penetration survey

GOA: In what may be the first attempt in the country, Goa government has embarked on a massive exercise to conduct an IT literacy survey as a part of the larger education survey throughout the state. The IT literacy survey is part of a larger comprehensive education survey being conducted by the state government for the first time to ascertain quality of education.






All families in the state will be covered in the survey, which is expected to be complete by May end.





Information like computer penetration, computer literacy and the access to Internet and its use is being compiled through this survey. The survey is expected shed a new light on the IT penetration in the state, which according to some reports is one of the highest in the country.





The Cyberage Scheme, launched by the previous government led by technocrat chief minister Manohar Parrikar, is largely responsible for increasing the IT penetration in the state. Over 30,000 computers have been distributed to the students above Standard X including the students of professional colleges and technical institutes at a negligible cost during last three years.





The scheme has been continued even during the Governor's Rule and the process of distributing another 10,000 computers to the XI standard students has began with the tenders being floated to procure computers from the private parties.





The survey also attempts to collect feedback from the beneficiaries of this scheme to help the government to understand whether this scheme is serving its purpose and whether a review is required to make the scheme more effective.