Where The Promise Of A Free Computer is An Incentive To Study

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Ask any high school student in Assam what his or her immediate aim is, and the usual reply is securing 60 per cent in HSLC, as the Class X final is called, so that he or she also wins a free laptop from the government.

Introduced by the state government in 2005, and named after Anundoram Borooah, the first Assamese and fourth Indian officer in the Indian Civil Service of the British era, the scheme has so far touched 1.11 lakh students across the state. And it has also helped students change their outlook to life, says a recent study.

“No other state in the country has taken up such a scheme. This has brought about a sea change not just in education, but also in the society as a whole,” says Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who had envisaged this scheme during his tenure as IT minister.

The Anundoram Borooah Award with a free computer is given to every student securing 60 per cent in the high school finals under state boards (including the State Madrasa Board and State Sanskrit Board). The number of winners has gone up from 12,756 in 2005 to 19,540 this year. “The government spent Rs 25 crore in the first year. But with laptops being given instead of desktop computers since last year, the expenditure has risen to Rs 52 crore this year,” Sarma said.

The study has related three trends to this scheme — a considerable increase in the number of first-division scorers, students becoming IT-friendly and getting encouraged to opt for science courses, and, most importantly, better societal recognition of girl students.

“With 43 per cent of the laptop winners being girls, recognition for the girl awardee has been a major positive factor among families and has helped improve societal attitudes to educating women,” says the study by tech@edu, a Delhi-based group . “What is more encouraging is that the proportion of female awardees has witnessed growth by two per cent over the past five years.”

The study has found that 58 per cent of the recipients are from households with income below Rs 15,000 per month, and 37 per cent from households earning between Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000. “This highlights the fact that majority of the beneficiaries of the award may not be otherwise able to purchase PCs that are priced at more than a month’s household income for them,” it says,

The scheme, the study claims, has also increased a recipient’s social standing among peers. “This has been especially relevant for the standing of the girl awardees. Over 77 per cent of the recipients feel that the award helps in enhancing the standing of the girl students in society. This was corroborated with a large majority of 86 per cent of the girl awardees stating so,” the report said.

A number of students, however, have sold off their computers for reasons such as their family’s financial problems. The majority of these households earn less than Rs, 5,000 per month, the report says.

In a number of cases, the computers, especially the desktops given till 2009, are lying in the students’ homes because it is not possible to take them along to a hostel. “That too has a positive side; it has been helpful in exposing parents and siblings to technology. With laptops, however, things have changed,” the report says.