Register for free Tabs; Edu. Ministry rebuffs social media rumours

The Education Ministry denied the rumours spreading in social media, requesting students to register with the Government to receive free tablet computers (Tab).

The Education Ministry said no such decision was taken by them.  The Cabinet Paper submitted by the Ministry regarding provision of Tabs has been approved as a digital learning aid to make the teaching and learning process of students more efficient and convenient.

Accordingly, the Tabs would be distributed among schoolchildren and teachers from grade 6-11 in rural areas as the first phase and it is already in progress, the Ministry said.

The distribution process of Tabs among schools would be sorted out following a decision by a special committee appointed by the Cabinet Ministers on January 17 this year. 

"Accordingly, steps will be taken to provide Tabs to 1,401 schools for grades 6-11 that would be selected from all provinces of the country in the first phase. This includes 184 national schools and 1,218 provincial schools. In the first phase, 83,086 students and 9,941 teachers in grades 6-11 will be provided with Tabs," the Ministry said.

Steps have been taken to provide 2,578 charging racks as well for this purpose. The user manual has been prepared in view to train the teachers on the usage.

Work is also underway to provide Internet access for these Tabs. We therefore urge the people not to be misled by unauthorised sources and to trust only the official announcements issued by the Education Ministry. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)