Google is offering free Chromebooks to four schools in India under its global initiative of increasing laptop adoption in the education sector. The initiative is at the initial stages in India as only four schools in Andhra Pradesh are being offered the free Chromebooks.
The Chromebooks in education initiative is being offered by Google in over 3000 schools in US, Malaysia and Singapore and it has now reached India. Google is offering 25 Chromebooks to each of these schools and it will train the teachers and instructors alike to use the applications available in Chromebooks. The project will benefit students of class 9th and 10th.
This project is called the pilot project and it is being offered by Google along with Andhra Pradesh’ department of information technology and the project will start next month in three government schools and one private school in Jangaon in Warangal district of A.P. The government is in discussion with Google to spread the project in other parts as well.
Since Chromebooks are basically useless without an internet connection, the IT department will offer WiFi internet connectivity with 1 Mbps speed. A spokeswoman from the company said, “Google aims to increase access to information and knowledge for all students, and encourages tools that support effective teaching and learning in the classroom, but we have nothing to announce at this time.”
Google is trying hard to get its Chromebooks some traction in India and these schemes might well make Chromebooks a household name but its still a long way to go.