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Andhra Pradesh has become the first state in India to offer computer education to all its school students.

In December 2004, the Indian government launched its ICT in Schools Scheme to provide access to computer education to secondary school students across the country. The scheme aims to provide computers in all government schools by the end of 2012.

The Andhra Pradesh government has 5000 schools, with 1.8 million students. The state will install 50,000 seats in these schools, using a platform developed by US-based Ncomputing. It deploys a single processing unit, with seven users. The government estimates each seat will cost $70.

The units run Microsoft Windows Server and are installed with Microsoft Office.

Teachers will be trained in the use of the technology by private educational contractors under a five year contract. At the end of that time, teachers will be expected to manage their own programs.

There are about 80,000 government schools spread across India. Some 20,000 schools have already set up computer laboratories, while the remaining are targeting to provide computing access to middle and higher secondary students by 2012.

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