Guwahati, June 3: The Assam government’s most ambitious computer education project will be hooked to Edusat, the country’s first educational satellite, which will be put in orbit next month.

Under the project launched on February 19 this year, nearly five lakh students of Classes V to XII of 630 government higher secondary schools will be imparted free computer education, including high-end lessons to enable them to pursue a career in the information technology sector.

Minister of state for planning and development Himanta Biswa Sarma revealed today that once all the 630 schools are covered under the ‘Rajiv Gandhi computer literacy programme’, students of the state will be able to join the “countrywide classroom” through the Edusat.

Till date, nearly 140 schools have been given computers and two teachers appointed in each of them, enabling them to start classes.

“In the first phase, 200 schools will be covered before August 15. In the next phase, the remaining schools will be brought under the project by the yearend,” Sarma said.

All schools will be provided with a telephone and Internet connection by the end of the year. He added, “Once everything is in place, all the schools will be linked to Edusat. Our students can then be a part of the countrywide classroom”.

The educational satellite, which will be blasted into space by the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh next month, will have five Ku-band transponders for spot beams directed at India’s four corners as well as the Northeast.

The satellite will become fully operational by July.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has asked the northeastern states to improve basic infrastructure in educational institutions to utilise the services of the educational satellite. Assam and Nagaland have already been given a good report card by ISRO at a meeting on March 27 and 28 at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati on the subject of “North Eastern Region Consultation For Edusat”.

The minister added that to combat erratic power supply, Dispur has drawn up a plan to provide generator sets to the schools.

“We will give them the funds for the generators on condition that the schools do not overburden students by hiking their monthly fees for fuel. According to our calculations, a generator will need fuel worth about Rs 2000 per month. At the most, we will allow the authorities to take Rs five from each student per month,” he added.