Chief secretary JK Mohapatra

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 19: Chief secretary J.K. Mohapatra has instructed the authorities of Odisha Knowledge Corporation Limited (OKCL) and higher education department to design IT literacy courses for secondary schools and Plus Two students.

At a meeting held yesterday, Mohapatra asked OKCL and the higher education department to make arrangements for teaching, learning and conducting exams. He said the joint effort of the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE), Board of Secondary Education and OKCL should jointly award certificates to candidates who successfully complete the course.

“It has been seen that though computer courses have been introduced at the Plus Two level, colleges are not serious about its implementation. It has been decided to make the Odisha State Certificate in Information Technology programme compulsory to make students tech-savvy,” said an officer of higher education department.

The course will include reading and understanding a highly illustrated book, e-learning-based self-learning lessons, hands-on practice sessions, classes by certified professionals and regular assessment.

The chief secretary, who heads the corporation, has also decided that premier universities of the state will be accepted as equity partners in OKCL, which will take up the process of digitisation of the varsities and computerisation work of the CHSE.

OKCL is a public limited company with equity of the Odisha government and Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited.

The corporation plans to take up projects such as “Secured Remote Paper Distribution” to avoid question paper leaks during college exams and prepare question papers for students of engineering and medicine.

The state government has also come up with a proposal to make the course mandatory for recruitment and promotion of government employees. The top bureaucrat has also asked the corporation to work out user-friendly modules for senior citizens to enable them to keep in touch with family staying away from them.