Karnataka to 'Kindle' students' knowledge, look forward to replace books with Kindle readers

Good news for students in Karnataka! They may not have to carry heavy bags from now on, only if the state gets the bandwidth and the budget to adopt Amazon Kindle in every school. Bogged down by increasing criticism from citizens and activists, the Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait said, "This year we had divided textbooks into two parts to bring down the weight the child carries to school every day. But this wasn’t implemented well."

Sait further added, "This is the reason we want to digitise everything. We have already uploaded our pre-university and school textbooks (of all standards) on the website. Now, we’d like to go a step ahead and see if the government can also adopt the Kindle for reading e-textbooks. A few institutions in the state have partnered with Amazon [which designs and markets the e-reader] and they are already teaching through the device. They had even approached me and informed me about this."

The minister further adds that the government was now working on the budget. He said, " I am sure, we will be able to adopt this soon. This will push the education system in the State two steps ahead."

However, what still needs to be considered is the buying capacity of the students. While government students will be given the kindle from school, cutting down the other sops, private school students will have to buy it themselves. The basic Kindle e-reader, the Paperwhite is available online for Rs 5,999. But the price can go up to Rs 23,999 for the high-end models. 

More than the budget, experts rue that introduction of technology in the conventional means of education will make students addicted. 

• KARNATAKA
• SOUTH