About Us

KITE (Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education)  is a Govt of Kerala enterprise set up to foster, promote and implement modernisation of educational institutions in the State of Kerala, owned by the State or run under the aid of Government. KITE is registered as a Section 8 Company, by transforming the erstwhile  IT@School Project , which revolutionised the education system of the State. An Infrastructure division has also been set-up under KITE for upgrading the infrastructural facilities in schools. The spectrum of KITE includes Information & Communication Technology, Capacity Building, Content Development, Connectivity, e- Learning, Satellite based education, Support and Maintenance mechanism, e- Governance or other related activities. Set-up as IT@School project in 2001-02, KITE was transformed as a fully State Govt owned company in 2017. Throughout its two-decade long operations, KITE has implemented numerous ICT initiatives in the State such as ICT@School scheme, Hi-Tech School Project, Hi-Tech Lab project, Robotic and AI training, AI training for Public, KITE VICTERS educational channel, to name a few. Over 43 lakh students and 1.7 lakh teachers stand benefited through the initiatives of KITE.

Presently, KITE is governed by a five-member Board of Directors, which includes the Secretary, General Education Department (serving as the Chairperson), the CEO of KITE, the Additional Secretary from the Department of IT, and Additional Secretary from the Department of Finance.KITE was set-up as IT@School project during 2001-02 to fuel ICT enabled education in the schools in the State. This is as per the recommendation in the IT in Education Vision Document published by the IT Task Force headed by Prof.U.R.Rao as Chairman, to implement a time-bound project for phase wise introduction of Information Technology into school curriculum.

In August 2017, IT@School was transformed into a Company fully owned by Government of Kerala. KITE is the first Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Company of the Education Department of the State and also the first SPV to get funded by Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), the apex body for monitoring all the projects envisaged by the Govt. The scope of KITE has also been extended to the Higher Education sector also to fuel ICT support to Arts & Science colleges, Engineering colleges and Universities.

The core objective of KITE was to inculcate ICT enabled activities in over 16000 schools in the State. The first breakthrough of the unique initiative came in 2005 when Information Technology was made a compulsory subject in Std 10. The launch of EDUSAT operations and broadband connectivity to schools commenced since then, the VICTERS channel under KITE was setup in 2005 and it is the first Complete Educational Channel in the Country. By effectively making use of the Centrally sponsored ‘ICT at School ‘scheme, KITE provided ICT infrastructure to 4071 schools during 2007- 2012. In 2016, the ICT intervention in Lower Primary and Upper Primary sections was reinitiated, by launching exclusive ICT Textbooks viz; Kalipetti (for Std 1 to 4) and e@Vidya (for Std 5 to 7). As many as 1.70 Lakh teachers and 43 lakh students stand benefited through the ICT initiatives by KITE every year, enabling the teachers to transact their subjects more effectively using ICT tools and also equipping the students to learn various subjects with ease by using ICT.

KITE amply supplements the State Government’s Public Education Rejuvenation Mission (Pothu Vidyabhyasa Samrakshana Yagnam) with initiatives such as Samagra Content Portal, Sampoorna School Management software and School Wiki which connects 15,000 schools for collaborative content development process. A major highlight was the ‘Little KITEs IT Clubs’ programme under which over 1.80 lakh students are being provided specialized trainings in different areas such as Animation, Cyber Safety, Hardware, Electronics, Malayalam computing, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics etc.

KITE has pioneered the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Education. KITE has developed its of FOSS based Operating System which is being used in all schools. The use of FOSS not only enabled unrestricted editing and sharing of educational content among teachers and students but also effects in huge savings for the State Exchequer.

During the recent years, KITE has successfully implemented the largest ICT projects in Education in the Country, the Rs.493 Cr Hi-Tech school Project in 4752 Secondary schools (Class 8 to 12) and Rs.292 Cr Hi-Tech Lab Project in 11257 Primary schools (Class 1 to 7). As part of the Hi-Tech school project, 45000 classrooms of Std 8 to 12 in 4752 Govt and Aided schools in the State have been made Hi-Tech. Hi-Tech Labs featuring ICT equipments were set-up in 11257 Lower Primary and Upper Primary schools. Through these KIIFB funded projects, a total of 1,36,878 ICT equipments comprising of Laptops, Projectors, USB speakers, DSLR Camera, LED Televisions, Full HD Webcams and Multi-function Printers were deployed to schools along with broadband internet connectivity. KITE has also setup support systems such as Call Center and Web portal for effective complaint management from schools. All the equipment has 5-year warranty, beyond which Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) support is also facilitated by KITE. Some of the major initiatives of KITE includes KOOL (KITE’s Open Online Learning) training platform for teachers, E-Cube (E3) Language Lab program, Sahitham Mentoring portal, eWaste disposal from schools, deployment of Robotic Kits to schools, Artificial Intelligence (AI) training for teachers and public etc. More details on KITE can be seen in the Presentation of KITE available under the ‘Services’ tab.