Objectives of the Company
1. To foster, promote and implement modernization of educational institutions in the State of Kerala, owned by the state or run under the aid of Government, through providing infrastructure including Information & Communication Technology Infrastructure, Capacity Building, Content Development, Connectivity, e-learning, satellite based education, support and maintenance mechanism, E-Governance or other related
2. To implement up gradation of the Government sector educational institutions on par with international standards in terms of infrastructure, facilities, resources, curriculum, pedagogy etc.
3. To formulate and implement projects for the use of information and communication technology as a tool for the improvement of the education quality in the State of Kerala.
4. To act as advisor or consultant to the government and private sector in improving education quality through information and communication technology.
Erstwhile IT@School project formed in 2001-02 to fuel ICT enabled education in the schools in the State, KITE was transformed into a Company in August 2017. KITE is the first Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Company of the Education Department of the State. It is 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 1.50 Lakh teachers and over 50 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 SchoolWiki which connects 15,000 schools for collaborative content development process. A major highlight was the ‘Little KITEs IT Clubs’ programme under which over 1 lakh students are being provided specialized trainings in 5 different areas such as Animation, Cyber Safety, Hardware, Electronics, Malayalam computing, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics etc. Through the transformation to a full-fledged Company under the Government, KITE has now more scope and authority for implementing various ICT programmes, when compared to the earlier Project mode of operation. During the recent years, KITE has successfully implemented the Rs.493 Cr Hi-Tech school Project in 4752 Secondary schools and Rs.292 Cr Hi-Tech Lab Project in 9941 Primary schools. 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.