``An important part of our exercise would be to impress upon the primary schools the fun element of science. Without science, there will be no engineering. And, without engineering there will be no progress,'' she said.``We must get the present generation to spark off the innovation of the future generation,'' she said.

``But, this can't be done by just giving out computers to primary schools. We have to integrate the latest IT tools in the school curriculum,'' she added.

She said that Intel is working with leading technology education institutions in India like the IITs to develop study material for the primary schools. This ispart of Intel's worldwide education programme. ``We are working with educational institutions worldwide to make the curriculum in schools more compelling for students. We hold competitions for teachers to develop compelling contents. But, don't forget the kids in the development of the contents,'' she said.

Ellis urged the universities in India to play the mentor to primary schools in the country. ``They should develop role-modelling activities,'' she said.To make this happen, Ellis suggested a collaboration between the public, private and academic sectors to develop a framework for spread of state-of-the-art instructional tools across all educational institutions in the country. Intel has already taken a major step in this direction. The organisation has entered into a collaboration with the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development ``to catalyse the effective usage of computer technology in schools in India.''

The objective of this initiative is to determine how a technology supported educationsystem can be effectively implemented in schools in India. The project will also measure the impact of these technologies on the teaching and learning process.

The project has started in three schools selected by the Department of Education, and the plan envisages expansion to two more schools by the end of the year. The three schools are: Kendriya Vidyalaya at Masjid Moth, Delhi; Jawaharlal Navodya Vidyalya in Manpur, Indore, and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Rangareddy, Andhra Pradesh.

The three schools are implementing technology supported learning by using a computer lab. Each school has one computer lab equipped with 10 multimedia computers based on the 450MHz Pentium III processor, 500 hours Internet connection, one printer and one UPS. The project has started with implementation of technology supported learning in class 6 to 9 in all three schools. ``Teachers and students will use the facility during school hours to access information, use of software applications for various and work on availablecourse-ware in select subjects,'' says an Intel release.

While the basic infrastructure and framework are the same in each of these schools, ``we have developed slightly different approaches in each school to evaluate different aspects of the process and determine the most effective ones,'' the release says.

Debjani Ghosh who heads the education wing of Intel in India said at a press conference that plans are afoot to take this initiative to the eastern region of the country.

The most critical element of the project is teacher training. Under this initiative, the subject teachers will be taught to understand and use technology wisely and successfully integrate it into the curriculum. Intel has appointed Schoolnet India Ltd and Edutech Datamatics Ltd for the training of teachers in select schools.

As such, Intel already runs regular teacher training workshops at the two Intel Cyberskools in Mumbai and Delhi to train teachers on using multimedia applications and the Internet to teach regular subjects.``To date we have trained around 3,000 teachers and going forward, we plan to expand the program to cover ten cities by end of 2000 and train a minimum of 10,000 teachers in the year 2000,'' says an Intel release.

``A very encouraging sign is the innovative way in which the teachers are making use of the opportunity. For example, in the Hyderabad school, the music teacher has become one of the most avid users of the computer and has started creating simple presentations for her kids to introduce them to different instruments and their sounds,'' the release says.

Intel also tied up with the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for assisting and advising the Central and state governments on matters related to school education. ``The charter of the centre is to develop educational solutions, with focus on multimedia educational content in Hindi and English and teacher training. The content published by the Centre will be developed with the involvement of subject teachers to ensurethat it is best suited to the educational needs of our schools. The titles will be made available to all schools at subsidised costs,'' Ellis said.

Intel also organises inter-school contests to create awareness about the effective usage of technology in education. As part of this programme, Intel held a contest in December 1998 on development of educational content by schools, and is currently running a contest on the development of comprehensive technology plans by schools. As part of this contest, schools will be required to go through the Intel Technology Planning Guide and develop a plan for their own school. The plan will need to address all aspects of implementing technology in schools like hardware, networking, teacher training and effective integration of computers in the curriculum. The school that develops the best plan will win a Pentium III processor based multimedia based multimedia computer from Intel.

Over 200 schools are participating in the technology plan contest and Intel will publishthe best plans and make them available to all interested schools as a ready reference.

Ellis also said that ``Intel will partner with key manufacturers to reduce the cost of computing,'' says Ellis.

``We are working on the insides of education,'' she said.