Cyber safety will be prominently included in the revised school curriculum, with focus on effective use of information technology in academic and administrative sectors, Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty has said.
He was speaking after inaugurating through videoconference Amma Ariyan, a training programme in cyber safety for three-lakh mothers through the Little KITEs IT clubs of Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) in 2,000 high schools in the State, at the KITE Victers studio here on Saturday.
The Minister said the training was being conducted as part of the second 100-day programme of the State government. Cyber safety was one of the most important issues in contemporary times, especially as the Internet and information and communications technology had become an integral part of our lives.
Hence, there was need to train students, parents, and the public on cyber safety.
The three-hour training will include five sessions on smart phones, Internet and its safe use, hidden dangers of Internet and cyber attacks, precautions to be taken during online transactions, identifying fake news, and fact checks.
Though the initial target was to train two-lakh women, it was later increased to three lakhs. Though training would be provided to 150 women who register on a first come, first served basis, no cap had been set. Till now, more than two-lakh women had registered for the training. Considering the response to the programme, nearly 10-lakh women and children would be given training this year. It would also be documented on the SchoolWiki portal, Mr. Sivankutty said.
He also released a handbook on cyber safety for female parents.
Digital education
Cyberdome nodal officer and Additional Director General of Police Manoj Abraham, in his address, said parents played an important role in protecting children against cyber crime by educating them about cyber security and the perils of cyber space. Spending quality time with children on a daily basis was important in protecting them from the ills of cyber space, be it addiction, depression when denied access to digital technology, or falling prey to abuse after connecting with the people online. For this, parents needed to be digitally educated so they could be a support for children always.
Kerala Women’s Commission chairperson P. Satheedevi suggested that it was important for mothers to learn how to use digital technology so that they could guide children how to navigate the online space safely and how it could be used positively. Along with rights related to cyber space, the General Education Department could devise apps that could be used to familiarise children and women with laws related to harassment of women, domestic violence, and so on. This could be in the form of cartoons for young children. This was important to create a gender sensitive environment in classroom and school.
KITE chief executive officer K. Anvar Sadath spoke.
