coimbatore in a major push to technologydriven learning the state government has planned to extend the free laptop scheme currently meant for higher secondary and college students to class ix and x students of government and governmentaided schools across the statethe first formal intimation of the proposal was made by education minister k a sengottaiyan in erode on sunday sources at the secretariat said the minister had recently directed the education department officials to prepare a proposal to include students of class ix and x in the free laptop scheme and forward it to the centre for financial approvala pet project of the late chief minister j jayalalithaa the scheme was first introduced in 201112 for class xii students the centre has promised to look into the proposal sengottaiyan told reporters on the sidelines of a pongal gift hamper distribution functionearlier the government had brought class xi students under the scheme more than 38 lakh free laptops have been distributed so far in the statethough the state government is yet to work out the total financial cost of the scheme sources said the government may not incur a huge additional expenditureissues in laptop scheme go well beyond financial burdenan education department officer said if a student gets a laptop in class x there is no need to give them another one in class xi or xii so there may not be a huge financial burden but we are not aware if the government had worked out a clear blueprintfor the year 201718 the government had allotted 758 crore to provide free laptops to 53 lakh students across the state in the current academic year the government had allotted 758 crore for the project according to the policy note of the school education department last month lenovo a computer manufacturing company won the tender to distribute 1566 lakh laptops each at the cost of 10000 plus taxschool education authorities however say more than the financial burden there are other teething issues in the scheme like problems in granting tender sale of laptops in the grey market and poor configuration last year the target for distribution could not be achieved because of jayalalithaas deathout of 530 lakh eligible candidates laptops were issued only to 42000 students last year the announcement means giving laptops to additional 96 lakh students who are studying in class ix and x the official said further the government must clarify if laptops would be given to class ix and x students again when they reach class xi and xii said an officerthe laptop has only basic software even though there is an option to install additional features the storage capacity and speed of the laptop do not support it the laptops could be used only to read or write and nothing else could be done it would be useful for those who are in desperate need of one said r shruthi one of the beneficiarieswith no computer teacher in high schools what is the point of distributing laptops