"My milkman's daughter has advised him to increase the price of milk after she found out that hotels offered a better price. Very shocked, I asked him where did that kid find out about the current milk prices. He said, 'On the Internet.' Now I am in fix whether to say the Internet is a boon or a bane," said Sudha Murthy, while giving a talk at the Raman Pai Foundation for Computer Training at the St Joseph's Indian High School in the city recently. She was speaking to Government school teachers from city corporation schools and rural areas, who had assembled for the Computer Orientation Workshop for Teachers sponsored by Schoolnetindia and Learning Society.

She was emphasizing the need of giving computer education to common people, mainly students in this fast evolving world. Though computers are being extensively used in urban and industrialized sectors, it is yet to make inroads into lives of common people. If we impart computer education to the teachers of rural schools, nearly 17 lakh children will be benefited. The majority of the population should be educated and understand the importance of computers. Then only can we really make our country a real infotech superpower, she opined.

1000 school teachers have been shortlisted by the Dept of Primary Education for this orientation workshop being held for Bangalore urban and rural districts. Learning Society, a group of software engineers headed by Mohandas Pai, funded this programme of computer education, which was given completely free. Schoolnetindia, a website for learning, provided the teaching material. This two day orientation was about taking the teachers past the initial barrier of understanding the basic structure. This programme is now being extended to rural areas in Mangalore and Haliyal. The Mundgod school, run b St Joeph's trust, is exclusively for tribals in Haliyal and nearby places.

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