The Wired Internet Scheme for Information and Communication Technology Laboratory in Schools in the State of Goa

What is the Wired Internet Scheme for school ICT laboratories in Goa?

The Wired Internet Scheme for Information and Communication Technology Laboratory in Schools in the State of Goa is a state scheme that pays a school's internet bill for its computer lab. It was constituted by the Government of Goa and published in the Official Gazette on 13 July 2023, Series I, No. 15, and is administered by the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) at Alto-Porvorim.

The scheme envisages the grant of monthly rental reimbursement to avail internet services from a local internet services provider for the ICT laboratory of a school. Its stated aim is to provide internet services to schools' ICT laboratories so as to promulgate enhanced learning; internet services provide learning tools and access to MOOC platforms, towards developing the digital, computational and other related skills students need.

The gap the scheme fills

Goa has spent years putting computers into schools. A computer lab without a working connection, though, is a room of offline machines: no MOOC, no reference material, no cloud tools, no online assessment. The recurring monthly rental is a small line item that a Government-Aided school's budget often could not absorb, and the lab would sit disconnected for want of a few hundred rupees a month. This scheme converts that recurring cost into a reimbursable one.

Who is eligible for the Wired Internet Scheme?

Eligible institutions are:

• All Government Schools under the Directorate of Education, Government of Goa.
• All Government-Aided Schools under the Directorate of Education, Government of Goa.

The school must have a functioning ICT laboratory, since the scheme reimburses the internet connection for that laboratory specifically.

Who cannot apply:

• Private unaided schools. The published eligibility is confined to Government and Government-Aided schools under the Directorate of Education. An unaided private school in Goa is not eligible.
• Individual students, parents or teachers. This is an institutional scheme. It provides no personal benefit and no individual can apply for a home internet connection under it.
• Schools without an ICT laboratory. The scheme is tied to the lab. A school seeking to build one should approach the Directorate of Education about ICT infrastructure support rather than this scheme.
• Colleges, higher education institutions and technical institutes. The scheme covers schools under the Directorate of Education. Higher education institutions in Goa have separate routes through the Directorate of Higher Education.
• Schools claiming the same internet rental under another government scheme for the same period, which would amount to double reimbursement of a single bill.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Wired Internet Scheme

1. Confirm the school's eligibility. Establish that the school is a Government or Government-Aided school under the Directorate of Education, Government of Goa, and that it has a functioning ICT laboratory.
2. Take a connection from a local internet services provider. The scheme is framed around availing internet services from a local ISP for the ICT lab. Keep the service agreement, the plan details and the monthly tariff on record.
3. Obtain the prescribed application form and the current reimbursement ceiling from the Directorate of Technical Education, DTE Building, Alto-Porvorim, Bardez, Goa 403521, on 0832-2413571. Confirm the ceiling before selecting a plan. A plan above the ceiling leaves the school paying the difference.
4. Complete the application with the school's details, the ICT lab details, the ISP agreement and the monthly rental amount, signed by the Head of Institution.
5. Route the application through the Directorate of Education channel to the Directorate of Technical Education, along with the invoices and payment proof for the period claimed and the school's bank account details.
6. Claim monthly, and keep the file continuous. Because the benefit is a monthly rental reimbursement, retain every invoice and payment record and submit claims on the cycle the Directorate specifies rather than allowing a backlog to accumulate.
7. Follow up on the sanction. Reimbursement is credited to the school's bank account against the sanctioned claim.

What the scheme does not cover

The Wired Internet Scheme reimburses rental. It is worth being clear about what falls outside that:

• Purchase of computers, servers, networking hardware or lab furniture.
• Installation and one-time connection charges, unless the Directorate's notification treats them as part of the admissible rental.
• Mobile data or dongles for teachers, since the scheme is framed around a wired connection for the laboratory.
• Internet for the school office or staff room rather than the ICT lab.
• Software licences and subscriptions, which are a separate cost head.

A school that needs lab equipment rather than connectivity is looking at ICT infrastructure provisioning through the Directorate of Education and the centrally supported ICT component of Samagra Shiksha, not at this scheme.

Where this scheme sits in Goa's school technology programme

Goa has run a sequence of school technology initiatives, and the Wired Internet Scheme is the connectivity leg of that effort rather than a standalone programme. The Directorate of Technical Education also administers "Mhaji Lab, Bari Lab", the Goa State scheme listed alongside it on the state's CARES portal, and the Department of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications runs the state's wider digital infrastructure and AI mission work.

For a school administrator, the practical division is:

Common reasons a claim stalls

• School not under the Directorate of Education, for example an unaided private school applying in good faith.
• No functioning ICT laboratory to connect, or the lab is not in use.
• Internet taken in an individual's name rather than the school's, so the invoice does not establish an institutional expense.
• Invoices without payment proof, or payment proof that does not match the invoice amounts.
• Claim for a plan above the sanctioned ceiling, where the excess is not separated out.
• Backlogged claims submitted many months late, which complicate verification against the financial year.
• Bank details in the Head of Institution's name rather than the school's account.

Key dates

• 13 July 2023, The Wired Internet Scheme for ICT Laboratory in Schools in the State of Goa published in the Official Gazette, Series I, No. 15.

No annual last date has been announced. The scheme is a rolling monthly reimbursement, so a school that is eligible can enter it at any point in the year.

Whom to contact

• Directorate of Technical Education, Government of Goa DTE Building, Alto-Porvorim, Bardez, Goa 403521 Telephone: 0832-2413571 Fax: 0832-2413572 Office hours: 9:30 AM to 5:45 PM IST, Monday to Friday
• CARES portal administration: cares-admin@goa.gov.in
• CARES technical support: pmu.admin@goa.gov.in
• Directorate of Education, Government of Goa: education.goa.gov.in

A note on the ceiling: the publicly available scheme summaries confirm that the benefit is a monthly rental reimbursement but do not carry the rupee ceiling. Any school planning its internet plan around this scheme should get the current sanctioned rate in writing from the Directorate of Technical Education before signing an ISP contract, rather than relying on a secondary listing; including this one.

How to check your application status

The Wired Internet Scheme runs as an offline, departmental reimbursement process, so there is no online tracking portal or application ID to look up. A school checks progress through direct follow-up with the office that sanctions the claim:

1. Contact the Directorate of Technical Education directly. Call the DTE office at Alto-Porvorim on 0832-2413571 and ask about the status of the reimbursement claim, quoting the school's name, the date the application or claim was submitted, and the period the claim covers.
2. Confirm the claim reached DTE, not just the Directorate of Education. Because the application is routed through the Directorate of Education channel before it reaches the Directorate of Technical Education, a Head of Institution should first verify with the school's own Education Directorate contact that the file was forwarded, before assuming DTE has received it.
3. Ask for the sanction reference for that claim cycle, if one has been issued. Since claims are typically processed on a monthly or periodic cycle, the Head of Institution should ask which cycle a given claim has been picked up in, rather than expecting a single running status for the scheme as a whole.
4. Check the school's bank account for the credited reimbursement. Because the benefit is paid directly into the school's bank account against a sanctioned claim, a credit entry matching the claimed rental amount is the clearest confirmation that a particular month's claim has been approved and paid.
5. Follow up in writing if a claim is pending beyond a couple of cycles. A written reminder addressed to the Directorate of Technical Education, referencing the invoice numbers and the dates of submission, creates a paper trail that is useful if the claim needs to be escalated.
6. Watch the CARES portal page for the scheme at cares.goa.gov.in for any updated process notes or revised reimbursement ceilings, since state departments periodically update these listings even where the claim itself is filed offline.

Because this is an institutional reimbursement rather than an individual benefit, only the Head of Institution or the person designated by the school to handle the claim should pursue status queries with the Directorate, rather than individual teachers or parents.