Hyderabad has been known as the cyber city & the hub for Information & Communication Technology (ICT) and Research. The impact of ICT has been profoundly visible across various domains such as education, health, industry and defence. In the domain of education, especially in the school education sector, with the surge in communication and technological innovations, newer and better educational practices, pedagogy and learning approaches have come into play, which has made classroom teachings more interesting and exciting for students and teachers alike.
While, on the one hand, the city boasts off its new found status of being the ‘cyber city’, on the other it faces the rampant challenges of arresting the drop out rates of the school students, encouraging differently abled students, promoting the girl child education, etc. The new educational technologies, without replacing the teachers, have become a supplementing tool for teachers to use, in their effort to reach students in the classroom. It has also become a means by which students learn outside the classroom. Technology is not only being used in formal education, but also in the non-formal education sector to bring out-of-school children back into the education fold.
As part of our ongoing effort of advocating the use of ICTs in school education, we bring to you a special issue on K-12@Hyderabad: From the Principals’ Desk, where the principals have shared their experience of implementing ICTs in their school activities, curriculum, administrative tasks, evaluation process and how they have engaged the students with the help of ICTs, etc. We observed in our study that while there are schools that are far ahead in their understanding of technology enhanced learning and have effectively incorporated ICTs in the school curriculum, there are still a majority of them where ICT is in its nascent stage.
We will take this endeavour further through a special Conclave of School Principals along side eINDIA 2009 Conference and Exhibition, at Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad, India, which will bring together school principals from across India and which will witness a spectrum of views and debate on the current role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in school education along with the challenges, opportunities and expectations that it poses. As we understand, applying new ideas of technology to education would also help it in creating a key for the communities of higher education and industry players, eINDIA 2009 will provide similar platform of congregation of University and the Industry Leaders through such Conclaves. We invite all of you to join us in our endeavour and help us making it a success.
See You at C!
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are residential schools intended to provide modern quality education to the rural children in the country. V Nageswararao, Deputy Commissioner, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), discusses the trends and future prospects of JNV schools in the field of technology integration. 
