Thiruvananthapuram: Nearly 1.5 million students of class 8 to 10 in government schools in Kerala will have an email id. The students will also be trained in using the internet.

While students of Class 8 and 9 will undergo five hours of compulsory internet classes in a year, students in Class X will get 10 hours of internet training, according to guidelines of the state education department.

Education Minister M.A. Baby told sources that this has been made possible with the help of the central government.

State promoted 'IT @ School' project will implement the programme which will come into effect from this academic year itself.

"This scheme would be open to government aided schools and recognized unaided private schools, but they would have to bear the cost. For the government schools, it would be free of cost," Baby said.