Org starts digital skill plan for Chitradurga rural kids

CHITRADURGA: Eager to familiarise students of government schools in villages with digital technology, the Shikshana Foundation, along with Samagra Shikshana Karnataka, has launched the Foundation Literacy and Numeracy programme in Chitradurga.
The initiative is being experimented in Chitradurga as a pilot project, with Mindtree Foundation offering assistance to promote the goals of National Education Policy-2020.
Assistant general manager of Shikshana Foundation, Bengaluru, Ashwathanarayana said that the outfit was excited to launch the initiative in Chitradurga.
Chief operating officer of the foundation, Lieutenant Sunil said the programme had a two-fold objective, one of which was to improve the students' proficiency in language, while enhancing their skills with numbers was the other. "More than 61,000 students in schools across six taluks of Chitradurga are slated to benefit from this initiative," he said.
Mindtree Foundation has donated 100 computers to 20 higher primary schools in the district to help children grow conversant with digital technology, said Shikshana Foundation Chitradurga district coordinator, Gurupadappa Shirabadagi. "We will also provide students mathematics, English and Kannada workbooks to help them better understand these objects," Shirabadagi said.
The foundation has installed an app, Shikshana Technology in Education Programme (STEP), in all the computers donated to the schools, he added. "We have also equipped the systems with something called 'shikshanapedia', which includes videos, pictures, and project-based learning. Students can download videos, which can help them revise what they have learnt in the classrooms," said Shirabadagi, adding that software tools such as MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, et al, had been installed on computers, to ensure the children became familiar with these everyday digital instruments.
The foundation will also evaluate the workbooks to ensure continuous assessment of the students, he added.
Mindtree Foundation representatives, Deepak Prabhu Matti, and Lalitha Holla said that, they would gauge the students' progress, and decide on extending the initiative to other districts of the state.
Principal of District Institute for Education and Training, Chitradurga, SKB Prasad said that he was overwhelmed with the assistance offered by Mindtree, and the foundations. "We have extended our support to all these organisations, which are seeking to help our rural children," Prasad said.