Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Dec 20, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Dec 20, 2005 |
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Info-Tech
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IT Training Industry & Economy - Education NIIT, catalyst in rural schooling transformation V. Rishi Kumar
Vijayawada , Dec. 19 CHILDREN of families below the poverty line, who study in remote residential and day schools, are a transformed lot thanks to computers. After three years of computer training, they now can design Web pages, make slide presentations and create e-mail IDs for their teachers as also their personal profiles. The irony is that they do not know whom to send mails to. The residential school located at Puligadda, about 90 km from Vijayawada, recorded 100 per cent results in the SSC. It is one of the 4000-plus schools across several States, which have success stories to narrate. NIIT Ltd, the IT training services provider, has partnered with State governments to manage computer centres under the BOOT (build, own operate and transfer) mode. Mahesh, a class X student who has had exposure to computers over the last three years says, "I want to become an engineer." Most of his classmates believe that computers are their future. Following the introduction of computers in another State-run school near Vijayawada, the enrolment has doubled in the last three years. Students from other classes too want to handle computers. The NIIT Zonal Manager, Mr K. Rajendra Prasad, told visiting correspondents, "If this is what one can achieve in three to five years of setting up computer labs in schools, look at the long-term impact these schools will have on moulding their careers." NIIT handles 663 schools of the 1,000-school project initiated by the Andhra Pradesh Government, spread across 15 districts. This is part of the computer literacy project taken up with State governments based on the public-private participatory model. Tamil Nadu was the first State to partner NIIT to initiate this project in 1999 with 371 schools, followed by Karnataka (700 schools), West Bengal (98), Andhra Pradesh (663), Assam (570), Himachal Pradesh (210), Meghalaya (36), Chattisgarh (1202) and Tripura (20). In all, about 1.4 million students get trained in computer basics right from Class IV to X. As part of this project, 7,000 teachers have been trained. Following the success of computer literacy project in various States, NIIT is now in parleys with State governments to replicate similar initiatives. In States where the project is already being implemented, the effort would be to broaden its scope. In others, the focus is to take up new projects. The NIIT Senior Vice-President, Mrs Sudha Raju, said: "We are in the process of participating in some of the tenders for the new projects and expect to broaden the scope of the schools project. The success stories speak for themselves — how they have transformed students in some of the remote parts of the State, where there are barely any roads. Though this is a small step towards bridging digital divide, many States are enthusiastic and keen to take to this project."
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