The Hindu : Learning made easy for Ashtoor schoolchildren

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 02, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Learning made easy for Ashtoor schoolchildren

By Our Staff Correspondent

BIDAR NOV. 1. Students of the Government Primary School at Ashtoor village in Bidar taluk are being imparted computer-aided education as part of a project funded by the Government and monitored by the Azim Premji Foundation.

The Government has provided five computers to the school, and the villagers have contributed Rs. one lakh towards the implementation of the Rs. five-lakh project. The Government will pay allowances to a computer instructor for a year, and later the local people have to pay him.

The foundation trains instructors, and some teachers in each school in software developed by it. Sharanappa, a third standard student, is eager to attend computer classes on Mondays. "My friends and I play games in the computer,'' he says. His instructor, Ramesh, adds "all our lessons are game-based. This makes learning fun. Children learn their lessons easily if they are taught through audio-visual media.''

Mohammed Patel, resource person, showed how English, Kannada, Hindi, Science, Mathematics, and Social Studies are taught to students. Animation techniques are used to teach these subjects. A team of experts from the foundation has developed CDs that provide information to schoolchildren, he says.

The coordinator of the project, Sripad Vaze, says the project will be extended to 450 schools in the State by April next. The project will be implemented in five schools in each taluk and four taluks in a district will be selected for the purpose. It has been implemented in 225 schools across the State, he says.

The district in-charge Minister, Basavaraj Patil Humnabad, who formally inaugurated the computer centre at the school today, urged the foundation to prevail upon the Government to include schools in other taluks of the district under the project.

He promised to sanction a high school for the village next year.

He said 350 teachers would be appointed in the district soon.

He promised the villagers that he would take steps to build a community hall in the village and provide streetlights.

The member of the Hyderabad-Karnataka Education Society, Basavaraj Patil Ashtur, said he would provide Internet connection to the school.

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