The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : It is a dream come true for them

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 01, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

It is a dream come true for them

Staff Reporter

Students of government school find computer operation exciting

Enthusiastic: Joe Pon, vice-president of Corporate and Community Affairs, Applied Materials, at the Government High School at Kadabagere in Bangalore on Wednesday.

BANGALORE: “Till now, I had seen computers only on the television. Now, I can operate the computer and also draw pictures using the mouse in my school. It is a dream come true for me,” said Divyashree, a ninth standard student of the Government High School at Kadabagere, off Magadi Road in Bangalore.

Dinesh K. and Naveen Kumar S., students of ninth and tenth standards, respectively, do not want to miss school.

Trek

“We have to trek three km to reach our school from Kitenahalli and Machohalli where we stay. We do not want to stay away from school because we will miss our computer classes, which we enjoy,” Dinesh said.

These three children along with the remaining 470 students of the school feel they are in no way inferior to students of private schools.

“We have 12 computers in our school and our computer instructor is teaching us the basic concepts of animation now. It is really thrilling to use the computer,” Chitra Kumari, another student, said.

Divide

To bridge the digital and educational divide between private and government schools, Applied Materials in association with American India Foundation has come out with a programme called ‘Digital equaliser for underprivileged schoolchildren,’ across Karnataka. Of the 74 government schools that are part of this programme, the Kadabagere Government High School is one.

Unique

The programme is unique in this school because the computer laboratory here is completely run on solar power. “As the power supply to this village is very erratic with frequent fluctuations, Applied Materials has installed a solar-enabled digital equaliser centre in the school. The frequent power cuts will not come in the way of students working on a computer,” P. Radha, school principal, said.

Joe Pon, vice-president of Corporate and Community Affairs, Applied Materials, inaugurated the centre at the school on Wednesday.

Objective

Speaking on the occasion, he said that the objective of the programme was to provide self-sustaining computer centres and computer education in rural areas.

The solar-powered centre at this school would provide 3.84 kW of reliable power, he said. The programme has been appropriately structured to cater to the schedules of both the village community and students.

This is to ensure that the community is also benefited from the programme.

The programme is on in 74 government schools across 18 districts of Karnataka and has covered 8,000 students.

It has involved 2,750 students and 75 teachers in eight government schools around Bangalore, according to Lalith Kumar C.S. of the American India Foundation.

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