In a pilot project under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), the Centre is spreading the use of Asha Kanini in all government schools of Thiruvallur district in Tamil Nadu. The programme will next be taken to other schools in the state and the rest of India.
Asha Kanini is an application to provide easy access to the best-quality digital resources to enhance their classroom teaching experience. The application is network independent, supports most operating systems and devices, and can be customised to work with any language and curriculum.
Smart boards and videos are no longer dreams for students of rural and low-resource urban schools in the district. These dreams have come true for students of 450 schools in remote areas of the district.
The programme is an initiative of Pravartak, a Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under NM-ICPS at IIT Madras and Asha Chennai, a public charitable trust working for the education of the underprivileged.
The two organisations have come together to launch Pravartak Asha Rural Technology Centres (RTC) at Seethanjeri and Kanakamma Chathiram in Tiruvallur to take computer science literacy to remote government schools and tap the potential of school students in rural areas. Twenty-five more RTCs are being planned in the coming years across Tamil Nadu.
The pilot stage will take computer science literacy programme for remote government schools and tap the potential of school students in rural areas. Twenty-five more RTCs are being planned in the coming years across Tamil Nadu.