Taking digital education to the underprivileged

KOLKATA: In an attempt to take digital education to the underprivileged, Abheda Foundation gifted tablets loaded with educational materials to 50 students during a recently held function at Taki Boys' School.
Developed by the NGO that is run by a group of like-minded IT professionals, through these easy to use applications, the students can teach themselves English and Mathematics by way of solving innovative puzzles.
"A challenge with the prevalent education system is the large number of first generation learners, who are riddled with the lack of appropriate learining material. Another challenge is the dearth of quality teachers and the government's helplessness to reduce the yawning gap in the student teacher ratio. Digital education provides a possible solution," said Abheda Foundation managing trustee Biswajit Mitra.
In initiative by Abheda Foundation and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on a mission to impart quality digital education, the project is part of the collaboration named DEPUS (Digital Education Program for Underprivileged Students). 25 students each from Bengali and Hindi medium schools respectively will be benefitted by their one-year programme.
ONGC has chipped in with the role of the sponsor as part of its CSR activity. Officials from ONGC including DGM (CSR) S. K. Ghoshal and chief engineer Mrityunjay Dey said this was the organisation's commitment towards digital India.
Apart from the contents (apps) developed, Abheda is giving scholarship to 150 financially challenged yet meritorious students of Canning, Jalangi and Jhargram. The students are taught English, Mathematics and computer operations through individual tablets given to them with the help of ONGC. Abheda has also opened a digital school at the remote location of Jalangi in Murshidabad, where rural students learn life skills such as communicative English and Computer Operations.