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In today’s world, access to information technology is critical to learning and economic development.
Today most of the one lakh plus government and aided/unaided schools in the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are deprived of computer literacy due to a lack of computer infrastructure and teaching at these schools. On the other hand there are thousands of used computers and technology in perfectly good working condition, made available by a technology intensive industry in these states. Realizing the potential use that this technology can be put to; the sankya program was born.
Sankya, a collaborative initiative between Rotary Club of Bangalore South, Rotary Club of RT Nagar of Rotary Dist 3190 is a path-breaking effort to enhance learning through technology in education to bridge the digital divide in government and rural schools.
Till date, over 7500 computers have been placed at over 3100 schools, Vocational Training Centers & Charitable Institutions in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and the number is growing each day. These schools have been equipped with Computer hardware to facilitate computer education and effectively deliver learning.
Any government or aided/unaided school in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu can request for computers through local Rotary Club by applying on the sankya site. Rotary works with the school to identify the need, qualify criteria and the process ensures that needy schools have an avenue available to equip their learning environments with technology.
The sankya program delivers sustainable solutions.
The program collects and refurbishes used technology with the OS, applications and contents and deploys this technology at government and unaided schools to provide computer infrastructure. The used computers are deployed at schools through participating Rotary clubs, facilitating and coordinating usage and training to teachers and children. The program thus integrates technology into education by offering schools mentoring, enabling effective adoption and integration of technology to deliver student learning and success.
Leading IT & other companies such as Hewlett Packard, CISCO, Mindtree, DELL, GE etc. donates used computers, Microsoft gives the OS for the computer systems, Azim Premji Foundation gives Contents and Applications, sankya has also partnered with Riiit (Raman International Institute of Information Technology) for training of teachers and Edurite for their syllabus based content for schools.
As part of the program, sankya advises its beneficiaries on responsible e-waste management of the donated hardware so that beneficiaries are aware of how they can responsibly dispose off hardware when the time comes. sankya is also committed to Government’s e-waste program and has undertaken to send all the donated computers to e-waste at the end of their life or 3 years whichever is earlier.
With additional grant from Hewlett-Packard, Sankya has set up learning Laboratory area with BASE (Bangalore Association for Science Education) at JNP (Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium). |