I recently come across a situation where a govt. school located in suburban Delhi [Gurgaon, DLF, India] had built a computer room, wired it, and was eagerly awaiting to receive a few PCs as part of a major scheme by the State Govt. Education Dept. [in collaboration with Tata Infotech] to provide PCs and Computer training classes for senior school students - classes IX-XII. But they encountered a major problem. As per the State Govt. policy, only 20% of the students [esp. those hailing from backward castes/communities SCs] would be eligible for free training. This particular school had over 50% children from such castes /community studying. The Principal was at a loss how he could decide which 20% amongst them he could provide the course free. with the net result, the school opted out of the scheme.
On a recent visit to the school under a different multi-partner community intervention project - where a few organizations including the local Rotary Club & an NGO Development Communication India (DCI) - were trying to teach stress management techniques to the class X students, it was found that a major cause of stress was the bleak uncertain future. This led to a lot of aggressive behaviour and other kinds of problems. So it was thought of providing some skills, esp. computer based skills, which could be used by them as a tool to access information, and also later be used as a forum for them for expression and exchange with the world at large. After going through the debate so far, I feel that while it is good to debate all aspects and some people have to take the lead on it, let us not forget that there is too little of resource pooling and sharing happening. There is scope for a lot of it right in our own neighborhoods. I am sure there are many organizations/ even individuals at Gurgaon or Delhi who can easily solve the small problem the school is facing. What is required is to pool resources of those who are concerned to make the world much more better and equitable place to live in. For all of us have our limitations and can not cope with all aspects on our own. Usha Chandar Educational Media Researcher ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
