30/01/2014
We recently (23-25 Jan 2013) conducted a 3 day free training on "Basic Information Technology Education" for Zilla Parishad school teachers from Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra, India. 52 primary & upper school teachers from talukas attended this training.
***Our team***
Sachin S. Shinde, Manish Aswani, Ashish Shinde, Raju Jadhav, Vishwas Mhatre, Amit More, Sameer More, Subhash Potdar, Vishal Potdar
***Background:***
In June 2013, I met Hon. Mr. Anant Geete (Member of Parliament from Raigad, Maharashtra and forme...r Central Cabinet Minister for Energy) and expressed my desire to work towards improving IT skills within Ratnagiri district (also happens to be the district of my ancestral village). Mr. Geete advised me to review the current IT education setup in Ratnagiri ZP schools and provide recommendations for improvement. He facilitated this review by instructing the district collector, COO and education department to provide full cooperation for the review and also personally joined a meeting held in the collector's office in July 2013.
Subsequently, me and my team visited a couple of schools (in Dapoli and Chiplun), inspected the computer labs, held discussions with school principals, teachers and also spoke with the students. We also spoke with a number of other schools in the region on phone.
***Current Challenges***
While there were many observations from this review, the key observations were as follows:
- Ratnagiri ZP runs ~2500 schools (Class 1st to 7th). Of these ~180 schools were provided with computer labs (5 desktop computers, 1 printer etc) by the government under the Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan Yojna since 2005.
- Most of the teachers, expected to teach IT to students, themselves have not received any formal IT training. As a result they are unable to educate the students. This was also cited by the teachers and principals themselves as the biggest challenge.
- There is no provision of budget for maintenance and support for the computers in these schools. In most schools 1 or more computers do not work and need urgent repairs. Same with printers and other apparatus.
- None of the schools have internet connection. Additional funds would be needed to get every school on the net.
***The training event***
When we presented this report to Mr. Geete (in Dec 2013), he promised to take up the issues related to maintenance / support for computer labs and funds for internet connectivity on priority.
We volunteered to take up training of school teachers by involving friends from the IT industry. Mr. Geete facilitated the training by introducing us to Mr. Sandeep Rajpure CEO, Shree Ram Raje college Dapoli who provided us with facilities (lab and classroom) from his institution for this training. Mr. Geete also instructed Mr. Sudhir Kadam (Yuva foundation Dapoli) to provide local logistical support. Mr. Subhash Shinde (Proprietor, Dynamic IT Services), Mr. Dhananjay Wakote & Mr. Hemant Sanil (Director Benchmark Computer solutions pvt. ltd.) helped with crucial infrastructure support required for this training. Me and my team also funded the entire expenses required for this training.
We thus planned a 3 day training (from 23 to 25 Jan 2014) on Basic IT education for teachers in 3 talukas (Dapoli, Khed and Mandangad) in Ratnagiri district. 52 teachers from these talukas participated in this 3 day program. The event was a huge success thanks largely to the hard work and commitment from our team, the excitement and sincerity of the participating teachers and the support and encouragement received from the individuals and organizations named above. The formal feedback from the teachers has been very positive, with almost every teacher recommending that we hold such trainings at regular intervals and that this training also be rolled out to other talukas in the district.
On the last day of the 3 day training, the teachers were felicitated with certificates presented by Mr. Geete who attended the function as chief guest. The teachers were also provided with relevant books and training material on selected topics.
I would like to thank each and every person who has contributed to this event and made it a success!
***What next? ***
We do not intend to stop here. I and my team would shortly be coming up with a plan and schedule for providing this training to teachers in other talukas in the region. We would like to do our bit to improve the quality of education in rural Maharashtra and I am sure there would be other like minded individuals who would do the same. We will be reaching out shortly to community at large for funds and volunteers for these trainings - fortunately some friends from IT industry have already started volunteering. .
Regards
Sachin S Shinde
