IIT Madras, Asha For Education to set up rural tech centres in Tamil Nadu

With an aim to take computer science education to remote and rural government school students across Tamil Nadu, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras’ Pravartak Technologies Foundation has partnered with ‘Asha For Education’ to launch Rural Technology Centres in the state.  The Chennai-based engineering institute said that the centres will train students of Classes 9 to 12 in computer science and will familiarise them with technology. It will help students to approach latest technology without fear and provide students with a space to experience new technologies, claimed IIT Madras.  

IIT Madras' Pravartak Technologies Foundation is providing financial support for this project with technical support being envisaged as well.  

Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras and IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation, said, “The setting up of these two rural technology centres mark the beginning of our journey to provide quality education to students.”  

Meanwhile, two Asha-IIT Madras Pravartak Rural Technology Centres were inaugurated on 11 February at Kanakamma Chathram and Seethanjeri Villages of Tiruvallur District, located about 60 km from Chennai. There are plans to launch more such Rural Technology Centres near government schools this year.  

Asha for Education is a worldwide action group formed to catalyse socio-economic change in India through the education of underprivileged children and uses advanced block-based programming tools such as ‘Scratch’ from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and ‘Blockly’ from Google to teach programming.  

As Rajaraman Krishnan from Asha For Education said, “We expects to build on this expertise by using proven methodologies like the curriculum from ‘code.org’ that have been used and tested in other countries successfully. We also intend to use IIT’s experience and expertise in quality technical education.”