Asha for Education, Chennai has formed a partnership
with Pravartak (subsidiary of IIT Madras)
to establish Rural Technology Centers. We are currently running 14 RTCs - 8 RTCs in Thiruvallur District, 4 RTCs in Thoothukudi District one in Thiruvannamalai District and one in Tiruvarur District.
We hope to expand these to many more centres over time.

Technology affects almost every aspect of life in today’s world. Access to healthcare, paying for services, information about farming, traveling using maps are all made easier with technology. However, access to quality technical education is sadly lacking in our villages in India, since the personal technical resources are expensive and there is a dearth of technical skills in these villages to impart knowledge. The current computer science curriculum in high schools is too broad and the impetus to complete the curriculum creates an environment where the ability for the student to understand the material and use it effectively is sacrificed.

#1: In the government schools Asha teachers will teach introductory digital/AI literacy and programming to children in classes 6 to 9. If we are able to get time for children in classes 10 to 12, this will also be taught to them. For students taking Computer Science or Computer Applications in their 11th and 12th std, the current syllabus is very demanding and the schools tend to focus more on theory and less on practical implementations so they can get through all the materials within the given time. Unfortunately, when it comes to actual programming or project work, the children are left with no experience. Asha will focus on providing opportunity for these children to practically use computers and build applications using them.

#2: The Rural Technology Center will be located in the same village as the paired school. Here too we will offer courses to 6th to 12th standard students. These courses will be 6 months long and children will be able to take as many courses as they want one course at a time. The goal of these centers is to make the children comfortable with the use of technology by providing both digital literacy skills and computational thinking skills. Our foundational coursework will be followed by courses from the internationally acclaimed code.org CS Discoveries curriculum. Asha has created several advanced courses that take learning beyond that.

#3: At times when courses are not going on in the centres, they will serve as a digital library. Children can come there and play educational games, and use the computers in any other way with the supervision of the centre teachers. Asha will also acquire cool tools and provide them in labs to stoke the curiosity in young minds. Tools will include 3D printers, small robots that can be programmed and drones that can be used for multiple purposes. We hope to create a generation of digitally literate people in these areas.

Asha has a well tested curriculum that we have been teaching classes 1 to 8. The initial basic courses on Digital Literacy and Programming are condensed versions of this curriculum. Asha has built on this expertise by using courses from CS Discoveries from code.org. We are also developing our own courses to augment these. We also intend to use IIT’s experience and expertise in quality technical education.