450 students are actively attending Plan India classes at 12 different centers in the Capital and over 470 are enrolled for the upcoming session
Riya attends a parallel education programme run by NGO Plan India to provide quality education for underprivileged girls. The programme is run at 15 different locations in Delhi, with hub at Dwarka, and including Holambi Kalan, and Rangpuri Pahadi.
The NGO launched these classes in April 2016, in collaboration with Ericsson India. "Plan India has been implementing programmes that engage girls from all sections of society to acquire knowledge using innovative information and communication technologies, no matter where they live," said Plan India Executive Director Bhagyashri Dengle.
"We are also in talks with the Education Ministry to convert these classes into a certificate course, which will help these girls while pursuing higher studies or employment in future," she added.
"I used to think that digital classes were meant for students of private schools only. Now that I and several other girls like me are attending these digital classes, I have realised that this is just a matter of opportunities," said Riya, a student of Class IX at a government school.
She further said her school teachers were not interested in teaching students about latest technologies and trends. "I did not know about the concept of digital classes before coming to these classes. Though we have computers at our school, the teachers do not know how to operate them," she added.
Riya, who is third among four siblings, said: "My father is a rickshaw puller. He doesn't have enough resources to provide good education opportunities, along with private tuitions, to all four of us." She added that her two brothers attend a private school.
With the growing trend of digital education in India, students in government institutions often find themselves technically backward when compared to public school students. And in case of government schools for girls, the situation is even worse.
At Plan India's learning centers, girls are taught via video conferencing, wherein a teacher sitting at the main center of the locality takes live classes. Students sitting in different centers learn by watching and listening to the teacher, and can even cross-question her or him. There is one moderator in every class to help the students.
"Initially, it was difficult to teach these children as they did not know what a projector or a microcomputer was. But now they have understood many things and it has become easier to teach them digitally," a class moderator at a Dwarka center said.
Another difficulty that the NGO members faced was to convince parents to send their daughters for these classes. "Most parents we contacted were not interested in sending girls for these evening classes. They were not ready to do so even during vacations," said an NGO member.
"We then organised a meet with the parents to show them the technology and give them a first-hand experience of how their daughters will be taught at the centers. "As many as 450 girls are actively attending the classes at our different centers in Delhi now and more than 470 girls have already enrolled for the upcoming session," the member added.
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