All Girls Hackathon bridges tech gap for govt schoolkids

CHENNAI: For S Jeeviga, a bio-maths student at Avvai Home Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Adyar, the idea of learning something different and managing to secure a scholarship is what drew her and many others to the All Girls Hackathon organised by TechDiva Foundation that took place at Anna Centenary Library on Sunday.

“When they first came to our school, we were told that they would teach us the basics of coding. We are commerce students so we told them that it wouldn’t be of any use to us. But we attended it anyway and really enjoyed it. “The way we were taught really piqued our interest in the subject,” says K Monisha, another student.

While most students did it out of curiosity, for Chellapriya S of Government High School, Perungudi, it was the passion that drove her. “My parents forced me to pursue the bio-maths stream in Class 11. I wanted to take up computer science and do something in the IT field. Through this workshop, I’m chasing my passion and I hope to get the scholarship to learn further and achieve my goals,” she says. While school students are still exploring the tech field, college students have clear goals and aspirations. “I enrolled myself to avail the scholarship. We are having a very tough time at home financially and if I manage to secure a job I will be able to contribute to the house financs,” says Malathy S, a Bcom CS student at Chellammal Women’s college.

The teachers, meanwhile, say that most students are used to memorising concepts without understanding them. When TechDiva Foundation approached them offering to teach the basics of coding and help them get scholarships for higher education, the teachers say that they immediately wanted in. The five schools that registered for this event are- Arignar Anna Government School, Government School Tiruvanmiyur, Nandanam Model School, Avvai Home Girls’ Higher Secondary School, and Government School Perungudi. Three colleges, are Chellammal Women’s College, MGR Janaki College, and SIET.

“It has been very hectic because we are having to mentor 350 participants. After introducing the team and explaining to them how to solve problems in the worksheet, we handed it out to them and they solved it. After this, we will go through the sheets and select potential candidates for the next step of the programme,” says Manu Sekar, co-founder TechDiva Foundation.