IIT-M partners with 'Vidya Shakti' to take edu to UP's rural areas

CHENNAI: The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) on Monday announced that it has partnered with 'Vidya Shakti' to take education to the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh through the use of Online Classes and Virtual Reality (VR).

"The Initiative has already been implemented in 100 villages of Varanasi district with the sessions being conducted in Hindi medium for students of Classes VI to VIII. This initiative is intended to tackle the 'knowledge gap' created by Covid-19 between students from urban and rural areas. The classes are focused on the fundamentals of languages as well as on maths and science," said a release from IIT-M Pravartak Technologies Foundation.

IIT-Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation is the Technology Innovation Hub of IIT Madras. It is a not-for-profit company and is funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, under its National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems.

"Student Retention levels have increased by adopting various technologies. STEM Teachers take VR Headsets to the classes to 'act' on the educational content and enable students to 'feel' the environment through the sensors. Short 3D videos are utilised for each concept in science and maths. The visualisation sessions are made interactive through Q&A sessions to make the experience memorable for students," it added.

Highlighting the unique aspects of this initiative, IIT-M Director V Kamakoti said, "We believe that it is our duty to motivate young children specially from rural India to take up higher education and provide the necessary guidance and counselling towards it."

"'Vidya Shakti' is a project involving several like-minded organisations including IIT-Madras committed to improving the Gross Enrolment Ratio of our country. The Rural Interaction Centres (RIC) established at Uttar Pradesh, under our 'Vidya Shakti' project will work towards this important social goal. The RIC's established in Tamil Nadu have resulted in commendable success during the academic year 2022-23, which has encouraged us to scale this Concept to other States," he added.