Abhishek Mande Bhot, independent writer and editor covering news, lifestyle, and luxury for publications in India and the US explains, A nonprofit looks to technology so under-privileged students can learn in the classroom and remotely.
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Jaira Amzad Ali, attends an online class from the confines of her home. Teachers like Aggarwal say Teams is a safe place for the students as only those invited can enter an online class.
Photo: Amit Verma for Microsoft |
When the whole of India went into a sudden
COVID-19 lockdown last year Uzma Bano’s first thought was: “I won’t be
able to go to school.”
Learning was something the 7th grader always looked
forward to. The classroom was a daily escape from the confines of her
home in the capital Delhi–a single 150-square-feet room she shares with
her parents and elder brother, Shahi.
Uzma’s father Shakeel Ahmed earns around USD 6
a day as a carpenter or laborer when he can find shift work. With so
little, surviving is tough. But unlike other poor families who often
rely on their children to skip classes to earn extra cash, the Ahmeds
always made sure their kids attended lessons...
Nowadays, the organization is developing
solutions that blend classroom learning with remote learning to help
communities with limited financial resources. To do so it’s working with
decision-makers in the tech sector, like Farhana Haque, group director
for devices at Microsoft India.
“During the pandemic we realized how privileged we were. While our
children were attending classes online, so many others could not,” she
says. “Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more–so we asked ourselves what we
could do as a company.”...
“The way of teaching has changed completely and forever for the schools
that we support,” TFI’s Gulati says. “Blended learning is here to stay,
and students need to be equipped to adjust in such an environment, which
means they’d be learning (in-person) in classrooms but also with
technology, outside of classrooms. That’s where our focus will have to
be.”
Read more...
Source: Microsoft
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