Rajasthan school’s online education initiative hailed for reducing digital divide

An initiative taken by a ladies’ college right here for offering education to the scholars from marginalised communities by video-conferencing throughout the pandemic has been praised as an effort to scale back digital divide. The freed from value online education was began after its research centres had been closed within the lockdown.

Vimukti Girls’ School, located in Pratap Nagar on the outskirts of Jaipur, has offered cellular tablets containing varied academic apps to the women to facilitate online studying inside their very own social surroundings. The ladies, belonging to socially backward lessons and minority communities, reside within the close by slums and rural areas.

The college has additionally launched a “mother mentorship” programme to handle the necessity for empowering ladies and altering the gender norms within the native communities. The ladies’ moms having some primary literacy and prepared to work as volunteers have been related with the drive to generate digital consciousness amongst different mother and father and ladies.

The School of Development Studies (SDS) on the Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) right here has taken up a research of the mannequin developed by the college to outline the approaches for supply of high quality education to marginalised ladies. As a part of its inter-disciplinary analysis, the SDS has examined the initiative to advertise inclusiveness and variety in education.

SDS school member Ratna Verma stated right here on Wednesday although nearly all of academic establishments had switched to online mode of educating throughout the pandemic, this mannequin was laudable due to its potential to cope with vulnerability, discrimination and negligence confronted by marginalised ladies. “Other such initiatives do not address the issue of gender disparities within the family, apart from the low Internet access for the poor,” Dr. Verma stated.

Vimukti Girls’ School Principal Prachi Jain stated 9 periods of video-conference studying had been accomplished to date, with each the academics and college students exploring new prospects amid the uncertainty and useful resource insufficiency. Online teams have been created to change related info, class hyperlinks and subject-wise homework.

Ms. Jain stated the technique to supply devices and academic contents to ladies was not solely geared toward reducing their exclusion, but additionally at guaranteeing the mother and father’ participation within the ladies’ education. The help got here by the Youth Online Learning Opportunities marketing campaign of U.S.-based voluntary group Edu-Girls.