How 5 NGOs Use Tech To Bring Education To Kids In Rural Areas

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This article has been sponsored by Lenovo India.

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From vans enabling teachers in local communities with the right tools to taking classrooms to the doorsteps of the underprivileged, technology holds great promise in helping NGOs use their limited resources effectively. It has the potential to help NGOs reach more people and create a greater impact.

Lenovo, in collaboration with The Better India aims to promote this phenomenon through its ‘New Realities: The India Chapter’ campaign. As part of the campaign, Lenovo works closely with its NGO partners to make technology accessible to everyone.

Here’s a list of five NGOs across India that are harnessing the power of technology to bring about widespread sustainable impact on our educators and students.

Agastya International Foundation

Based in Bangalore, Agastya International Foundation is an NGO that seeks to stimulate the creative thinking potential of rural children in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh with an emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. Over the years, Agastya has established a network of science centres, making it easier for more children to access education.

However, for many children living in rural villages, commuting to – centres is largely difficult. This is why Agastya decided to take education to the doorstep of these less fortunate children.

Supported by Lenovo, Agastya launched iMobile labs, small vans that are set up to carry laptops that are equipped with Lab on Tab, a unique multi-sensory learning method containing digitised content for students from class 6 to 9. In this program, youth from the local community are trained to be teachers – thus creating job opportunities and helping the local communities grow.

Lenovo supports three iMobile vans across Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurugram. So far, the program has reached 15 million students and 2,50,000 teachers.

Meghshala

Meghshala is a platform that equips teachers with multimedia teaching resources via an easy-to-use android application. These resources are created and curated by a team of teachers and are organised by subjects and grades. These e-lessons reach government school teachers who can use them either as an in-classroom facilitation tool or as a pre-classroom preparation tool.

Over the last two years, Lenovo has been providing tablets and smartphones for both teachers’ training and to be used by students. This helped Meghshala reach more than 1,800 schools and 4,900 teachers in Karnataka and Manipur. Lenovo supports Meghshala in training teachers and promoting STEM-based education for children across class 1 to 8.

This partnership has impacted over 2,10,000 students across India.

Door Step School

The Society for Door Step Schools, also known as Door Step School or DSS, was established in Mumbai to provide education to the marginalised sections of society. DSS provides education and support to children of pavement dwellers, slum dwellers, construction site families and other underprivileged sections of society.

With support from Lenovo DSS has helped teachers to use digitised content, prepare lessons that can be taught over phones and tablets. Additionally, DSS trains teachers to use mediums such as Zoom and Google Meet to conduct online classes.

Since the closure of schools due to the pandemic, this initiative has helped teachers reach over 1,140 young students.

TechnoServe

Working across 30 countries, TechnoServe is an NGO that aims to alleviate poverty through business solutions such as linking people to information, capital and markets. TechnoServe provides individuals with the knowledge, skills and tools needed to lift themselves out of poverty. The NGOs projects focus on skill development, local economic development, water and natural resource development and women empowerment.

Through this partnership with Lenovo and Motorola India, TechnoServe is empowering women in technology by providing technical skill training to 100 female students from marginalised communities studying in colleges in Mumbai. To help students build a career in the IT sector they will be trained in the IT/ITES and BFSI along with other soft skills.

As part of the initiative, Lenovo will also provide two months of paid on-the-job training to 150 students at the Lenovo manufacturing plant in Puducherry. Post this training, 75% of the students get a confirmed placement and certification.

Medha

Started in 2011, Medha provides skill training, career counselling and job placement to students at their existing educational institution. Lenovo supported Medha by establishing Career Service Centers at government and government-aided educational institutions. These centres connect students from disadvantaged backgrounds to internships and placement opportunities.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Medha has been providing digital access to students by lending Lenovo devices- to complete their internships and to access other training modules.