Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the entire education system, particularly primary schools, the Centre on Monday launched Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-enabled primary schools -”Bal Vidyalaya”- for rural India .
The Common Service Centre, a unit of digital India arm under Ministry of Electronics and IT, launched the specially-designed Bal Vidyalaya for students of 10 states namely Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu.
Launching the 21 CSC Bal Vidyalaya pre-schools in 10 states, CSC CEO Dr. Dinesh Kumar Tyagi said: “Digital India is for the poor and underprivileged. We started the concept of Bal Vidyalaya to bridge the digital divide in rural areas. CSC’s foundation is education, so we wanted to help cognitive development of children at the nascent stage.”
The CSC Bal Vidyalya will use technology and enable a child to learn rather than focus on teaching. The key to improving a child’s motivation and ability to become an independent learner is to employ effective cognitive strategies. With the use of technology, a child can learn fast. In villages, quality education will be ensured through CSC Bal Vidyalaya.
To bridge limitations of access to technology tools and good teachers, CSC Bal Vidyalaya proposes to address these aspects.
Dr Tyagi said CSC aims to open 700 Bal Vidyalayas, one in every district across the country, by the end of current fiscal and then expand it to every Block by the end of 2021.
Rishikesh Patankar, COO-CSC, said, “CSC Bal Vidyalaya is ICT-enabled education for school children. With this initiative, CSC Academy is starting a new journey. Here, we will focus on learning by doing. We will encourage activity-based learning.”
Common Service Centres (CSC) scheme is one of the mission mode projects under the Digital India Programme. There are over 3.6 lakh CSCs across India.