Seven year-old Soumyaranjan Behera of Kamalanga village is agog with excitement as he gets ready to attend computer classes at the local Kid Smart Centre (KSC). “I enjoy a lot here,” says the child, who misses no opportunity to spend a large part of his leisure time at the KSC, playing games and learning on the computer adjacent to his classroom at the Kamalanga School.
like Soumyaranjan, several students attend computer classes free of cost at Kid Smart Centres in the Mangalpur Panchayat area. This is due to the initiative taken by the GMR Varalakshmi Foundation (GMRVF), schoolchildren of remote villages are getting the opportunity to have hands-on time on interactive computer programmes specially designed to help them learn basic concepts of science, maths, etc.
In collaboration with the IBM Foundation, the GMRVF has launched the Kid Smart Centres under Mangalpur panchayat in Dhenkanal district, where the GMR Group is setting- up a 1,400-MW power plant. A total of 288 students are attending classes at the KSCs.
GMRVF Programme leader Jayanta Kumar Mohanty said, “The GMRVF has established KSCs to help rural children acquire critical computer skills at an early age.”
“I never expected school kids to enjoy such a facility living in a remote village like Kamalanga,” says Chandan, who teaches at the Kamalanga KSC.