Project information

StatusFinalist
URLGo to website
CategoryEducation
Formal education
CountryIndia
Operational areasRural
Target groupsChildren
Fixed connectionDialup, DSL
Access pointsSchool
InteractLandline Phone, Desktop Computer,
Software License TypesOpen Source

Project location

Random images Challenge 2008

GIRI PRAGNA

  • Brief description
  • Empowering 10000 underprivileged tribal students of 6th to 10th standard every year with Computer aided formal education and Computer Education in local language to harness the fruits of internet revolution in most remote and forest areas of Khammam district.
  • Vision, Objectives and Goals
  •  ·   Provide equal opportunity to the underprivileged tribal students on par with effluent society children who have access to English speaking public school education.

    ·   To bring the internet revolution to the doorsteps of the tribals who find difficult to meet both ends every day thereby enabling the future generation to come out of sustained poverty

    · To equip the children of remote areas with computer education to access the future opportunities and help them grasping the difficult concepts through computer based tutorial in the local language.

    ·  Quality teaching is not available in tribal areas of Khammam. Project harness ICT and deploy third party skilled computer professionals who imparts computer based teaching to 10000 tribal students every year.

    · To train the tribal area teachers simultaneously with students to sustain the project after the project period and also to enhance the quality of teaching on a continuous basis.

    · To reduce the school dropouts, simplify the learning process; bring out creative talent in the students through playful and child-friendly IT techniques.
  • How does ICT contribute to the organisational objectives

  • Giri Pragna harness ICT in two ways.

    1.      Tribal student’s formal education through IT based tailor made tools i.e. Computer based education modules made in local language with emphasis on concept understanding keeping these tribal students in mind.  Another set of IT tools is a computer education module which is developed for tribals students to learn at easy pace from standard 6th to Standard 10th the nuances of computers its use, handling pictures, videos, use of internet , emails, web marketing of tribal products, approaching job market for 10th pass students, avenues of higher education etc.  A total practical oriented course equips the tribal student to compete with his urban non-tribal counterpart in all aspects. It uses LANs in all the  50 school complexes with 5 nodes each and all open source software and backup arrangements for each student to copy their work.

    2)A web site developed by Giri Pragna tracks the progress of each student enrolled in the project. It also tracks the performance of the teachers in these areas on computer understanding and teaching methodologies. It tracks for the resources availability and problems if any in each of the complexes. Monitoring the progress of tribal student for even the normal curriculum is unheard of. This provides corrective action in time from the tribal administration

  • Transferability
  • Yes. Giri Pragna is transferable to any school for Class VI to Class X in any part of the globe with cutomization. It is mostly useful to similarly placed disadvantaged children of south Asia and African countries.
  • Project summary
  • Giri Pragna means enriching tribal knowledge. ‘Tribals’ are aboriginals in their respective regions, miles away from civilization. Government efforts are not yielding results due to remoteness of areas, non availability of quality teachers, apathy of school administration, and illiteracy of tribals which results in high drop outs, no access to outer world to influence their thought process.  Voluntary organizations also find it difficult to make impact on a larger section and on a sustained basis. Giri Pragna provides computer aided formal education to 10000 tribal students of class 6 to class 10 in 50 school complexes through a professional agency who provides the skilled computer professionals to these schools complexes for a period of three years from the inception. 30,000 students have been covered till now and the program will cover 10,000 students each year. Young generation of tribals is immensely benefited by this project as it focus is  not only on strengthening the formal education system in most remote areas  but it also imparts the skills to the young boys and girls to tap the internet revolution which is the empowering factor for coming out of the sustained poverty for tribal families.  Majority of the teachers in the tribal areas are to be selected from the same community in order to provide them employment. However, the tribal teachers are found weak in the concepts and expression skills. The teaching quality being poor doesn’t perpetuate the educational backwardness for them. Giri Pragna provides opportunity to these tribal teachers to acquire new skill sets in teaching methodologies through audiovisual and animated course work. Giri Pragna enables them to understand new teaching methods, new learning’s in computers and internet which not helps them for their carrier development but help the project to sustain after the support of professional agency is withdrawn.Giri Pragna makes good use of ICT as prime mover to overcome the impasse which was not broken since many years of fiver year plans in India. A simple technology solution designed which has two components. -First, every school complex which is pivot for many tribal feeder schools is provided with 5computers and LAN with tailor made Computer based learning material on present syllabus of regular curriculum from 6th to 10th standard in local language. Second part of the first component is A course on computer education including usage and handling of internet, web marketing, and information on job market is tailored for 6th to 10th standards in a phased manner.  -Second component of the ICT based solution is a web-based tracking system for effective functioning of Giri Pragna. In this every school uploads it progress and problems and is tracked at Head master, school complex administrators and at Project monitoring Unit level at Integrated Tribal Development Agency, Khammam. Project concept is prepared and grounded by then District Collector and Magistrate Mr. Rajendra Nimje in 2005 is successfully implemented for three consecutive academic years 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08. Funds are mobilized for initial period of three years from SSA project of Govt. of India thereafter the hardware and software is handed over to the school authorities and ITDA the tribal development agency will run it.  Project has witnessed upward trend in pass percentage of the students in these 50 school complexes over the past three years. These students have scored excellent marks in the computer tests and soft skills conducted by ITDA twice a year on account of the project. Giri Pragna has become synonymous with tribal students development in the whole Khammam district.