Rural Technology Centres/ Rural Interaction Centres

In an endeavour to take quality education to students in rural areas, Pravartak Technologies Foundation (https://pravartak.org.in/) of IIT Madras through its partners, has embarked on establishing Rural Interaction Centres (RICs) in villages which focuses on bringing the best teachers to rural students through technology.

A village study center is established with a smart TV and internet connection. The RICs cater to students of 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th. The live online classes are conducted from evening 6 pm to 8 pm. Experienced teachers teach Science, English and Maths in the mother tongue. 89 villages are covered under this program in Tamil Nadu and 100 villages in Varanasi District, Uttar Pradesh. As many as 12,000 students are taking these programs through these 189 Rural Centres.

Another keyinitiative under ‘IIT Madras for All’ is the establishment of Rural TechnologyCentres in partnership with ASHA, which takes computer science literacy toremote and rural Government School Students in Tamil Nadu. These Centres willspread the knowledge of technology and its benefits to rural areas of TamilNadu. The Rural Technology Centre offers courses to 9th to 12th standardstudents. The goal of these centres is to make the children comfortable withthe use of technology by providing both digital literacy skills andcomputational thinking skills.