IIT-Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation has partnered with ‘Vidya Shakti’ to take education to the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh through the use of Online Classes and Virtual Reality (VR) . The initiative has already been implemented in 100 villages of Varanasi district with the sessions being conducted in Hindi medium for students of classes VI to VIII.

The initiative is intended to tackle the ‘knowledge gap’ created by Covid-19 between students from urban and rural areas. The classes are focused on the fundamentals of languages as well as on maths and science

Student retention levels have increased by adopting various technologies. STEM teachers take VR Headsets to the classes to ‘act’ on the educational content and enable students to ‘feel’ the environment through the sensors. Short 3D videos are utilised for each concept in science and maths. The visualisation sessions are made interactive through Q&A sessions to make the experience memorable for students.

V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, in the release said Vidya Shakti is a project involving several like-minded organisations, including IIT Madras, committed to improving the Gross Enrolment Ratio of India. The rural interaction centres (RIC) established at Uttar Pradesh, under Vidya Shakti project will work towards this important social goal. The RICs established in Tamil Nadu have resulted in commendable success during the academic year 2022-23, that has encouraged us to scale this concept to other States.

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

The project involves a STEM tutor carrying three to four VR devices for each session. The tutor will visit one school in the morning and one in the afternoon. The concept will be explained briefly after which the students, in small batches, will be asked to view the VR videos and ‘feel’ the subject. Students will be asked questions by the tutor, while the video is on. By ‘telling’ the experience, students rapidly develop more responsiveness, communication and participation

The features of the initiative include live online class, in mother tongue; use of simulation software to show experiments and aptitude questions every day, to get students future-ready, the release said.