News
Taking coding out of the realm of the privileged to government school students
What started as an idea by the Lego Foundation in 2010 is slowly but surely finding feet today. Robotics classes introduced in govt schools have nurtured teams who will participate in the annual RoboCup held in Germany later this year.
RoboCup 2016, the prestigious annual international robotics competition to be held in Leipzig, Germany, is just 27 days away.
In a 10ft x 10ft room in a school in central Bengaluru, 6 children, all between the ages of 12 and 15, huddle around their mentor P. Sridhar, an Indian Institute of Science (IISc) graduate with a master’s degree in instrumentation. Sridhar is engrossed explaining how wireless technologies work, setting off a chain of questions from the children.
This could be a scene from a science camp at any of the international schools, only which it isn’t. The school—Seva Bharat Trust Government School—is a Telugu-medium government school. The children are preparing for RoboCup, a technology event that aims to promote interest in robotics and artificial intelligence among young students.
“We are out to make a point that with access and opportunity, government school kids can really shine,” said Ashok Kamath, chairman of Akshara Foundation, an educational NGO that works with government schools in Karnataka. The robotics programme at the Seva Bharat Trust Government School was actually the pilot set up by the non-profit 2 years ago.
Just imagine a robot programmed to dance to the tune of the Mission Impossible theme song, yes that robot won them the RoboCup Junior Nationals held in Bengaluru in February. They pipped 15 other entrants, including private schools such as St. John’s High School and Bishop Cotton Girls School to win the title. On 30 June, the students from Seva Bharat Trust will be one of the 500 teams from 40 countries that will participate in the German finale of the competition.
A staggering 61.8 million children attended 244,653 secondary schools in 2014-15 in India. Of these, only 36.6% schools have access to a computer and Internet connection, according to a 2014-15 report of the District Information System of Education (DISE). Given the poor state of infrastructure, children in government schools often find themselves on the back foot.
Kamath, who has been working in the field of education for underprivileged children for more than 15 years, said the idea to introduce robotics in government schools came from Lego Foundation, one of their donors. Lego Foundation offered to give its robotic kits with software and hardware to create customizable, programmable robots.
The Lego Foundation also gave an annual grant of Rs.10 lakh for 3 years to promote learning and ignite creativity among government school students. Without pondering much on the outcome of conducting the program with government schools, Akshara Foundation set up a lab in Seva Bharat Trust with a dozen computers and 20 robotic kits. It was set up at a one-time cost of Rs.7-8 lakh. Running the programme cost another Rs.6 lakh a year, which was fully funded by Lego Foundation.
Sridhar, who quit his job at a multinational technology company to join Akshara, is credited with designing a curriculum that not only starts from the basics but also ends up covering writing codes to program motors and sensors of robots.
“These children pick up anything that is practical and where they can use their hands. They were able to sustain their interest as they were able to apply every concept I taught them,” said Sridhar.
Learning robotics has actually led to an improvement in academic performances too, said Sridhar, who found that English speaking was a bigger challenge for the kids than learning robotics.
When they took part in the RoboCup Junior Nationals in 2014, they could not understand the questions that the judges posed to them in English. Since then, they have been working hard on their language skills.
“We were scared how we will talk, but now we are more confident,” said Ramakrishna, who dreams of becoming a programmer.
Sneha Philip, team lead of knowledge curation at Dasra, a philanthropic organization, says while NGOs should look at innovation coupled with sustainability as the way forward. “Because there is a huge need for the basic services, it is important to balance sustainability with innovation. It is important to see where does this go next,” said Philip.
Kamath is well aware of the fact that programmes such as this aren’t very scalable as their success solely relies on good mentors like Sridhar. Still, he is optimistic as this is a step towards building scientific temperament in children—a thought that is absent in most schools. “Kids should be taught to push the envelope, and exposure to technology can help them do that,” he said.
The fact that there is a growing public support to this initiative was highlighted when last week Akshara raised₹ 5 lakh using crowdfunding platform Ketto, which will go towards paying for the children’s expenses in Germany.
For wider adoption, Kamath says after the international competition, the non-profit will approach the state government to expand the programme to schools at the block level.