High pressure gas cylinders manufacturer Everest Kanto Cylinders (EKC) on Tuesday said it has launched a CSR initiative to offer free online curriculum-liked education in a vernacular language to students of Class 9 and 10, in 35 government schools in the Kutch district of Gujarat during the current academic year.
Initially, the initiative aims to benefit students from Grade 9 and 10 across schools located in Gandhidham block of Kutch. Subsequently, the initiative will scale to students from other grades and regions of Gujarat.
More than 7,500 students from 35 government schools are expected to benefit from this initiative, on which the company has spent Rs 20 lakh in the first year, it said.
This program, which is ideated and executed by ConnectEd Technologies aims to provide quality vernacular educational content to government school students, in a bid to improve learning outcomes, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it added.
The platform contains quality educational content in local languages, that is in-sync with the Gujarat State Board curriculum, and can be viewed online or downloaded onto a device for viewing later.
''We are thankful to EKC and hope more organisations will come forward to support this initiative and ensure it benefits every student in Gujarat,'' Kutch District Education Officer B N Prajapati said.
The recent surge in COVID-19 cases led to closure of schools. In such circumstances, government schools and their students are in need of a parallel digital framework, through which quality education could be served to government school students, he said.
EKC Chairman and Managing Director Pushkar Khurana said, ''while mounting our social response to those affected by the pandemic, we found it necessary to support a program that provides quality education to government school students, at a time when schools are shut. We are happy to see the response from government authorities and grass-root level educators.''
During the course of this initiative, ConnectEd Technologies will coordinate with government schools to sensitise parents and students about the platform, where they can access curriculum-linked educational content for free, using any device and connectivity at their disposal.
Currently, ConnectEd Technologies has deployed such programs across eight states in India.
(With inputs from PTI)
