Students working with materials under the guidance of a teacher.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
When Iniyasri, a school student from Uthukottai in Thiruvallur district, learnt that she would be making a visit to IIT-Madras this month, she could not contain her joy. She was one of the students to be selected to make a presentation that would reflect the digital and computer literacy skills that she had acquired with the help of the Chennai chapter of voluntary organisation Asha for Education.“Last time, I was not selected to come to IIT, but this time I made it,” says Iniyasri, who is now learning Scratch at a rural training centre (RTC) run by Asha. She showed off her newly acquired skills with a project on the universe at a competition where students from 13 RTCs across Tamil Nadu participated.Volunteers at Asha Chennai have worked steadily to bring the RTC programme to this point. The programme that started with just two RTCs in 2022 has now grown into a thriving initiative reaching nearly 1,200 students. The RTCs provide free six-month courses for students from Classes 6 to 12. While every centre begins with digital literacy, students can progress to programming, web development, robotics and AI as their skills develop.
