School Programs

“A Child Without Education is Like A Bird Without Wings”- A Tibetan Proverb

NIIT Foundation works to ensure that children from underserved communities are educated; they live with dignity and develop better futures for themselves and their families.

Community School Programs is a specially designed program that NIIT Foundation offers to government schools. Most of these schools’ lack proper IT infrastructure, relevant courseware and trained faculties. The Community School program enable these schools to get access to a structured mode of teaching resulting in well-learned students.

Hole-in-the-Wall Learning Station is one such innovative program that is being offered to schools as well. With innovative digital technology, alternate energy and connectivity platforms, Hole-in-the-Wall has made computer and internet accessible to children living in urban slums and rural communities. The project is benefitting in school and out of school children, adolescents and adult community members.

In addition to this, there are several other school programs that NIIT Foundation has been implementing with our key partners. Our school program partners are HPCL, Motherson Somi, Quest Alliance and Microsoft India, to name a few.

A few projects with these partners have been detailed out below:

Project Unnati

Project Unnati is a CSR initiative by HPCL Ltd in association with NIIT Foundation. It aims to provide time bound computer awareness programs and free computer education to students in semi-urban and rural schools. The students are introduced to computer basics including MS Office. The duration of course is four to six months. Project Unnati has a sustained focus on spreading digital literacy and thereby reducing the digital divide between rural and urban students.

School Program for Students With Disability

Accessibility and Education Project:

The goal of providing quality education would remain elusive as long as the concept of inclusion is not linked to broader discussions on pedagogy. An inclusive education curriculum today recognizes the need of schools to be equipped with a teaching-learning ecosystem that can deal with individual learning styles and capabilities In keeping with the above background, Microsoft India joined hands with NIIT Foundation to initiate the Accessibility and Education Project.

This project aims at setting up Digital Classrooms for students with disability. The project is meant to enable these children to recognize their unique requirements and schools to provide them with specialized services, specialized equipment, technology and instructional material using appropriate media (including braille) to meet their special needs.

The standard digital classroom for students includes:

  • Laptops and Netbook Devices
  • Special Keyboards that allow students with compromised limb movement to operate a laptop
  • A Trained Facilitator who can work with students with disability
  • Special Hardware and Software

The challenge for education in the 21st Century, is to create an education approach that is agile, adaptable and in-tune with the lives of the students outside the classroom. The focus of this project is to also develop 21st centaury teaching learning skills among the students and the teachers. It allows students to gain a first-hand experience of real-world problems. 21st Century Learning Skill is a unified vision for learning to ensure student success in a world where change is constant and learning never stops.

These skills include the 5C’s – Computational Skills, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Collaboration and Communication. This is to enable students to learn in a safe and innovative space and to develop their skills of independence rather than dependence. It is built to define and illustrate the skills that students need to succeed at work, in life and as a responsible citizen of this country.

21st Century Learning Skills help teachers/faculty integrate skills into the teaching of key academic  subjects. Within the context of key knowledge instructions, students and teachers learn essential skills for success in today’s world. The program enables the development of skills in all categories.

Students

  • Ways of thinking- Creativity and Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Decision Making, Learning to Learn
  • Ways of Working- Communication and Collaboration
  • Ways of Living in the World- Knowledge and Information and IT Literacy

Teachers

  • Building a School Culture that offers a vision of innovation, enables teacher collaboration and sharing of teaching practices
  • Building Teacher’s Skills in new pedagogies, use of technology for teaching and creating conditions of deep learning
  • Leadership and Responsibility, Productivity and accountability
  • Social and Cross- Cultural Skills

Through School programs, NIIT Foundation is providing children with opportunities to develop problem-solving skills, a space to collaborate with other students to find solutions, express their thoughts with confidence and develop their digital knowledge and skills. With this, NIIT Foundation is creating a deep impact.