NEW DELHI, India – Roughly 25% of teachers are regularly absent from Indian schools, according to a 2005 World Bank report. Double that number is the approximation of the statistic for poorer areas in India. Of the 50% of teachers that do show up for class, only some of them are actually teaching. In a country rich in resources and manpower, much of the nation’s youth are being under served by a truant education system. For future generations, however, things may be looking up.
Datawind, a Canadian technology company, has crafted a $20 tablet to replace texts – and even absentee teachers – for the Indian K-12 student market. The tablet comes on the tail of a real need for rural education improvement and something to connect India’s youth to a growing demand for experts in technology markets worldwide. With many of the nation’s teacher flocking to urban centers and higher salaries, the tablet may be just the thing to keep these children competitive on a global scale.
Neither Datawind nor the Indian government, subsidizing 50% of the tablet’s actual cost ($40), are suggesting the tablet would replace teachers. Indeed, the fact remains that nothing can replace the face-to-face, classroom learning that has been recognized as necessary at an early age. Rather, the idea is to improve education by allowing children to take it home with them.
The tablet, more powerful than a first generation iPad, boasts the added capacity to build computer programs, better equipping youth to pursue technologically geared career paths. So, not only will the machine be used to replace textbooks with e-textbooks and increase access to traditional education materials, but it will inspire future generations to become more acquainted with global trends in information technology. Kannan Moudgalya of the Indian Institute of Technology correctly points out the importance of the Aakash tablet in making such inspiration possible, “To connect to the internet we make our bandwidth free, but how do these children access the rich educational content, if you don’t give them a connection device?”
Within the decade, the agenda is to provide every child in India with a connection device like the Aakash tablet. Akin to the American ideal of a car in every garage, India’s plan for education holds much loftier goals for their society’s impoverished youth. Instead of buying into corporate materialism, the national program chooses to invest in the minds of a brighter future.
– Herman Watson