Marathi-English coding for 600 municipal school kids

The initiative has been taken by the myUDAAN Trust that has been working with municipal schools across Maharashtra on projects ranging from skill developments to educational infrastructure improvement.

In a first-of-its-kind initiative, a computer lab was launched at Byculla West Primary Marathi School—run by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) where close to 600 children from classes 1 to 8 will be taught computer basics, MS Office and coding in both Marathi and English.

Shaina NC inaugurates "Computer Labs - Learning to Code in Marathi" donated by Ananya Goenka's (extreme left) myUDAANTrust (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

The initiative has been taken by the myUDAAN Trust that has been working with municipal schools across Maharashtra on projects ranging from skill developments to educational infrastructure improvement. “Indian students have so much potential. It is unfortunate that right from kindergarten, the language of instruction becomes an obstacle to accessing new skills.

We are thrilled to have worked closely with Stemrobo Technologies to teach basic computing and how to code in the Marathi language. This model can unleash a lot of potential in our marginalised and underprivileged circles. We are grateful to the BMC for its help and forward-thinking,” said Ananya Goenka, chairperson of myUDAAN Trust. The lab equipped with 20 computers will hold classes twice a week.

“The main objective of this program is to nurture creativity and innovation among students, to make kids digitally empowered. In phase one, we will teach students how to turn on the computer, how type, open applications, etc. Phase two will comprise MS office, paint, and basic search engines. Once the students are familiar with the computer operation, we can teach them block-based coding, which they will learn as games on our customised website,” said Nishant Singh, assistant manager at Stemrobo Technology, which will be running the programme. “We did not teach kids how to operate a mobile phone, we just had to give them the device. Now that computers are accessible to them, I am quite sure they will do wonders. But, that will happen only if their basics are clear. I’m glad that they have made great arrangements for the kids to properly learn the basics,” said Bhavna Sandis, mother of class 1 student Vinisha Sandis.

The laboratory was inaugurated on Thursday by fashion designer and social worker Shaina NC in the presence of president of myUDAAN Trust Ananya Goenka