Odisha: Ganjam district teacher takes initiative to bridge digital divide for students of rural areas.

BERHAMPUR: A primary school teacher in Ganjam district has taken the initiative to bridge the digital divide affecting students in remote areas without proper internet connectivity and lack of electricity.
Surya Narayan Sahu, headmaster of Deo Patna Primary School at Mundamari in Dharakote block, demonstrated his project, which require an LED TV, a smartphone, Wi-Fi dongle and solar power to function, in the class on Tuesday. After downloading the teaching programmes through Wi-Fi connection, these can be taught offline, he said.The educational videos available on YouTube can be uploaded on the system and a teacher can conduct classes easily though the area has internet problems, he added.
“The government was stressing on digital teaching but remote areas could not keep up owing to the internet problem. That’s why we have developed this method to bridge the digital divide,” he said.
During the lockdown, when classroom teaching was stopped, Sahu took the initiative to telecast the teaching content of different classes though the local cable network. Videos modelled on the YouTube classes are beamed by the cable operators on local networks at a particular time slot.
“It will be accessible to the students in all areas because almost every household has a TV with local cable connection,” he said. This method has solved the problem of accessing online classes in at least seven panchayats in the block, he claimed.