NewZNew (Chandigarh) : Having launched a Digital Library in Nellore earlier this month, the Cyient Foundation reiterated its commitment to digital literacy by introducing another one today in the Mandal Parishad Primary School, 8th Battalion, Rangareddy District. A National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) Centre was also opened at the school. The facilities were inaugurated by the Honorable Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, E.S.L. Narasimhan.

The core aim of the library is to provide high-quality digital educational resources to more than 300 underprivileged students of the school, and accelerate digital literacy. The key resources provided by the Digital Library, which is similar to the one in Nellore, include the following:

• Online supplemental learning portal for students, teachers and schools from classes 1 to 5. CDs and DVDs to access offline content.
• Curriculum aligned to CBSE, ICSE,  and SSC
• Learning resources for various subjects (Science, Mathematics, English and Social) in multiple formats (animations, video lectures, presentations, class notes, worksheets, mind maps, etc.)
• A repository of resources (question banks, lesson plans, projects, activities, mapped content, professional development and more) for teachers
• Twenty-firstcentury learning framework—skill centric, project oriented, and STEM based—developed by a talented group of subject experts from across the world
• Internet connectivity to browse contents from various digital library links

Complementing Cyient Foundation’s digital library initiative, the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) Centre at the Mandal Parishad Primary School aims to empower neighborhood communities with digital literacy, and facilitate deployment of digitally-enabled citizen services. The Centre is expected to train 1000 community members— one from each family— from 8th Battalion and the surrounding areas to operate a computer or a digital access device (such as a tablet), and use the Internet to search for information, send/receive emails and access various e-governance services. Training modulesin the NDLM Centre have been developed in association with the NASSCOM Foundation, covering content on health, education, literacy and livelihood.

This is the third NDLM Centre in Telangana. More than 3,000 community members have had access to the existing centres so far.

Mr. BVR Mohan Reddy, Founder and Trustee, Cyient Foundation said, “The whole world is going digital. Developing countries like India can accelerate prosperity by adopting digital technologies, which are creating disruption. By creating Digital Libraries, we are democratizing learning for we enable students to have access to the wealth of knowledge including courseware, general knowledge and current affairs online. By creating facilities for the Digital Literacy mission, we are engaging citizens from the age of 10-60 years to become digitally literate, and in some cases, improve employability. I am delighted that the Cyient Foundation is involved in nation building through these initiatives.”

Addressing the educational needs of underprivileged children primarily in government schools is a key focus area of the Cyient Foundation, which is the CSR arm of Cyient Limited. The Foundation has adopted 13 government schools to date, supporting over 8500 students from pre-primary to high school. The goal is to make these schools preferred places to learn. Cyient Foundation provides necessary infrastructure, such as labs, library, teaching aids, and teaching staff to increase student enrollment, attendance, retention, and course completion rate.

Since its inception almost 13 years ago, the Cyient Foundationhas conceptualized and enabled various social initiatives, including the adoption of government schools. In June 2015, the Foundation introduced the Swachh Telangana-Swachh Pathashala campaign (aligned with the Swachh Bharat program) to provide water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities in 54 government schools, impacting more than 18,000 students in Lingampally Mandal in Ranga Reddy District, Telangana.