Nagaland: Well-wishers requested to donate used smartphones to help poor students

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Oct. 14 (EMN): With an aim to provide free online education to one crore children studying in classes 5 to 10 from economically backward families, NxtWave powered by iB Hubs had announced a project called “India 4.0 – Dr. APJ”, but only 1000 students from Nagaland have opted for the programme.

Assistant director of School Education, Nellayappan B said that in the first phase of the project, enrolment capacity for Nagaland is 15,000 students but only 1000 have registered so far.

Speaking about the reasons for low enrolment, the official said that the programme requires students to have smartphones. He, however, said that many students studying in government schools do not have access to smartphones. 

The official informed that the department is working on a plan to address this issue. It will request well-wishers to donate used smartphones to the students.

Prior to donating, well-wishers must register on the department’s portal, which will be made available on the website. Whoever wants to donate used smartphones can register in the portal and donate, he said.

“The department is working on the modalities for the well-wishers to register in the portal, a notification of which will be issued shortly. The registration facility is made available so as to keep things transparent and know who is donating and to which district he or she is donating,” Nellayappan said. 

The department will appoint one nodal officer in each district to assist students in pursuing free online education, he said, adding that there is not much awareness among the schools, teachers and students in the state about the project.

“Besides, students and teachers are not technology-oriented out here and do not understand the importance of technology,” he said, while appealing to students to come forward and avail free education.

Once registered, students will have free education up to 21 years of age. “It is completely free of cost,” he said. 

The selected students will be trained by industry experts and alumni of Stanford, IITs, IIMs, etc. and have access to online programmes like xPM 4.0 (exponential performance mindset) which ‘accelerates personal and professional growth required for the 21st century’ and CCBP 4.0 (continuous capacity building program) to build industry-ready skills. Along with this, a comprehensive ecosystem for accelerated online learning is also designed with access to high performance frameworks like ICP, IGP, ICQ, ATF and high performance tools like advanced portal, IDM 4.0, and iB Com free of cost.