More than 50,000 govt. school students in Maharashtra to get quality education at their finger-tips

Mumbai : The Municipal Corporations and District Administrations of Mumbai, Thane and Raigad came together with Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) today to announce a CSR initiative that shall provide free online access to curriculum-linked educational videos to government school students. The program, which is ideated and executed by ConnectEd Technologies, an edtech social enterprise which specialises in executing large-scale developmental projects, aims to impart quality education to government school students, especially during the on-going Covid-19 pandemic.

As part of this program, ConnectEd Technologies shall work with the concerned Municipal Corporations and District Administrations to provide students with free online access to the edtech company’s web and mobile app platform. The platform shall serve quality educational content in Marathi, that is in-sync with the Maharashtra State Board curriculum; covering every subject, chapter and concept. At the outset, the initiative aims to benefit students from Grade 5 to 10 across schools located in Mumbai, Thane and Raigad region of Maharashtra. Subsequently, the initiative will scale to students from other regions of Maharashtra.

On the occasion of this announcement, Shri. Raju Tadvi, Education Officer, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said, “The Covid-19 pandemic and resultant school closures emphasised the need for a parallel, digital framework through which quality education could be served to govt. school students. It gives me immense pleasure to announce this initiative for all our govt. school students. We are thankful to Sony Pictures Networks India, and hope more organisations will come forward to support this initiative and ensure it benefits every student in Maharashtra.”

Rajkumar Bidawatka, Company Secretary, Compliance Officer and Head CSR, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), said, “Sony Pictures Networks India is deeply committed towards its surrounding communities and people at large. While mounting our social response to stakeholders affected by the pandemic, we found it important to address the educational needs of students relying on government schools, whose learning was impacted due to school closures during the lockdown. We hope this initiative will become a stable source for students to access quality education from the safety and comfort of their homes.”

Lehar Tawde, Co-founder, ConnectEd Technologies, added, “Covid-19 has changed the face of school education in India. Pandemic-related school closures kept 248.3 million school students away from classrooms since March 2020. While students associated with private schools could easily migrate to an online model of education, 136.6 million government school students suffered dearly. With support from the State Government of Maharashtra and Sony Pictures Networks India, we aim to level the playing field by giving under-served students free online access to quality education, like their counterparts in private schools.”

During the course of this initiative, ConnectEd Technologies will coordinate with government schools to sensitise parents and students about the platform where they can access curriculum-linked educational content for free, using any device and connectivity at their disposal. Furthermore, the edtech company will provide school teachers with valuable statistics pertaining to content consumption by each student, thereby enabling them push parents and students to meet learning targets that have been set by the school.