It was an evening with a difference for Rashida when she stood in a crowded room
on the narrow lanes of Shanthinagar to quiz the software professionals about the parts of a computer and their use.
Fairoz knew about the use of computers in a medical shop, a Railway Station and bank and wanted to learn more
about their use in an aircraft and hospital.
Other kids joined Rashida and Fairoz to interact with the professionals from Software
Paradigm (SPi) with whom Pratham partnered to launch 'True Education' for the children from the slums and
backward areas of Mysore.
The objective of 'True Education' is to provide answers to questions that children want
to ask but never had an opportunity to do so or help them seek information on issues they do not find in their
class texts.
Under 'True Education' Pratham has created a children's question bank, where questions
on varied subjects like human body, Universe, Solar System, Wild Life, history of Mysore and others are stored
and passed on to SPi. The SPi volunteers take time off to answer them at sessions on Saturday afternoons.
There were 40 students under 14 years from Pratham with 10 SPi volunteers acting as
resource persons in the first session on Feb. 23 at MEWA, Shanthinagar.
SPi team was lead by Sujath Rajpal, Nataraj and Mahesh. Pratham co-ordinated the
programme.
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