Jaipur, April 25, 2008: Hole-in-the-Wall Education Ltd.
(HiWEL), in partnership with Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) and Rajasthan
Council of Elementary Education (RCEE) today dedicated 5 Playground Learning
Centers (PLC) to the school kids of Jaipur. HiWEL is a joint venture between
NIIT, leading Global Talent Development Corporation and the International
Finance Corporation, a World Bank Affiliate.
Mr Ashok Parnami, Hon’ble Mayor of Jaipur launched first of the five
Playground Learning Centers at JMC’s Pink City No 3 School at Azadpur. The
Playground Learning Centers have been installed in the remote parts of the city
to promote computer education among school kids.
HiWEL PLCs provide free and unsupervised access to computers for children
belonging to economically and socially marginalized populations, in remote rural
locations and urban slums. HiWEL PLCs come with the unique Minimally Invasive
Education approach and encourage children to self-organize and take
responsibility for their own learning.
A tripartite Memorandum of Understanding was signed last year between the
Jaipur Municipal Corporation, Rajasthan Council for Elementary Education and
HiWEL to install PLCs in the city.
As part of the agreement, HiWEL will set up 200 such PLCs with 400
computers in 200 low-income schools in and around slum locations in Jaipur.
Hundreds of kids from adjoining slums and underserved communities will have
access to educational content and games, and learn in an environment that allows
them to build and improve their understanding through observation, exploration,
discovery, and collaboration, with minimal intervention from adults.
NIIT has installed over 120 HiWEL Learning Stations across the country—from
Leh in the North to Kanyakumari in the South; from Arunachal Pradesh in the
North-East to Jaisalmer in the West. Outside India, these Learning Stations have
been put up in Uganda, Cambodia and Egypt and are now being implemented in
several other countries in Africa.
About HiWEL
Hole-in-the-Wall Education Ltd. (HiWEL) is a joint venture between NIIT
Ltd. and the International Finance Corporation (a part of The World Bank Group).
Established in 2001, HiWEL was set up to research and proliferate the idea of
Hole-in-the-Wall, a path-breaking learning methodology created by Dr. Sugata
Mitra, Chief Scientist Emeritus of NIIT.
Formally called Minimally Invasive Education, this innovative methodology
was first tested in a slum in Kalkaji, New Delhi, in 1999. The experiment has
resulted in a new technology and a new way for children to learn. In this
experiment, a computer connected to the Internet was embedded into a slum wall
and left for unsupervised use by children. The experiment suggested that
children, irrespective of their social, ethnic or educational identity, can
learn to use computers by themselves, thereby closing the much discussed
“digital divide”.
The computers are provided in safe, public, outdoor spaces through
innovative technologies. All activities at these Learning Stations are monitored
remotely from Delhi.
NIIT is now making this technique available to the world through
“Hole In the Wall Education Limited” (HIWEL). HiWEL is now poised to
scale up the idea of Hole-in-the-Wall to make a significant contribution to
improving elementary education and life skills of children across the world,
especially those in disadvantaged communities in rural areas and urban slums.
For media queries, please contact:
Prateek Chatterjee, NIIT Ltd., 85, Sector 32, Institutional Area, Gurgaon
122 001; Ph: +91 124 4293041; Fax: +91 124 4293333;
Shivanjali Singh, NIIT Ltd., 85, Sector 32, Institutional Area, Gurgaon 122
001;