MTNL to sponsor IT needs in 20 MCD schools

Cyber News Service

NEW DELHI: Responding to the clarion call of taking IT to the masses, MTNL has tried to contribute its bit to society. The company has initiated a proposal whereby it will provide for two computers, a printer and a modem and free telephone and Internet connections for one year to schools. The Education Department of Delhi Government has identified 20 schools who would benefit under this scheme. Most of these schools are under the Municipal Commission of Delhi catering to the education needs of the middle- and low-income groups.

"Due to budgetary constraints, these schools may not be able to avail the benefits of the IT revolution. In order to expose these children to the benefits of IT, we have undertaken this initiative," says P K Saha, General Manager, Marketing, MTNL. Initially MTNL would sponsor ten schools and consider the next ten in the next phase. A similar initiative has been launched by MTNL in Mumbai on a larger scale.

Currently, MTNL is negotiating with NIIT to donate the requisite software for these schools. Based on NIIT’s recommendation, MTNL will decide on the configuration of the hardware. "Since we do not have experience in school education, we have to rely on NIIT’s help," said Saha. He is hopeful that the negotiations will be completed within the next one month so that the summer vacations can be utilized to train teachers on the use of computers. The initiative will be an ongoing exercise and every year MTNL will review whether to continue the free connections to the schools or whether to add new ones. The hardware and the software will however be donated.