wifi-wallahs
Schoolkids in India are learning to use computers thanks to the wifi-enabled computer-toting bicycle rickshaws of the Infothela program.
The disparity between India's cities and villages is astounding. The gulf between them is so great (much, much greater than it is in the US) that it can be quite difficult for a rural student to change their lot in life - fewer educational resources, economic disparities, and even the caste system all contribute to maintaining this divide. Infothela is an ingenious way to provide people with more opportunities without the need for costly infrastructure - it's an elegant hack.
(There's a whole separate issue about whether increased personal mobility is ultimately good for the country as a whole - young people are leaving the villages in droves, heading to the cities to seek their fortunes, and the effects this has on family, village, and larger societal structures is at the present time somewhat deleterious. But India has an astounding flexibility - they weathered the significant social changes imposed by the Mughals and the Brits, and I suspect they will survive the technological revolution with something of their innate cultural essence intact.)
The article focuses on the negative in a way that makes it sound like all Indian villages are illiterate and out of touch with the modern world, which is misleading. In many places the Indian government (which can be quite progressive at times, if an idea can survive running the bureaucratic gauntlet) has instituted programs that attempt to equalize the playing field (such as a quota system that aims to open the educational system to disadvantaged students), and as a result some areas of India (particularly in the south) have a higher literacy rate than much of the US.
With only 12 computers and four Internet connections per 1,000 people, India has one of the world's lowest Internet usage rates and much of rural India remains oblivious to the sweep of technology. But the villages involved in Infothela all lie within a 50-mile wireless corridor created by the Institute of Technology and linked by high-rise Wi-Fi antennae and amplifiers along the highway.
The disparity between India's cities and villages is astounding. The gulf between them is so great (much, much greater than it is in the US) that it can be quite difficult for a rural student to change their lot in life - fewer educational resources, economic disparities, and even the caste system all contribute to maintaining this divide. Infothela is an ingenious way to provide people with more opportunities without the need for costly infrastructure - it's an elegant hack.
(There's a whole separate issue about whether increased personal mobility is ultimately good for the country as a whole - young people are leaving the villages in droves, heading to the cities to seek their fortunes, and the effects this has on family, village, and larger societal structures is at the present time somewhat deleterious. But India has an astounding flexibility - they weathered the significant social changes imposed by the Mughals and the Brits, and I suspect they will survive the technological revolution with something of their innate cultural essence intact.)
The article focuses on the negative in a way that makes it sound like all Indian villages are illiterate and out of touch with the modern world, which is misleading. In many places the Indian government (which can be quite progressive at times, if an idea can survive running the bureaucratic gauntlet) has instituted programs that attempt to equalize the playing field (such as a quota system that aims to open the educational system to disadvantaged students), and as a result some areas of India (particularly in the south) have a higher literacy rate than much of the US.
1 Comments:
True, but it would probably be difficult to find tutors who would be willing to go to Bihar, for instance. (Actually now that I think about it, it would probably be just as difficult to find someone brave enough or foolish enough to pedal a valuable high-tech rickshaw through Bihar.) It's like there's some minimal infrastructure threshold required for the school adoption idea, but below that threshold I suspect it will probably be hacks or gimmicks for awhile.
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