A TRADE relationship of a different kind has been established between Perth and India, thanks to a program helping India’s underprivileged children.
The Perth-based Australian operation of Teach India has set up a ‘twinning’ program between Brentwood Primary and Mt Hawthorn Primary schools in Perth, to correspond with two schools – Prakasham St and Rama Naicken St – in Chennai, India.
The program has been initiated as a means to giving Indian children interaction with foreign cultures, as well as raising community awareness of the project in Australia.
Teach India has set up knowledge labs at nearly 50 corporation schools throughout India, each of which include at least 10 computers as well as Internet connections and library facilities.
The program has plans for most of the schools to have twinning programs by the end of the year, with audio-visual equipment also due to be installed in the near future.
Set up in 2002, Teach India is a free service provided by UK charity organisation Teach Foundation, supplying a handson education program and information technology to under-funded schools in India.
The country’s corporation school system is run by city councils to educate children from India’s lowest income families.
The education provided by the program is designed to be handson, with a curriculum created to develop skills that will encourage the children to pursue higher education, or to gain an understanding of computer skills that can be used in the workplace later in life.
