Tech On Wheels For Night School Students In India

"Thank You, Masoom. We are learning to use laptops, develop mobile applications and games through the Tech Wheels Bus and thanks to LevelUp Village. Also through Skype Sessions I am able to talk to my friend Matt in America" Rohan, student

Masoom is a not-for-profit organization with a passion for establishing quality education in night schools. In order to achieve this, Masoom partners with night schools to facilitate the “Night School Transformation Programme”. The Transformation Program is specifically tailored to meet the needs of the night school and the night school students themselves. Masoom recognizes that the task of addressing poor quality education in night schools requires a multi-pronged approach. 

Masoom was introduced to Level Up Village organization and their courses in the year 2014 – 15.  Masoom did a pilot course with LUV in one of the night school (Dyan Bharti, Tilak Nagar) with 13 students of the age 14 to 16. The pilot project outcomes were convincing and were adding value to the technological skills and motivation of the students. The main challenge faced in the pilot project was lack of infrastructure availability in night schools viz. space constrain, no computers and internet connectivity in the schools. Also, students didn’t have any prior background of technology, which took a lot of time in training.  The solution was to build a mobile computer education van. This “Tech-Wheels Bus” was constructed in collaboration with Elkem, SA. It took 6 months to construct the bus. The Tech-Wheels bus is one of a kind for night schools and is one of the best projects Masoom has ever had in its 8 year journey, because it works on building a leadership program for students in Night Schools through a mobile bus. 

Tech-Wheels Bus will provide Night School students with access to computers, online resources, and innovative educational programming that will open doors to their future and will act as a unique platform for students learning. The laboratory will not only provide access to computers, but will allow students to enter a larger world of reference and self-study, particularly in science and technology. Tech-Wheels provides platform to students to make possible exchange of ideas, learning, thoughts and cultural aspects with the US Students through Video letters on regular basis which is helping them to get into international learning purview.

The Tech Wheels vehicle/ van will be used for the following purposes –

1. To spread science and technology education in innovative manner
2. During enrolment drives in the communities. The teams of volunteers can travel to the communities in this vehicle. The vehicle will carry publicity material including posters, banners, screen to show film etc.
3. To impart other leadership programs for students such as Design for Change & Girls Club

So far Masoom has conducted the following sessions on the bus -

- Making of Video Games - this included introduction to basic of computers, and 8 sessions on making video games using Scratch Software

- I am Malala – 5 sessions, This is an LUV course based on Malala Yousufzai (Noble Peace Prize Winner).

• The course content is based on Education, Leadership and Community.
• The students exchanged video letters with students in the US. These students exchanged details on - The Education System in their respective countries, What is Leadership & what kind of quality do their leaders have, What kind of activities they like to do in their communities

-  We also conducted two Skype calls between our students and students in the US. They communicated with each other through a question & answer session, which they found very interesting and informative.

"Masoom is thankful to everyone who has contributed for this project. Special thanks to Elkem, LevelUp Village and each one of you who are supporting us." - Nikita Ketkar, CEO Masoom