TN govt, IIT Madras tie up to connect rural students to electronic science

Initiative designed to cover 100,000 students from 252 govt schools

Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on Wednesday launched an initiative of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) to connect 100,000 students studying in government schools in rural areas to electronic science.

As part of this endeavour, Stalin also distributed electronic kits developed by IIT Madras to government school students. Through this initiative, 252 government schools were earmarked for getting these electronic kits.

The institute has already trained two teachers from each school to train children. To support the teachers, India Literacy Project (ILP India), a non-profit organisation, has come forward to deploy teachers to support them in electronics teaching and provide science kits (at least 10 kits to each of the 252 schools) through IIT Madras. The teacher volunteers from ILP will also support the teachers in conducting science kit experiments from 6th standard to 10th Standard.

Part of the ‘Anaivarukkum IITM’ (IITM for all) initiative, this outreach programme on STEM aims to connect with 100,000 students each year in Tamil Nadu studying in rural locations. It is intended to motivate them to take up a career in the domain of semiconductor technologies through the lectures and hands-on experience imparted to students of classes 9, 10, 11, and 12.

“I am happy to announce an important new scheme called ‘Thiranari Thervu Thittam’ during this event. The objective is to encourage and help Tamil Nadu Government schools students to continue their higher education without hurdles. As many as 1,000 students (500 male and 500 female) studying Standard X will be chosen for this scheme," Stalin said.

"Guidance will be provided to the students by connecting them to higher education institutions such as IIT Madras. A stipend of Rs 1,000 will be provided every month until they finish their Class XII. Students selected under this scheme will also get Rs 12,000 as stipend annually during their under-graduation and post-graduation," he added.