Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday distributed 230 smartphones to the students of Sarvodaya co-ed Secondary Vidyalaya in Rohini.
The Minister said that through the efforts of the school’s principal, Awadhesh Kumar Jha, and vice-principal Bharti Kalra, 230 phones were collected for students in need, with the help of the civil society. The smartphones were distributed to students of Class 9 to Class 12.
Mr. Sisodia said this was a symbol of the collective goodness of people coming together in such dire times.
“The pandemic has had the worst impact on education. Schools had to be shut down, and classes were shifted online. Though nobody thought studies could be shifted online, our teachers stepped up despite not being trained for it,” he said.
The Minister added that for a lot of students, not having a smartphone made it difficult for them to access their online classes but with different organisations, volunteers, and citizens having stepped forward to get contributions to help the students.
Out of the 230 phones, 108 phones were brought in by Project Empathy run by Avika Diwan, a Class 10 student of Shri Ram School, Aravalli (Gurugram). Under Project Shobhit, Vivek Taneja and Kavita Taneja donated 60 smartphones in the memory of their late son Shobhit. Lastly, under Project Time Bank, established by Dr. Suruchi Mittar and Ms. Achla Ali, 62 smartphones were received, the government said.
Mr. Sisodia also congratulated teachers of Delhi government schools for developing content for online education that he claimed was being accessed by users from about 20 countries across the world.
