UK-based British Telecommunications (BT), as part of its `Better World Campaign', is partnering Katha, a local NGO, to provide the underprivileged community of this slum area with an exposure to the state-of-the-art technology through the NGO's local learning outpost, Katha Khazana. BT's Better World Campaign aims to bridge the horizontal as well vertical digital divide in societies by helping children develop ICT skills needed for the new digital age; NGOs in their communications and communication-related activities, and libraries and schools in improving their accessibility to the Internet.

Katha Information Technology & E-Commerce School (KITES), as it is called, is in fact BT's first such project (under Better World Campaign) outside UK. "In UK, BT invests £ 28 million a year to run different community development projects," says Mr Bimal Rath, BT's HR director (India operations). Mr Rath, who is also the project manager for KITES, adds: "But so far we didn't have any such community development project outside the UK and KITES is our first experimental project in India for which BT has earmarked Rs 1.12 crore."

The BT-Katha partnership for the KITES project is for three years. "We will review the progress of the project each year and if the project succeeds in meeting its objectives, which we are very hopeful about, we will renew our partnership with Katha," adds Mr Rath.

According to Katha spokesperson Deepa Menon, KITES will provide a wide range of IT education, starting from computer basics to specialisation like e-commerce, java, web development, etc, during the next three years. "Under this stand alone project, we envisage to educate over 1,200 children from the slums of Govindpuri," she says.

Parents and other adults from the underprivileged community in Govindpuri will also have access to and can learn and develop their skills in this new technology. "We have a Lifelong Learning Centre for adults through which the elderly people of Govindpuri's slum cluster can learn and develop their computer and IT skills," adds Ms Menon. "Our centre starts from 10 in the morning and runs till 5 in the evening. The elderly people can access computers during the morning hours when their children are in schools and they are yet to go to their work."

KITES proposes to teach pre-IT skills like computer-aided drawings and paintings along with general subjects like science and mathematics with the aid of computers to 300 children below 10 years of age (from adjacent slums); computer basics to 600 children in the age group of 11-14, who will also learn to surf the Internet and hence will be able to develop their own independent study skills; 150 students above 14 years age will be taught specialised courses like C++ and Java, which will prepare them for a career in computech jobs and, after the completion of three years, these students will receive computer specialist junior certificate, and finally, another 150 high school students will be offered diploma courses in IT, IT-related enterpreneurship.

However, the education comes for a fee. It's been kept at the barest minimum, though. Depending on the course-whether it's pre-IT level, basic or specialised diploma-the monthly course fee varies from Rs 50 to Rs 200.

However, this fees structure is for Govindpuri residents only. "For, outsiders, the fee will vary from Rs 250 to Rs 500," adds Ms Menon."The entire course module has been prepared in collaboration with established and leading institutions in IT education in the country like Tata Infotech, etc," explains Mr Rath. He adds: "So, the IT-course content at KITES is not really different from the diploma courses at other institutions. However, in keeping with the theme outlined by our Better World Campaign-better communication to create better world-the teaching as well as the learning material has been translated into Hindi so that it helps the target community as a whole to understand the same." The BT-Katha programme also accords priority to teachers' training. "The teachers at KITES will be trained in new computer skills, web-based learning and teaching so that they can teach and communicate lessons better to students in classrooms," says Mr Rath.

In addition, KITES will also focus on building fluency and writing skills in business English. BT will also assist the students passing out of KITES in finding jobs. Mr Rath says, "BT is in deliberations with Katha to find how students can be helped in finding employment. We are also talking to other corporates for their support to this project and, I hope, we will get some help soon."