Microsoft to reach 1 million students in West Bengal

Microsoft Corporation India Private Ltd has signed a Memorandum

of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of West Bengal for the roll-out of

Microsoft's Partners-in-Learning Program in the state. Debaditya Chakra-barti,

Principal Secretary - School Education, Government of West Bengal and Rajiv Kaul,

MD, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd signed the MoU.

The program encompasses Microsoft's flagship India education

initiative 'Project Shiksha-Empowering the future' as well as two other

initiatives namely Fresh Start and School Agreement.

In the five-year MoU period, Microsoft aims to reach out to over

one million students and over 12,000 teachers in Government and Government-aided

schools (From Class V to Class XII) across the state.

According to the press release, the MoU entails the setting up

and running of a Microsoft IT Academy Center in Kolkata for delivering com-prehensive

teacher training. This will be world class facility equipped with a

state-of-the-art IT lab  encompassing hardware, software, curriculum and

staff for education delivery and administration. The MoU also entails the

formulation and implementation of a compre-hensive teacher training prog-ram,

creation of a localized IT curriculum for students, rolling-out of teacher and

student scholarship programs and setting up of a teachers' portal.

Commenting on the MoU, Chakrabarti said, "We believe that

IT has unlimited potential in adding value to the education process, both in

terms of course delivery as well as content. This belief underlines our MoU with

Microsoft today wherein we are committed to provide IT education for students

and skills training to teachers across the state of West Bengal."

CyberMedia News


New Delhi