Common Service Centre, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, on Monday launched “Bal Vidyalaya”, ICT-enabled pre-schools specially designed for students of rural India, in 10 states.
The first 21 such schools will come up in 10 states: Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
The CSC aims to open 700 Bal Vidyalayas, one in every district across the country, by the end of current fiscal and then expand it to every block by the end of 2021, CSC Chief Executive Officer Dinesh Kumar Tyagi here after launching the school.
"Digital India is for the poor and underprivileged. We started the concept of Bal Vidyalaya to bridge the digital divide in rural areas. CSC’s foundation is education, so we wanted to help the cognitive development of children at the nascent stage, " he said.
"In villages, quality education will be ensured through CSC Bal Vidyalaya. To bridge limitations of access to technology tools and good teachers, CSC Bal Vidyalaya proposes to address these aspects,” he said.
Common Service Centres (CSC) scheme is one of the mission mode projects under the Digital India Programme. There are over 3.6 lakh CSCs across India providing various services to people across the country.