Mumbai slum education project attracts support from UK tech company

MUMBAI, India - Sept. 23, 2020 - PRLog -- Social distancing meant Aarti Naik was unable to continue teaching English and Maths to 7-14-year-olds in the city slum area where she grew-up.

Now Ann Attridge, chief executive of Glasgow-based Klik2learn, has agreed to provide 25 computer tablets to allow the girls to continue their lessons remotely.

Installed on the tablets is Klik2learn's educational software, Journey2BasicSkills, a programme designed to give students the reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills necessary for further study in an English-speaking environment.

Aarti, who launched her SAKHI for Girls Education project for slum dwelling girls who would otherwise receive no education in 2008, said the donations will help to prevent her work grinding to a halt.

She said: "It will be a great learning resource for every girl to access quality, basic education in this challenging situation of the Coronavirus crisis and continuous lockdown.

"This program and the tablets will provide a solid foundation for girls in English, numeracy, and literacy skills. It will be a life-time investment in every girl's education for her better future."

Ann, a former chartered schoolteacher from the Isle of Skye who launched Klik2learn in 2012, said: "Aarti is quite a remarkable young lady, doing her best to educate hundreds of girls on her own, having not been able to continue her own education. She wants others in the slum community to benefit.

"She needs to be able to reach more people and she can only do that digitally because people can't meet due to Covid.

"Tablets with our data packages seemed to be exactly what they are looking for. The devices will reach more than 25 girls because they share them at home with their siblings."

Aarti launched the programme after dropping out of school aged 16. She failed English and Maths largely, she says, because she had no-one to guide or support her.

She has since helped more than 400 girls to continue into formal education or to gain employment. Typically, their household income amounts to around £2.50 per day.

She said: "I was unable to get individual attention to improve my basic skills in English language and Maths. Getting access to private coaching classes to build my basic skills was not affordable for my parents due to their poor financial conditions."