Community Radio Station

                                         Dear Friends & MIE Experts, I have chosen to initiate a project on Community Radio Station (CRS) involving students and teachers from various subjects. The concept will promote peer-peer teaching amongst students and also give them necessary exposure and skill set for a career in mass media and communication, radio jockeying, event management etc in addition to developing leadership skills. The IT Department of Mayo College has been involved every year in giving exposure to students on problems based on social issues. Some of the projects that have been addressed are Women Atrocities, Alone Together, Save Girl Child, India of My Dreams, GM Crops-Boon or Bane, Web Relevance, Impact of Social Networking, Role of ICT in Education, Renewable sources of energy etc. and they have been presented by students to the general public during the Annual day function. The purpose of such initiative is two-pronged–expose students to real world problems and sensitize them and give an opportunity for them to work in a group, develop ICT and leadership skills to be creative and innovative. The results are shared in the larger group and in various social media in the form of blogs and wikis. Students collaboratively work with teachers which bring them closer and also develop camaraderie amongst students. The students are not forced to adopt a view-point, rather they are given the freedom to express themselves in the way they wish to. The school provides opportunity for students to have access to labs after school hours, allow them to be part of various clubs and societies to bring the best in them.  The IT department runs a hobby class after school hours called the CRAY COMPUTER CLUB and currently has 108 members. Interactions with subject experts and Skype sessions with other schools in the region and abroad on similar projects are a regular feature. The School encourages students to participate in various IT related competitions in house and at State and National level. Our students have performed extremely well in the past and have won many laurels for the school. This year we have embarked upon an innovative initiative of educating village children through Community Radio Station exclusively managed by students. This project is a great example for online collaboration for Real World Problem-Solving. Students from Classes VII to XI participate voluntarily with the assistance of teachers.   People living in villages face adversities that people living in urban areas cannot imagine. The difficulties range from lack of basic amenities to lack of good schools and infrastructure. Drop out ratio in schools for boys are very high and for girl children they are even more. Boys are expected to help the head of family in agriculture which is their stable occupation throughout the year.  Even if the child has the inclination to study, the parents’ expectations do not allow them to go to school. Girl children are even more unfortunate as social issues play spoilsport and they are required to look after house hold chores. Taking infrastructure to villages will be a herculean task with lack of other support facilities like electricity.  A via-media to reach out to village children and educate them at the leisure of their residence and at a time convenient to them is Community Radio Station (CRS). There is no requirement for costly infrastructure to be put up in place at villages.  Villagers can enjoy seamless connectivity with the help of a basic radio set or a mobile phone, the penetration levels of such devices in villages are very high. The facility only requires a small room with audio recording equipment/software, a mixer, a transmitter that is mounted on a tower to relay the program. A basic mobile phone or radio set acts as the receiver. CRS enables educating village communities in the vicinity up to a range of 18-20 Kms.   Mass student participation in the program will enable the students to have first-hand knowledge of the difficulties faced by children living in villages and at the same time develop oratory skills in students in addition to skills like compering, radio jockeying and instill in them leadership skills.  The Government of India has been very supportive of this campaign and assists schools in providing clearances in terms of spectrum allocation for FM transmission. We hope to educate many children by this innovative initiative and take this to other schools in the region to make India a country with 100% literacy.   I thank Microsoft for giving me this amazing opportunity to showcase this project globally.