School Digital Literacy Project

There is already a steady trend of applying computers and its peripheral technologies in the process of imparting knowledge, delivery of training as well as means of communications and administration in educational institutions. On-line applications, internet reading references, email notices/announcements, file attachments replacing hard copies of homework/paper/report, pen drives instead of photo-copies, tablets and e-readers instead of books, web-sites instead of notice-boards, LCD projectors instead overhead projectors, LCD monitors instead TVs, digital boards instead of black-boards are just few examples of these transformations. These are the writings on the wall that tell us which way we are heading with our learning modality.

These trends would be equally true not only as a future student but also as a future person in this rapidly changing lifestyle across the world. We are rapidly seeking information from organizations and businesses through web-sites rather than through printed literatures or contacts by phone or visits to their premises. Our applications for jobs and admissions are already from PDF files or on-line forms. We are already placing orders or making bookings or purchasing services and products through the internet. We are already receiving funds and making payments through secure sites and internet rather than through cheques and cash. Emails and file attachments have already replaced telex, fax, letters and parcels. Facebook, Tweeter, Viber and Zoom are slowly stealing away our handwritten letters, birthday-cards, telephone calls, luncheons, tea-coffee chats and even pub hang-outs.

Those days are not too far away when we will cease to meet the cashier, salesgirl, bank teller or hear the telephone operator and when queries are answered by FAQs and pre-recorded “if-then-otherwise-and all other” messages. And when that digital era will have taken over completely and comprehensively, God help that soul if he or she cannot turn on the computer, dance on the key-board and make the flat monitor sing!

The children in the remote villages of Nepal cannot be left behind in the global transformation of communications. While Nepal’s mobile penetration percentage is over 100 per cent, more than 90% of schools in Nepal lack digital connectivity and ICT devices. Nepal’s digital literacy rate stands at only 31 per cent and total literacy rate is 65 per cent in the country. The lack of access to computers, internet connection and IT knowledge are major obstacles to digital literacy in Nepal, especially in the rural regions.

Thus, the volunteering travel project and donation of internet access time, computers, printers and other IT accessories would push one notch towards a vibrant digital Nepal. It is estimated that an additional 10 % internet penetration would bring about 3 % growth in national GDP. But most of all, the digital literacy boot-camp for the village school children will open the whole world and its opportunities to them despite being tucked away in the most remote corner of the world.