Mission Vidyashakti to boost learning among middle school students

Hubballi: A new education initiative titled 'Mission Vidyashakti' will soon be launched in Dharwad district to enhance academic outcomes for students in classes 6 to 8. Following the success of 'Mission Vidyakashi' for SSLC students, this scheme aims to improve learning quality and push the district into the top 10 in statewide rankings over the next two to three years.
The district administration launched the 'Mission Vidyakashi' programme last year. Despite not getting the expected results in the examination, the district secured 18th position, moving up four places from the previous time. It was limited to only 10th class students. However, keeping in mind the students of 6th, 7th, and 8th classes, the 'Mission Vidyashakti' scheme was formulated in collaboration with IIT and IIIT.
Under this scheme, students are taught online using smart classes in schools.
SM Hudedamani, deputy project coordinator Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan at the DDPI office, said that under this scheme, subjects like Mathematics, Science, and English, which are difficult for students and which most students fail in the exams, will be taught. The difficult points will be taught in an easy, simple, and varied manner so that the students can understand them.
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He said that the scheme will be formulated so that there will be no disruption in the daily classes. In collaboration with IIT, IIIT Karnataka-Hyderabad, online classes will be conducted by subject experts for 1 hour in the afternoon, three days a week. Students can interact online about the subjects they do not know and get answers from experts,'' said Hudedmani.
DDPI Shankmukhaswamy Keladimath said that the first phase of the meeting was held under the chairmanship of the deputy commissioner Divya Prabhu regarding the launch of the 'Mission Vidyashakti'.
Another meeting will be held soon to discuss the implementation of the scheme. The scheme was formulated with a view to cover the next two to three years to ensure that students achieve good results in examinations.
Divya Prabhu, deputy commissioner, told TOI that a meeting was already held with officials of the school education department to formulate the scheme. Its main objective is for students to score good results in the examination.The difficult points for students in Mathematics, Science, and English were already identified, and the syllabus was prepared by subject experts. Students will be taught online in smart classes by skilled education experts from IITs and IIITs.
One teacher with computer experience in each school will be given the responsibility of managing it. They will be trained by June 15. The plan is to start the scheme in the last week of June, she informed.

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He added: 'It's not merely a hardware problem. It's the sovereignty of our digital future.' 'Sometimes I Want to Cry' There has long been a tech gap between rich and developing countries. Over the past decade, cheap smartphones, expanding internet coverage and flourishing app-based businesses led some experts to conclude that the divide was diminishing. Last year, 68 percent of the world's population used the internet, up from 33 percent in 2012, according to the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency. With a computer and knowledge of coding, getting a company off the ground became cheaper and easier. That lifted tech industries across the world, be they mobile payments in Africa or ride hailing in Southeast Asia. But in April, the U.N. warned that the digital gap would widen without action on AI Just 100 companies, mostly in the United States and China, were behind 40 percent of global investment in the technology, the U.N. said. The biggest tech companies, it added, were 'gaining control over the technology's future.' The gap stems partly from a component everyone wants: a microchip known as a graphics processing unit, or GPU. The chips require multibillion-dollar factories to produce. Packed into data centers by the thousands and mostly made by Nvidia, GPUs provide the computing power for creating and delivering cutting-edge AI models. Obtaining these pieces of silicon is difficult. As demand has increased, prices for the chips have soared, and everyone wants to be at the front of the line for orders. Adding to the challenges, these chips then need to be corralled into giant data centers that guzzle up dizzying amounts of power and water. Many wealthy nations have access to the chips in data centers, but other countries are being left behind, according to interviews with more than two dozen tech executives and experts across 20 countries. 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Jay Puri, Nvidia's executive vice president for global business, said the company was also working with various countries to build out their AI offerings. 'It is absolutely a challenge,' he said. Chris Lehane, OpenAI's vice president of global affairs, said the company had started a program to adapt its products for local needs and languages. A risk of the AI divide, he said, is that 'the benefits don't get broadly distributed, they don't get democratized.' Tencent, Alibaba, Huawei, Google, Amazon, Hetzner and OVHcloud declined to comment. The gap has led to brain drains. In Argentina, Dr. Wolovick, 51, the computer science professor, cannot offer much compute power. His top students regularly leave for the United States or Europe, where they can get access to GPUs, he said. 'Sometimes I want to cry, but I don't give up,' he said. 'I keep talking to people and saying: 'I need more GPUs. I need more GPUs.'' 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