Successful cross-sector partnerships work well together towards solving shared challenges through the utilization of core competencies of each organization. Such partnerships work well when the collaboration is aligned with the organizational mission and strategy of each partner. Also the key to such partnerships is the recognition that each partner brings valuable contribution to the partnership.
The Rotary project for Vocational Service in partnership with CSPathshala, addresses the goal to bring computational skills to children, by empowering the educators to develop problem solving skills in children at the formative age.
The Rotary Club of Pimpri have partnered with the CSPathshala to take forward the project of “Bringing Computational Thinking to schools” under their Vocational Training Project for the teachers.
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)India has started a national K-12 education initiative, CSpathshala in 2016, to teach computing as a science (CS) in all Indian schools by the year 2030. Introducing CS curriculum for schools in India has several challenges over. Addressing which will not only improve employability but will also provide industry with the right talent. CSPathshala strongly believes in partnerships to realize its vision.
Through this partnership CSPathshala and Rotary Club of Pimpri are together working towards increasing the outreach for schools to join the program. Mrs. Vibha Zutshi, President, Rotary Club of Pimpri and her colleague Ann. Radha Kumar have assisted CSPathshala in connecting to the over 25 schools in PCMC. The efforts in connecting with schools culminated in a½ day workshop organized on 11th March 2017 at GG International School, Pimpri that saw participation of 70+ teacher from over 20 schools.
The objective of the workshop was to motivate all the teachers to teach computing as a science through enhanced understanding on why CS should be taught in schools and how is CS different from ICT was shared by Ms. Sonia Garcha. She also thanked the GGIS management for all the support. Mr. Ashok Kumar, Director, Vocational Training welcomed the participants with “A warm welcome to this Wonderful Programme of ‘Bringing Computational Skills’ to Schools – to produce the next generation of Steeve Jobs, Bill Gates, Nandella and Sunder Pitchai, etc.”. Ms Ms. Bharti Bhagwani, Principal GGIS School also said, “Computer Science is an important part of the education that the child receives. If we enhance creativity, innovation in this field, children will be masterpieces”. She also thanked Rotary Club of Pimpri and CSPathshala for bringing this CS curriculum to their school. This was followed by the CSPathshala Overview by Mr. Vipul Shah through an activity based interactive session which was well received by the teachers. The session on “What is Computational Thinking” was conducted by Mr. Ravi Mahamuni and Ms. Sonali Gogate. The experience sharing session by the teachers from City Pride, Nigdi who are part of the pilot program 2016-17 led to an interesting dialogue between the teachers regarding the implementation of the CS curriculum. The workshop ended with the distribution of certificates of participation to the teachers and a vote of thanks
This further led to the sign up of 12 schools for the pilot program for 2017-18. In this pilot program CSPathshala and Rotary Club of Pimpri volunteers will work with these schools to seamlessly integrate the units into the existing curriculum.
