KOCHI: The pandemic has brought to the fore a harsh reality — an unprecedented divide based on class and financial status brought about by digital learning. However, it also revealed the presence of immense kindness and benevolence in society as people from different walks of life came together to help out students who can’t afford to buy smartphones or tablets to attend online classes.
Latest among such heart-warming tales of kindness comes from five students of Pallikoodam School at Kalathipady in Kottayam.
“The students came out with an impressive initiative to raise funds for students from economically backward families,” said the school authorities. Nihal Mathew, Niranjan Menon, Vinayak Dinesh, Kurien George Kalarickal and Kurien Kurien Kalarickal, all Class XII students, joined hands to raise funds to buy tablets for the deserving students.
“The students launched an online crowdfunding campaign. It was launched on June 12 and they raised over Rs 4 lakh. Using the money, they bought and donated 40 tablets to students of tw o government-run schools in Kanam and Kumarakom in the district,” said the school.
The crowdfunding campaign was carried out in association with The Tiny Seed, a non-profit organisation, committed to the cause of changing the lives of children by making their schools into better platforms for learning.“
The pandemic has widened the social gap, especially with everything going digital. Unfortunately, many students of government schools do not have access to a smartphone or tablet and this puts them at a serious disadvantage,” the students posted on the crowd-funding page they had created.