Project Excellence-Investing in bringing quality to school education for the underprivileged

Redington (India) Limited, (a supply chain solutions provider for all categories of information technology, telecom, lifestyle, healthcare and solar products), is a much-respected name in India today, not the least because of its remarkable growth from humble beginnings. Valued at US $ 6.6 billion, the company currently serves over 220 international brands in 30+ emerging markets. However, when it was set up in 1933, it was a one-brand, one-product-category and one-market organization.

Along with its own development, Redington has thrown its weight behind social responsibility. Its Redington Foundation is a trustinstituted by the organization, with the sole purpose of undertaking corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, as per the guidelines of the Companies Act 2013. Strivingfor excellence beyond businesses is the credo of the organization in this department and in accordance with this, it put into place a strong CSR program in 2015. Under the umbrella of Foundation for CSR @ Redington, the company turned its focus on various developmental verticals, one of the most prominent amongst them being education.

 Project Excellence is one of the initiatives of the organization, into which it has invested time, effort and finances. With a desire to harness the capability and talent of the younger generation, which it sees as the future of the country, the project is looking at bringing quality education to the underprivileged, caught in the cycle of poverty. The aim is not only to curb drop-out rates but to make school education the stepping stone for building the future of children who hail from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Working along with already existing schools for underprivileged children in rural and urban parts of Tamil Nadu, the projectaims at giving the student community within the schools, access to quality education.

This is done through a multi-pronged approach. Since Redington believes that visual knowledge is required side-by-side with reading, it has worked on a project to give students, classes through audio-visual aid, using high-class technology to do so. To this end, Project Excellence has been responsible for creatingSmart Classrooms, in schools in both rural and urban Tamil Nadu. This pioneering initiative in school education, can quite transform the school and learning experience, by revolutionizing teaching methods. It llustrates and clears abstract concepts, which are brought to the classroom by means of computers, e-learning, animation videos and interactive boards. It is well known that a vast number of teachers in the country, working on low salaries and with barely any exposure to training and innovation, are a demotivated and lacklustre lot. With exposure to Smart Classrooms, not only do the students have a new and exciting method of learning, but the teachers have an invigorating motivating factor which encourages them towards better teaching and zeal. Significantly, Project Excellence does not end with simply setting up the Smart Classroom.  It ensures in-depth training of the teachers, equipping them to bring out the excellence in themselves, with the broader aim of bringing out the best in the students.

Under Redington’s interventions, 300 teachers and 150 parents have been trained to date and 50,000 students are learning through digital content. The model is flexible so that while some classrooms might be completely upgraded, others may have only a few features, as per the limitations of space and available facilities.

In order to associate with a school, Program Excellence signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the institution, with the aim of adopting the school to give it support in relevant areas of requirement. Apart from giving financial and technical support to the school, the foundation also supports needy students by providing them with scholarship programmes. Very significantly it believes in motivating teachers by recognizing their contribution and has instituted a teacher’s awards programme as well.  Known as the Sahyog Awards, there are certain guidelines to be followed for teachers and students to be nominated. Applications are invited from schools, with a cap to the number of students and teachers who can be nominated from each school.  Students of Class XI and XII are eligible for nomination. The students need proof that they belong to an economically weak background and only those who have scored a certain percentage in their Class X board examinations can apply, though there are  relaxations in rules and normsfor the children of widows and divorced women as well as for students from very remote areas and the girl child, as the foundation sees fit.

 Conditions apply for teachers to be nominated as well; thecandidate needs a minimum of 15 years of teaching experience and should have proof that he or she is from an economically challenged group. Of course, apart from this, the school needs to nominate only those teachers who have shown extraordinary dedication and effort towards their job.

With a project budget of 1.84 crores, Redington has spent 1.36 crores on Project Excellence so far. It is looking to extend its reach as far as possible in Tamil Nadu to rural and urban schools for the underprivileged, in its mission of bringing quality education to the underprivileged.