Peep into the 'hole-in-the-wall' AfterSchool!

Getting Indian children ready for the digital age has to be a thrust of afterschool programmes. A well known initiative in this direction is the Hole-in-the-Wall.

Hole-in-the-Wall Education Ltd. (HiWEL) is a joint venture between NIIT Ltd. and the International Finance Corporation. The initiative is about more than just setting up computers in playground walls for children to use on their own. It calls the approach - Minimally Invasive Education - meaning that children can learn to get together and use computers (for learning educational content) on their own. HiWEL has set up more than a 100 playground learning stations across the country so far.

PCs and the internet need to be as accessible as the STD/ISD booths all over India's cities, towns and villages. Sure we have internet cafes in urban centres - but these are not easy to set up (a room, 4-8 computers, furniture, UPS, etc.). Also they aren't 'transparent'. Safety of the child is an issue (for example, risk of exposure to adult content).