It was always our vision that all our students must have a tablet or a laptop to enhance their learning capacity and academic achievement, but we could not imagine that we will ever have the resources to give them to all the students. We also knew that they would not be able to purchase it from their families’ resources. But we made a start with primary classes. In 2017, we gave a 7 inch tablet to all students of class 2 as we did not have higher classes. We also did not give it to KG and class one girls, being too young to work on them. When these girls were promoted to higher classes and new Admissions took place, we continued to purchase more tablets to cover the new classes and new girls. We could only afford to give them a 7 inch basic model but it did the work. We have now 100% coverage with tablets for the primary section.
In March 2020 when corona virus pandemic hit the world and India and the schools were closed, we had a crisis on our hands. Our girls from poor families could not benefit from online classes as they did not have access to smart phones and computer gadgets. Nearly 80% of our students could not participate in the online classes in a meaningful way. However, the primary classes were fully ready.
We were already getting CSR funds from some companies. In 2020, we completely changed our focus and requested the companies to give us funds for purchase of tablets and laptops. We were lucky to have contacts at the senior most levels in some big companies. We got the CSR funds and purchased 160 seven inch tablets for primary classes, 324 ten inch tablets for classes 6,7,8 and 309 laptops for senior classes of 9,10,11 and 12. It is expected that we will have 100% coverage of the entire strength of students from class 2 to 12 by December 2021.
KBV was set up in 1944 soon after the death of Mrs. Kasturba Gandhi, wife of Mahatma Gandhi by close followers of Gandhiji, who wanted to provide quality education for girls from underprivileged families.
