NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, OCT 29
Lions Club of Ahmedabad Sola, Ahmedabad Chapter of Shree Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sewa Samiti have jointly distributed free tablets to 50 students of Ahmedabad Municipal School Board-run schools in Naranpura last Thursday, October 21.
Chief guest Past Lions International Director Pravin Chhajed said, “With the COVID-induced closure of educational institutions, online classes have become the norm. While the children of affluent families have gadgets like laptops and tablets to attend the online classes, poor and needy children studying in AMC School Board-run schools were deprived of this vital facility to continue their education from home. The inevitable need of digital empowerment of students had been felt at every level. To bridge this digital divide, we are distributing 50 tablets to them in this mega social service event.”
Commenting on this initiative, Lions Club of Ahmedabad Sola president JP Gandhi said, “On hearing about this digital divide one month ago, Lion Prakash Jain, past president of our club, had taken up the responsibility of donating 50 tablets to Gujarati- and Hindi-medium students of Naranpura School No 4 and No 1. We hope this would help the civic-run school students to compete with students from private schools and excel in education. Further, Bihar contributes maximum number of civil servants to the country. Our initiative will change this trend and Gujarat will produce more number of civil servants.”
“The AMC ought to allocate adequate fund in its annual budget for distributing free tablets to its students. This will certainly raise the standard of education in School Board-run schools,” Gandhi added.
Lion Prakash Jain, who had taken up this project, said, “We have adopted Naranpura School No 4 about 35 years ago and fulfilling its needs in all possible ways. We have been working in tandem with the School Board and the school principal in this regard. The distribution of tablets is one of our social responsibilities.”
Speaking with navjeevanexpress.com, Naranpura School principal Pravinaben Jadeja said, “We are indebted to the Lions Club of Ahmedabad Sola for helping us to compete with private schools in imparting quality education to the poor and needy children. Most of children are coming from OBC, SC and ST categories who can’t afford to buy tablets. Today, 23 students of Std 8 Gujarati- and 22 of Hindi-medium have received free tablets and their joy is boundless. Apart from this, the Lions Club has been regularly distributing prizes to our school toppers in the annual examinations as well as Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations to motivate them.”
Vedant Chaudhary, one of the beneficiaries of free tablets and Gujarati-medium student, was all smiles on owning a tablet. Sharing his thoughts, Vedant said, “Our computer teacher has taught us how to use tablets and desktops for online education. Our school has excellent infrastructure as well as teachers for which we are thankful to all – AMC and the Lions Club.”
Suresh Patel, MD, Bodal Chemicals Ltd; Balmukund Shah, Dist Governor-3232B2; Yogesh Parikh, Chairman, Environment Committee, GCCI were present as guest of honours.
BMVSS Vice Chairman Lalit Jain, Virendra Patel and the assistant AO of AMC School Board also attended the function.
