Sutherland, an experience-led digital transformation company, is partnering with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras to support the education of 10,000 students from economically-disadvantaged backgrounds. Under the initiative, students’ cost of certification will be reduced by 50 per cent. This scholarship funding enabled students to obtain certification in the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) online courses for the January 2022 semester. The funding supported 10,000 beneficiaries from 160 colleges in 18 states across the country.
Prof. Andrew Thangaraj, NPTEL Coordinator, IIT Madras, said, “With the generous support from Sutherland, these students, many of whom hail from families of first-generation learners, now have the opportunity to obtain NPTEL certification.”
One of the beneficiaries, Kartavya Singh Jadoun from Madhya Pradesh, said, “My father passed away two years ago, my mother is a housewife. So, to manage the economic conditions of our home I have to do a part-time job along with my studies. This scholarship will help me to fund my next NPTEL examination registration.”
Anubattula Sai Prakash from Telangana, also a beneficiary, said, “My father and mother are labourers in the construction industry. The fee reduction through the scholarship is a huge benefit for a poor student like me. It helped me to enrol for some more courses. Thank you so much.”
The NPTEL is a joint initiative of IITs, including IIT Madras, and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) under the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India. It offers more than 600 courses for certification every semester on the national Massive Open Online Courses’ (MOOCs) portal – swayam.gov.in – in various engineering disciplines, sciences, humanities and management and also focuses on relevant exposure to the latest tools and technologies.
The duration of NPTEL courses are 4, 8 and 12 weeks. Enrolment in these courses and the learning process are free and open to anyone who wishes to learn from. Learners must watch videos online and submit assignments on a weekly basis. At the end of each online course, an optional in-person, proctored examination is conducted for certification which involves a cost of Rs 1,000.
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