Have you ever wondered why the area of a circle is:
 A = 1/2 * base * height.

Well if you're anything like us, you just memorized for the sake of a couple of exams in school and then forgot about it. So, when we visited a government school in Banjenapalya off Kanakapura Road, here in Bangalore and found the headmaster teaching how this formula is derived using hands-on methods, we were very impressed. However the thing that really caught our attention, was the student. Every single one was paying attention to the lesson and not a single whisper or a distracted child looking out the window. No every student, was keenly focused on the Headmaster.

The headmaster himself is extremely dedicated since he has to use very rudimentary materials such as cardboard boxes and matches to help explain concepts. In fact this was how he taught the concept of the area of a triangle, using a bunch of cardboard boxes, and it was very effective.
However as concepts become more complex in the higher grades, it is no longer possible to use cardboard and matches to teach concepts in this method. This requires one of two things, either a well equipped lab or an internet connection. This school has no real estate available to build a lab. Moreover, building a reasonable science lab is extremely expensive. On the other hand, a 4G dongle connection requires virtually no real estate and is far cheaper, costing only about Rs. 12000 per year.  This internet connection which most of us take for granted, gives the school access to an infinite amount of resources such as lab simulations which come close to replacing a real lab.

These resources are something that is considered a right by many of the students whom we surveyed. Over 80% of these students go to well-funded private school or live in a developed country. Because of this over 35% of these students consider themselves to have a higher access to the internet than the rest of the world. More than 70% of these students also consider free online resources extremely important to them. Furthermore about 50% of them also believe that students without access to internet will be less successful than those with access to technology.

Many of the students belong to a higher socio-economic strata and because of this have access to these resources. We belive that providing these resources to people who can properly utilize these resources, will go a small way in closing the economic divide. Since, this particular headmaster already knows how to utilize these resources to the fullest capacity and has shown that through hard work he is able to engage his students in the learning process, giving him an internet connection will go a very long way in changing the lives of the students in this school. This model could then be used to equip other schools with similar resources and thereby increase the quality of education in the country. Any small donation will go a long way in funding this small amount which would really change the lives of these students
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