Odisha Engineering Students Give Free Online Education To School Children

Sambalpur: Realising that not all school students have access to education amidst the coronavirus crisis, a group of students of Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) at Burla are providing free tutorials and guidance through their initiative ‘Unlock Education: The New Face of Knowledge’, reported The New Indian Express (TNIE).

Founder Hrudanand Prusty, a BTech (Metallurgy) student, said the virtual tuitions are being provided to students of Class VIII to X belonging to any of the three boards in the state, the report said.

“We started this initiative after realising that a large number of school students are not getting learning guidance due to various reasons during the lockdown,” TNIE reported Prusty as saying.

What started as an initiative by Prusty and his two batchmates Ankita Meher and Ayushi Swain on Facebook in the first week of July, is now a 50-member strong group with students from different colleges.

Now, apart from clearing their doubts on a WhatsApp group, students also clear their doubts on audio and video calls, besides lectures on YouTube. The ‘Unlock Team’ remains online from 6 am to 1 am every day.

From five students in the first few days, today at least 200 students are seeking benefit from the platform including 30 students from BSE board, 80 from ICSE, and the rest from CBSE board reported TNIE.

Prusty, who completed his BTech on July 30, said any student from within the state can approach the team on their contact number 8249462667 and get free tutorials in any subject. “We want more and more number of students to benefit from this initiative”, he told TNIE.