Samsung Reaffirms Commitment to #PoweringDigitalIndia; Adds Smart Classes to 80 More Navodaya Schools Under Samsung Smart School Initiative

Samsung India has announced that it is adding smart classes to 80 new Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) schools as part of its global Samsung Smart School initiative, providing digital education to less-privileged students and fulfilling its vision of #PoweringDigitalIndia by empowering the next generation of young India. With this addition, smart classes set up by Samsung will be available at 625 JNV schools and 10 Navodaya Leadership Institutes in 835 classrooms across the country, impacting close to 5 lakh students.

A majority of the new smart classes are being set up in very remote rural districts such as Kupwara in Jammu & Kashmir, Dahod in Gujarat, Sukma in Chhattisgarh, Darjeeling in West Bengal and Baksa in Assam. These new JNV schools are spread across 17 states.

JNV schools are run by the Ministry of Education, Government of India to make modern education available to talented children from rural India. There are currently 661 JNV schools in the country.

The first smart class by Samsung, as part of the Samsung Smart School initiative, was established in 2013 in association with Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti and the program has so far benefitted over 4.3 lakh students in the country. An additional 50,000 students will benefit from the new smart classes being set up. The program will also continue to support training of teachers. So far, over 8,000 teachers have been trained on how to use interactive technology to teach effectively, improving the quality of teaching and building capacity at JNV schools.

Every smart class set up by Samsung is equipped with an interactive Samsung Flip, Samsung tablets, a printer, a server, power backup and digital learning content.

 “NVS has had a very strong and fruitful relationship with Samsung. The Samsung Smart School project that has been running since 2013 has allowed our students and faculty to leverage technology at a time when the world is going digital. JNV students are among the best performing students in the country, and their access to the latest technology through this program has been a strong advantage for them. This will become even more important in the current times,” said Vinayak Garg, Commissioner, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti.

 “Samsung helps young people around the world gain access to better educational and learning opportunities as part of our citizenship vision of Together for Tomorrow! Enabling People. The addition of 80 new smart classes at JNV schools as part of the Samsung Smart School initiative strengthens our commitment to our vision of Powering Digital India. This citizenship initiative is closely tied with India’s development agenda, and implemented in close partnership with the government to ensure wider reach and impact among less-privileged students,” Partha Ghosh, Vice President, Corporate Citizenship, Samsung India, said.

Samsung is committed to harnessing its legacy of innovation to positively transform communities and create a better life for people through its citizenship initiatives. Samsung Smart School, the company’s flagship citizenship initiative in India, aims to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban India and provide equal opportunities for quality education to children from all backgrounds.

With the help of Samsung Smart School, students are taught Mathematics, Science, English and Social Science in an engaging and visually appealing manner, helping them learn better and improving retention. Teachers and school principals at JNV schools have provided feedback that smart classes set up by Samsung have increased student participation, familiarity and comfort with technology such as smartboards, tablets and printers.

Additionally, teachers have also said that students learn complicated concepts more easily and that the digitally interactive environment encourages shy or hesitant students to participate better in classroom discussions.