Quote:
Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi
Steve the problem with public schools in India (even in the most developed parts) is that they lack a lot of funding themselves. Solanki and I talked about having the team affiliated through IIT (India's top engineering school) which his dad is an alumnus of. Potential sponsors include his dad's company, IIT Delhi, TATA Motors, as well as Microsoft India. Solanki also attends the American Embassy School so hopefully it goes over better there.
A huge issue that Solanki and I discussed is that students in India are largely already overwhelmed with school work (no this is not a stereotype, it is very true) and so far only 5 students have claimed interest in joining in on this opportunity. Hopefully we can think of ways to get more kids involved though. Mentors and resources should not be too big of an issue though.
Akash
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Akash,
I agree totally with the issues you raised. I am reaching out to some of my contacts over there, Educomp Datamatics, InfoSys, and and Wipro. I see several major issues, many identified already here on this thread: 1. Funding, 2. Lack of desire to be apart of a non-Indian initiative, 3. Student Time constraints, and lastly 4. Getting Mentors. When I attempted this earlier, the mentors that I was talking to, asked me, "How much do we get paid?" I found this to be a common issue.
As to my comment about "Public" schools, I meant that in the definition of what a "Public" school is in India, vs "Government" schools - which is more like what we call public schools. The public schools I worked with, in India, were privately funded and sponsored, and had at least some money, but certainly - even in those cases - were constantly dealing with budget issues.
I do understand about the time contraints that Indian students have. If they aren't in school, they are in an after school tutoring program, or they are working. I would recommend a robotics curriculum, that could be part of the school day, backed by some kind of technology grant/initiative. I think that FTC might be the better initial approach within the schools, then FRC.
We can reach kids, no matter what part of the world they live in, no matter what conditions they live in. I believe that this FIRST community can make it happen!