Samsung India has announced that it has added 200 new Samsung Smart Classes at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas across the country, government schools in Tamil Nadu and at Delhi Police Public Schools. Samsung Smart Class, a flagship citizenship initiative by the company, is now available at 652 JNVs, 28 government schools in Tamil Nadu and three Delhi Police Public Schools, taking the total number in India to 683.

As many as 70 JNVs, which previously did not have a smart class, have got one Samsung Smart Class each, while a second Samsung Smart Class has been added to 99 JNVs.

JNVs are run by the Union Ministry of Human Resource & Development, which introduced the smart classes to these schools with an aim to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban India.

Stating that the government wants “technology to be used to increase the digital intensity in education”, Minister for Human Resource & Development Prakash Javadekar said, “Education is not just the ability to read and write, but also gain a huge amount of knowledge.” He added: “We are happy that Samsung is making a valuable contribution in our effort to move from blackboard to digital board across schools.”

Speaking on the programme, Tamil Nadu School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan said, “The Government of Tamil Nadu is working towards creating better facilities for quality education in the state. This collaboration for Samsung Smart Class is a step in that direction and will enable us to provide quality education to underprivileged students.”

To address a key challenge of taking English literacy to rural India, Samsung has started offering a digital programme on spoken English to all students at JNVs.

HC Hong, president and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia, said, “Samsung Smart Class initiative has helped over 2.5 lakh children across the nation become digitally literate. This initiative is closely tied with India’s development agenda, and implemented in close partnership with government departments to ensure wider reach and impact among the less-privileged children.”

The first Samsung Smart Class was established in 2013 in association with Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, covering over 2.5 lakh students till now. As part of the programme, over 8,000 teachers have been trained on how to use interactive technology to teach more effectively.

Every Samsung Smart Class is equipped with an interactive Samsung smartboard, Samsung tablets, a printer, Wi-Fi connectivity and power backup.