New Delhi, May 7
It’s summer time once again. With a month-long vacation, it is time to unwind oneself, change the routine of school and homework. It is time to enjoy, but productively. For the kids and the youth of today, the world of computers offers immense scope to explore their creative and analytical skills. From graphics to animations, from programming to web designing, all with a click of the mouse.
With the PC penetration, especially in the metros, increasing every day and the schools introducing computer education from an early stage, handling the mouse, joy stick and the key board is a must for the kids of Y-generation.
As the country, despite the economic slowdown, has not given up the dream of becoming the IT super power by the end of this decade, the kids of today need to learn the art of clicking the mouse to come up with the right business model like the brick and mortar, lest it bursts like the dotcom bubble.
Catch them young, as the saying goes. With this in mind, the computer institutes have come up with innovative and attractive courses to suit the needs of the school kids to productively utilise the summer holidays and would unveil their creative talent and would be useful in their courseware. The IT education giant, NIIT, has come out with its “summer camp” for schoolchildren which mixes fun with learning. “The NIIT has created the summer camp as an exciting, imaginative and fun-filled programme designed to drive away vacation blues and boredom of the generation Next,” the senior vice-president of the IT major, Mr Sanjiv Kataria, told ‘NCR Tribune’.
He said, “Summer time is a period when students have a lot of time on their hands and is the right opportunity to work on their overall development.”
Ms Parul Sharma, working in a multinational company, said, “Such computer courses would help my child learn productively during the summer holidays. I wish, during my childhood, we had such avenues.”
“Apart from enhancing the creative talent of the children, such courses also help working parents to be tension free about their child, as parents cannot take a month-long break during summers, nor can they keep a watch on their wards, who would otherwise while away the time,” she added.
Class VII student Rohit said, “Computers is fun. Learning new things on computers is exciting. I can show off in my school what I learn during summers to my classmates.”
Another student, Akansha of Class IV, said: “I like drawing and I want to create cartoon characters. I want to learn animation. When the school reopens, I can show my Miss, what I have learnt during vacation.”
The vacation course is targeting schoolchildren from classes I to XII, with a specific package catering to each level. It recognises that students of different classes and age groups have different needs, he said. Mr Kataria said the students have 20 packages to choose from and all of them are centred on four components – basic computer knowledge alongside coverage of the English and Maths school curriculum, they will also be exposed to exciting IT applications like web site hosting.
They will be able to participate in painting workshop, face-mask making contests, computer games championships, movie outing and other activities organised by NIIT under the umbrella of its ‘fun’ calendar, he added.
Mr Kataria said a typical package for Classes I and II would include computer learning programme, a course in English and a paint workshop. Moving up the spectrum, the package gets more extensive in terms of content and the number of hours of learning. Children seeking slightly more advanced learning can scale up to C++, graphics.
So kids, what are you waiting for? It is time to enter the world of bit & bytes and ROM & RAM.
