Wipro Applying Thought in Schools

After our organised efforts, ‘The Wipro Applying Thought in Schools’ (WATIS) programme finally got kick-started. Vikramshila is WIPRO’s regional partner for the programme. The programme is essentially in the nature of an action research project, where our aim is to provide quality pedagogical inputs to schools across the spectrum – elite private schools to formal government schools. Our intention is to promote quality practices in both private and public educational institutes, keeping in line with our broad vision of achieving equity in quality of education.

The first phase of the programme, which is our private school intervention plan, commenced from January 2005. Our partner school for the programme is Calcutta International School. We have successfully conducted four months of training on the school. Through the intervention, Vikramshila has got involved in the teacher recruitment process and teacher appraisal system of the school. There are two more schools in this category with whom Vikramshila is going to begin work with. The second phase of the programme, which is our public school intervention plan, is going to commence from July 2005. This phase requires active interaction with the government system in order to formulate a cogent intervention strategy. We intend to work with three to four government schools and our primary focus shall be on developing a resource pool within the school system and transfer of skills at the end of the intervention. This section of the WATIS programme is more in line with Vikramshila’s area of interest and we are extremely pleased with WIPRO’s new strategy to support interventions in the public education system.