Goa Church to Help School Dropouts

November 22, 2011: The Church in India’s Goa state and a business chamber have joined hands to help school and college dropouts.
“We would be employing dropouts to operate the Microsoft promoted information and communication technology (ICT) kiosks named ‘Saksham’,” said Manguirish Pai Raikar, president of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI).
He said that the kiosks will allow people from places cut off from urban centres to avail the benefits of technology.
“We are tying up with schools of the Diocesan Society of Education to set up the Saksham kiosks. We hope this will help harness the talents of those who unfortunately drop out of schools and colleges,” Raikar said.
He said that the Church in Goa plays a very important role in the education sector and more particularly in the technical education field.
The chamber plans to draw a detailed program in consultation with various Church-controlled educational institutions and take this initiative further, he added.
Launched in 2006, project Saksham is part of Microsoft’s rural computing initiative.
The Church is a socio-politically well entrenched entity in Goa, where the Christian population is pegged at nearly 25 percent.
According to National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) statistics, the average dropout rate in Goa is 13.18 percent, which is higher than the national average of 9.36 percent.
NUEPA figures also show that the transition from primary to upper primary classes in Goa was 79 percent as compared to the all-India average of 81.13 percent.