Sundaram Multi Pap Ltd, a manufacturer of paper products for school students and office use, plans to launch software on virtual classes for students of standards 8th, 9th and 10th in English and Marathi for the Maharashtra state syllabus.
A wholly-owned subsidiary company has been formed under the name of Sundaram Edusys Pvt Ltd which will produce the software for the state board course, called Back to School 2010.
“It will come in the form of a set-top box which can simply be plugged in and played on a computer, laptop or a television set. We have roped in about 50 teachers and experts for this project. It will be complete with two- and three-dimensional animation to help students learn better,” Amrut P Shah, chairman and managing director, Sundaram Multi Pap Ltd told Business Standard.
The product will have a real and an animated teacher in a virtual class, teaching chapter-wise with the help of animated pictures, mind map theory and the like. The software will have chapters covered from textbooks of all the 22 subjects, which will involve a one-time subscription cost. Once, purchased, the software can be used multiple times by multiple students. Amrut wouldn’t go into details of the price of the software.
“We are still working it out. We aim at launching it in the coming academic year and that is when the costs will be declared. This kind of a package is ideal for students and also for teachers and coaching classes, etc,” he added. The company recently launched an eco-friendly photocopy paper and completed a Rs 17 crore expansion project at Palghar. The expansion includes a new exercise book manufacturing machine with a fully automatic production line. This has stepped up the comapny’s annual capacity of converting paper into stationery from 20,000 tonnes to 30,000 tonnes.