Microsoft Project Shiksha trains 200,000 teachers

* 200,000 government school teachers IT enabled across the country

* State-government partnered project exceeds targets

* Teachers in all 514 NVS schools trained; 923 KVS schools will be completed by June 2008

Mumbai, January 14, 2008: Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. today announced that Project Shiksha, the company's initiative to accelerate IT literacy amongst government school teachers and students in India, has created a unique milestone by training 2,00,000 teachers till date.

Launched in India in December 2003 by Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation, Project Shiksha had a target of reaching out to 80,000 teachers by December 2008, a period of five years. The target has already been surpassed by 250 percent, a year ahead of the deadline.

Under project Shiksha, run in partnership with state governments, Microsoft India currently has MoUs with 10 states for 11 academies, offering a spectrum of education resources, including tools, programs, and practices with an aim to promote the use of IT in education. The 11 IT Academies span across Uttaranchal (Dehradun), Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad), Karnataka (Gulbarga, Dharwad, Bangalore), Maharashtra (Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad), Rajasthan (Jaipur), Tamil Nadu (Chennai) and Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal) The project has, impacted 10 million students across the country.

Commenting on landmark achievement of the initiative, Karan Bajwa, Country Head, Public Sector, Microsoft India, said, "We believe that education is a crucial area for India's continued growth. The investment made in it over the years is what has propelled India's growth in the knowledge economy; and it is critical that we continue to focus on education. In our endeavor to partner with India on its journey towards socio economic growth, we've chosen education as one of the focus areas and Project Shiksha is a key constituent of this effort. We have just completed training 200,000 teachers "� in the process impacting 10 million students' lives and the numbers continue to grow every day. It's not just about numbers though. Every single time we are able to help a teacher retain a child's interest or pull a student back into the classroom, we believe that we achieve some part of India's dream."

One of the key reasons for the success of Project Shiksha is that apart from establishing IT academies, where it sets up the infrastructure for the state governments for training teachers, it has also tied up with various state-run District Institutes for Education and Training (DIETs), which help spread the reach of the program. The program also tied up with educational institutions like the Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS), Madarsas, and other government schools. A key highlight of the project is that it has achieved the training of all teachers in 514 NVS schools across the country; and will complete all 923 KVS schools by June 2008.

Apart from the tie-ups, it has a pre-service delivery model as well as post-school model helps increase the impact of Project Shiksha on the landscape of education in the states where it is present.

Under Project Shiksha, Microsoft collaborates with state education departments, with the partnership entailing a joint commitment to accelerate IT literacy in the state, with the infrastructure provided by the government and the trainers and curriculum provided by Microsoft. Under the partnership, Microsoft is committed to set-up state-of-the-art IT Academy centres where IT training is provided by trained personnel to government school teachers. The teachers are updated on how to integrate using computers in everyday classroom teaching through a tailored curriculum, which is available in the local language.

In addition, Microsoft India also sponsors teacher and student scholarships, and has launched an online community for teacher collaboration, best practice sharing and honing of skill sets. As a follow up, refresher trainings are conducted on a regular basis; as well as audits to ascertain the readiness of teachers in terms of skill sets for delivering the IT led training in an effective manner. At a global platform, Microsoft conducts the annual Innovative Teachers Leadership awards to acknowledge and encourage teachers to innovatively use IT in classroom teaching.

Education is one of the three focus areas under Microsoft Unlimited Potential, an effort towards helping individuals and communities around the globe achieve their goals and dreams with relevant, accessible, and affordable technologies. Under Partners in Learning, Microsoft, along with its partners, offers a wide variety of educational resources, including tools, teacher-training programs, and best practices that broaden access to technology and help educators more effectively use technology for teaching and learning. Project Shiksha is a core program under the Partners in Learning initiative in India.

About Microsoft India

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. Microsoft Corporation India Private Ltd is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation USA. It has had a presence in India since 1990 and currently has offices in twelve cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, and Pune.