Computers in the classroom

Schools without internet access are given DVDs of the software

As government school classrooms go, this room in the Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya near Delhi’s Thyagaraj Stadium is strikingly different. Instead of a blackboard, it has a projector and a screen. The teacher wields a mouse instead of chalk. The students have no notebooks — instead their digitised Class VI English textbook is on the screen. However, what makes this classroom unusual is the enthusiastic class participation. All 35 hands go up whenever the teacher asks a question, and when it is their turn to read from the text, all 35 voices rise in high-pitched unison. “To think that when