Three new Rural Technology Centres were inaugurated in Thiruvallur at Thirupatchur, Tiruttani and Uttukotai in February and March.

Three Rural Technology Centers Inaugurated

Asha’s Rural Technology Centres (RTC) have been created with the goal of providing free computer education to students in high and higher secondary schools in rural Tamilnadu. Students from Asha supported schools and other nearby schools are welcome to attend the RTC and learn computer courses ranging from Digital Literacy, Programming, Animation, to Robotics and AI for free. The courses span a period of 6 months, which includes submitting of a project work at the end of the term. You may read in detail about our course offerings here.

Until the end of the last year, Asha Chennai had been running nine Rural Technology Centers (RTCs). This year, with the availability of funds and availability of teachers in these areas, we inaugurated three new RTCs in Feb/March 2025. These are,

• RTC Thiruttani paired with Govt Girls Higher Secondary School, Thiruttani.
• RTC Thirupatchur paired with Govt High School Thirupatchur
• RTC Uthukottai paired with Govt Girls Higher Secondary School Uthukottai.

All these 3 new RTCs are located in Thurvallur District. With these additions, Asha Chennai now operates 12 RTCs across three districts, reaching over 900 students at the centres and more than 4000 students at the schools across Tamil Nadu.

Rural Technology Center Thirupatchur, Thiruvallur

Asha Chennai’s 10th Rural Technology Center (RTC) in Tamil Nadu—our 6th RTC in Thiruvallur district was started at Thirupatchur. Asha has a deep connection with the schools at Thirupatchur. The Govt High School at Thirupatchur has always been very supportive of Asha’s effort. Most of the ACE training sessions have been held at Thirupatchur. Further the high school is in the same campus as PUPS Thirupatchur. Most of our monthly meetings these days are held at this school. We have also been supporting the schools in many ways. We have our computer science teacher, and a KaradiPath teacher visiting the schools to implement these programs. Further we also have a regular teacher permanently assigned to this school. We also have the KaradiPath program for 6^th to 8^th standard students, the Intermediate SLL, implemented at this school. The other feeder schools to this high schools, PUPS Thirupatchur Periya Colony and PUPS Old Thirupatchur are also schools that Asha has been supporting for several years. Therefore we took the decision to start the RTC here paired with GHS Thirupatchur.

The new RTC was inaugurated by Asha Coordinator and volunteer, Mr. Rajaraman Krishnan. This RTC is being led by our teacher Mr. Rajkumar and Ms. Divya who will be teaching students at GHS Thirupatchur and the RTC. The RTC has been functional since 19 February, 2025. Currently, the RTC is offering Digital Literacy and Scratch Programming courses, with 80 students enrolled in the first batch.

Rural Technology Center Tiruttani, Thiruvallur

Asha’s 11th Rural Technology Centre in Tamil Nadu in Thiruttani opened on 17 Feb, 2025. This is Asha Chennai’s 7th RTC in Thiruvallur district, adding to our growing network of centers. Though the RTC was functional since February, we conducted the inauguration ceremony towards the end of March. Mr. Rajaraman, Asha’s coordinator and volunteer, inaugurated the RTC along with RTC Lead, Ms. Kumari, Asha Volunteer, Mr. Shiva, the RTC teacher and students. The children were served juice and snacks as a part of the celebrations.

The Thiruttani RTC, led by our dedicated teacher, Ms. Sasikala, has already welcomed 40 students. Sasikala has been working as a RTC teacher for more than a term already at the Kanakamma Chathram RTC. Thiruttani RTC will begin its journey with Digital Literacy and Scratch Programming, with advanced courses like Physical Programming, Web Development, JavaScript Animation, Media Editing, Robotics, and AI to follow.

Rural Technology Center Uthukotai, Thiruvallur

This is Asha’s 12^th RTC Center. The RTC is being led by our teacher Ms. Radha who was earlier a part of Asha’s RTC Seethanjeri. The RTC is associated with the Govt Girls High School Pondhavakkam. Radha has been continuously teaching at RTC Seethanjeri since its inception (and the inception of the RTC program itself) in Jan 2022. With the Seethanjeri RTC mature and another teacher, Parameswari, available and capable of handling that RTC, Radha has moved on to taken the adventure of starting a new single teacher RTC on her own.

RTC Uthukotai was inaugurated by Asha Volunteer, Mr. Venkat Ramaswamy on 14 March, 2025. He spoke to the students about the RTCs run by Asha and urged them to make use of this opportunity to learn all the courses on offer. The RTC currently caters to 45 students and is offering Digital Literacy and Scratch Programming courses to start with.