The Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire was met with criticism by many, but Professor Sugata Mitra of Newcastle University had a personal reason for being unhappy. Mitra’s educational project, Hole in the Wall, was what inspired Vikas Swarup’s novel Q&A, which went on to become the film. The story of Slumdog Millionaire follows a teenage boy from Mumbai competing on Who Wants to be a Millionaire using knowledge he gained from his impoverished life. Few people know that the inspiration behind the story began in 1999 when Mitra was working as an academic in Delhi and installed a computer with internet access for local children to use on their own. The project aimed to boost their English and maths skills, and amazingly, after only a month, the children managed to teach themselves how to use the computer.
Swarup has said that hearing about Mitra’s project led him to create the plot of Slumdog Millionaire. He was fascinated that the children of the Delhi slum were able to learn how to use the worldwide web and realised that everyone has an innate ability to do something extraordinary given the opportunity. However, Mitra believed that the film should have been called Slumdog Nobel Laureate instead of millionaire because his project aimed to encourage children to think beyond monetary gain and to aim for positive change in the world.
Mitra’s educational initiatives in Delhi exceeded expectations just like the film, and the professor is now expanding his project to UK primary schools. He uses the same techniques to help children in Gateshead that he used in Hyderabad, India. Mitra believes that technology can best be used in remote situations in the UK, such as failing schools that aren’t attracting the best teachers. His project aims to improve primary children’s education, particularly through independent learning, by encouraging children to use computers at their own pace to build aspirations.
Mitra believes that technology should not be seen as a threat to teaching, but as a valuable asset. He argues that computers cannot replace good teachers but can get a high standard of education into the schools where it’s needed the most. His latest plan involves uniting Indian and UK initiatives. He teaches a class in Hyderabad from his office in Newcastle, and he also hopes to set up educational facilities in remote areas of India so that groups of children can organise their own learning and pass government high school examinations without a teacher.
As part of his efforts to enhance the academic abilities of children in an Indian village, he has taken a unique approach. His method entails hiring a British lady who spends a few hours each week reading stories to these kids. Interestingly, he has set up webcams that project a life-sized image of the storyteller on a wall in India, making the experience feel almost tangible for the kids.
According to him, this approach has yielded positive results thus far. The kids love it because it’s different, while the British lady is thrilled to utilize her free time productively. While it is still too early to determine how much this approach will impact their pronunciation and comprehension, he remains optimistic about the future and is seeking more volunteers to take part in the program.
