It’s indeed a Despicable news that we are encountering today about an Institution which is about 470 Crore big in monetary terms. Delhi University’s School of Open Learning(SOL) earlier declared a project wherein free Tablets were to be dispatched to Below the Poverty Line Students. It estimated to provide Tablets to some 1850 poor students in the beginning. Each tablet costs 5000 INR. The motto was to enable these students to access School’s E-resources and other digital facilities which they otherwise are not able to do.
As per SOL Sources the School received 45 Crore INR last year as its Fee income. Still on September 29, SOL’s Governing Body declined to sanction Rs. 10 Lakh for this project that would have been so much help to needy students.
However Chairman of Campus of Open Learning CS Dubey has written to Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) seeking permission to use funds for this Project indicating an enormous amount of fund lying idle at the School. A senior MHRD Official Stated that the letter duly affirms the fact that the tablets for poor students actually customized to help them with the already in Operation SOL’s Digital Learning Management System was not considered at the Governing Body Meeting. As a result poor students will not be able to explore various e resources available to SOL. This would ultimately result in an exclusive growth of not only students but the society as a whole wherein again the economically weaker students would be worse off.
Adding fuel to fire is the statement by a person who was present in Governing Body’s Meeting claiming that the project was declined due to the fact that “Corporate Social Responsibility is not required of an Education Institution”.
