APTWR school rolled out a red carpet welcome to Christ Kmetz

With enthusiasm writ large on their faces, boys and girls of respective campuses of the Andhra Pradesh Tribal Welfare Residential School located at Marikivalasa on the city outskirts rolled out a red carpet welcome to Christ Kmetz, vice- president (engineering), Module Centers for Pratt & Whitney, on Tuesday.

Pratt & Whitney, a $14.5 billion division of $67 billion United Technologies Corp, is the world leader in design, manufacture and service of aircraft and helicopter engines, and auxiliary power units, along with Cyient and other local partners, and Engineers without Borders-USA.It is involved in sponsoring e-learning centres among marginalised children in India. The company opened its 63rd e-learning centre in Hyderabad on Monday and 64th in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.

Under the initiative launched as part of its CSR in 2011, it provides a computer, projector, and high-speed bandwidth, along with study material to teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).“We are very excited to implement the scheme to give exposure to the students to learn on the digital platform through audio-visual presentations,” Mr. Kmetz told The Hindu.Pratt & Whitney, which has several major clients, including IndiGo and Go Air, in India, operates 39 e-learning centres in Hyderabad and six, including the newly-launched unit, in the city.

Mr. Kmetz said they had decided to open 25 more in centres in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh during the current year.“Though we have smart classroom sponsored by the government, we expect better computer, projector and study material at the e-learning centre opened by an American company,” said Dadi Varalakshmi, a Class 10 student at the residential school.

Hailing from Kotapativalasa hamlet of Rompalli panchayat in Anantagiri mandal, she dreams to become a software engineer after studying B.Tech in IIT.Among those benefited by the e-learning centre at the boys’ residential school, Butari Kiran from Chintagaruvu in Pedabayalu mandal and Bariki Chanti from Madagada in Araku mandal, both studying Class 9 and aspiring to become doctors, said the unique content provided from several international libraries and institutes helped them learn a lot.