Microsoft trains 200,000 govt school teachers

Microsoft Corporation India on Monday announced that Project Shiksha, the company's initiative to accelerate IT literacy among government school teachers and students, has trained 200,000 teachers till date.

Launched in India in December 2003 by Bill Gates, chairman, Microsoft Corporation, Project Shiksha had a target of reaching out to 80,000 teachers by December 2008. The target has already been surpassed by 250 per cent  - a year ahead of the deadline, according to an official statement issued on Monday.

Under project Shiksha, run in partnership with state governments, Microsoft India currently has MoUs with 10 states for 11 academies offering a spectrum of education resources, including tools, programme and practices.

The 11 IT academies span across Uttaranchal (Dehradun), Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad), Karnataka (Gulbarga, Dharwad, Bangalore), Maharashtra (Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad), Rajasthan (Jaipur), Tamil Nadu (Chennai) and Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal).