Smart Classrooms Aren’t Just for the Urban Elites – BenQ Helps Bring Educational Equity toLife

India and Indonesia are kindred spirits of sorts; they are both countries with large populations that are incredibly diverse in their language, culture, and religion. What also makes them similar is the importance they place on education, especially as a driver of national growth and development as well as inclusivity and equality. While both countries have made good progress in improving the quality and accessibility of education, they both continue to see a digital and educational divide, especially between rural and urban areas.

According to the latest findings, rural children still have much room for improvement in terms of foundational skills such as reading and arithmetic.Currently, only 60% of rural youth can read simple English¹. Likewise in Indonesia, rural children lag behind their urban counterparts, and less than six in ten primary school children in West Java achieved the minimum national benchmark in reading and a quarter in mathematics².

BenQ sought to make education more equitable through collaboration with the Ranjitsinh Disale Foundation in India and via the BenQ X Nuadu Training Program for Schools in Indonesia.

“We believe access to quality education isn’t just the privilege of a select few, but a basic human right for all,” said Mr. Jeffrey Liang, President of BenQ Asia Pacific. “We aim to ensure educational equity and empower rural educators to maximize EdTech toolswith our promise to help them ‘Teach Your Way’.”

Bringing the Smart Classroom to Rural Schools in India

In September of 2023, BenQ announced a partnership with Ranjitsinh Disale Foundation with a common goal of raising the quality of education in rural India through the adoption of smart classrooms. The foundation was started by Ranjitsinh Disale – an acclaimed Indian educator and the only Indian winner of the Global Teacher Award. Through this partnership, 20 rural schools throughout the state of Maharashtra transformed to smart classrooms, opening doorsto learning opportunities for children by renovating the classrooms with BenQ smart boards for teaching.

Mr. Ranjitsinh Disale, founder of the Ranjitsinh Disale Foundation commented “This initiative represents a significant stride forward for our schools. By fostering an environment of active participation, these BenQ Boards will undoubtedly elevate the quality of learning. We are excited about the potential they hold to transform education into a more interactive and engaging journey.”

Mr. Rajeev Singh, Managing Director, BenQ India further added “At BenQ, we firmly believe in technology's potential to revolutionize education and uplift students. This partnership underscores our dedication to narrowing educational disparities and nurturing a more promising future for students in rural India.”

Echoing BenQ’s philosophy, BenQ Boards are designed with the commitment of “Teach Your Way” in mind. Through intuitive BenQ’s digital whiteboarding software EZWrite 6 and screen sharing software InstaShare 2, BenQ's goal is to empower educators to teach in anengaging and collaborativemanner that best fits their methodology and the educational needs of students.

Helping Indonesian Teachers Maximize the Potential of Interactive Whiteboards

In August of last year, BenQ also announced BenQ Cares for Education partnership in Indonesia with NUADU and the Sumedang Regency. BenQ focuses on three pillars of education: technology (BenQ), content (Nuadu), and people (educators in schools).NUADU is a globally renown assessment-focused platform provider, used by over 4 million users in 20 countries, with 2 million tests deployed. The collaboration revolved around conducting a training program for over 90 principals and educators from 33 schools throughout rural West Java.

This program sought to teacheducators how to maximize the potential of interactive whiteboards, such as how to access a variety of ready-to-use teaching resources, including subject-specific tools and multimedia content tailored to different school curriculums.

“We are truly dedicated to the world of education. Our products have been developed to meet the needs of the teaching and learning processes in schools.” said Andryanto C. Wijaya, Managing Director at BenQ Indonesia. “We are delighted that BenQ Boards play an integral part of the digital transformation of Indonesian education.”

“Today, 33 schools have been facilitated by BenQ,” said Dian Sukmara, Head of Sumedang’s Education Office. “We express our thanks; BenQ has greatly helped us achieve gradual progress in transforming into Digital Schools.”

Akhmad Rosadi, Principal of Cipameungpeuk State Elementary School added that “We genuinely feel assisted by this initiative. The training provided has enabled us to maximize the facilities provided by the Sumedang Regency Education Office.”

With BenQ interactive whiteboards, each teacher gets a personalized account,which they can log in on any BenQ Board to load their preferred educational apps, bookmarks, and teaching materials on the cloud for seamless lessons, and school IT can remotely manage multiple devices for reduction TCO and maintenance costs.

Commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility

BenQ is a caring brand based on human beings. It believes that design and technology should meet the true well-being of human beings toperform to the best of their abilities and bring a positive impact to every corner of the world.Through the power of technology, BenQ endeavors to bring high qualityand realizeeducational equity, regardless of their location or socio-economic status.