Pages of Fun

“It all started last year when I was standing in front of Balbharati and a lady asked me if there was a website that she could take help from for simplifying the learning of her young one who was studying in Marathi medium school. Though I had heard of websites helping the ones studying in English medium schools,I had no clue about a website for Marathi medium children,” says Sonune who took up the venture of designing such a website.

From learning web designing to understanding the intricacies of flash player,Sonune,originally a teacher from Jalna district,equipped himself with all the tools that could help him launch the website. “Majority of the students in the rural areas go to vernacular medium schools where computers are still looked upon as a machine that is used for printing and typing. That’s the reason the computer training in these areas is limited to typing letters. None understands that it is an educational tool and that it can be used to make education interesting,” adds he.

With basic Mathematics for standard one that includes summation,subtraction,multiplication and division along with letter writing explained in the form of drawings and stories,the website makes learning fun for students. “In order to simplify science,I wanted to make use of scientific toys. And when I approached Dr Arvind Gupta regarding the same,he told me to translate the material available on his website and load it on baljagat. It opened a world of exciting toys for children in rural areas,” adds he.

With a separate entertainment section that boasts of stories,poems and games,baljagat is arguable the first and the only website that offers curricular learning for children without any financial expectations. “We are now working on including the entire syllabus between standard one to four which till date has been available partly on the website. Further,there are plans of including quiz games for scholarship exams in standard four and seven,” he says on a concluding note.