Amazon aims to enable and deliver CS learning opportunities to more than one lakh students from 900 government and aided schools all across.

New Delhi: Multi-Billionaire company Amazon on Tuesday announced the launch of its Global Computer Science (CS) Education Programme - Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) - in India, which will enable access to the quality of CS education and career opportunities for students from underrepresented and underserved communities.

In the first year of its launch, Amazon aims to enable and deliver CS learning opportunities to more than one lakh students from 900 government and aided schools across seven states in India. Amazon will be partners with multiple education-focused non-profit organizations to draw standard education for computer science students of all the government schools across Karnataka, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Telangana.

"The ubiquitous nature of computer science has made it a critical skill in the employment landscape. Early access to computer science education will go a long way in providing India's youth the opportunity to build their best future," Amit Agarwal, Global Senior Vice President, and Country Head, Amazon India said at a virtual event.

He even added to his statement that the lack of quality content on an accessible medium will limit the availability of the advanced learning content in the local language and lack of a role model are some of the major barriers that will prevent the youth from the demeaned and unjustified communities to dream for the aspirational CS careers. 

"We are cognizant of this divide – and that while talent and passion are spread across all young people, the opportunity is not. With Amazon Future Engineer, we aim to address exactly this gap by providing early exposure and access to CS education," Agarwal said.

He noted that through AFE, Amazon has enabled CS opportunities for more than a million young people across four countries – the US, the UK, Canada, and France. Agarwal added in his statement that the company will continue to collaborate with government and non-government organizations to enable CS education in India from childhood to career by leveraging various growth opportunities and its expertise in technology.

Peepul India founder and CEO Kruti Bharucha said the organization has been working with government school systems over the past several years and has seen how providing equitable learning opportunities can transform not just the lives of their students, but families and teachers around them. "Critical thinking and problem-solving skills acquired by learning CS have the potential to break opportunity barriers for underprivileged children in India," she added.