Foundation for Learning Technologies (FFLT) is engaged in educational projects using convergent technologies for developmental purposes.
Established in May 2002, in New Delhi, FFLT's current focus is on using media technologies for spiritual and values education. Some other projects include managing and overseeing the operations of an educational garden and a spiritual centre.
The area of our current focus spirituality entails understanding aspects of human life that impact our emotions, feelings and relationships. Spirituality is not recognized as a curricular subject yet, but still a large number of people are being increasingly drawn towards it.
As the subject remained in the domain of oral tradition in India, it has never been structured systematically. Naturally therefore, this knowledge is unavailable for incorporation in any academic curriculum. We endeavor to be in the forefront of this knowledge domain of enormous interest to the global community.
Our vision envisages development of permanent showcases for dissemination of spiritual knowledge content through the latest media technologies. Also, to make provision for creating contact, counseling and practice centres for the same purpose.
We also operate a school for laborer's children and those below the poverty line to integrate them into mainstream education, computer classes for poor children and sewing classes for poor women.
Aims & Objectives
To harness multimedia and other emerging convergence technologies for educational purposes.
Support creation of educational resources for universalization of education, both primary and secondary, by developing synergies with corporate bodies, NRIs and other like-minded organizations.
Partake of Govt. plans and projects in the area of health, women and child, rural development, vocational education, curricular education, education for youth and cultural initiatives.
Be in the forefront of developments in the psycho-spiritual values education.
Project Eastern wisdom and cultural heritage through sculptures, exhibits and other artifacts.
Produce animation and sight and sound visitor experiences towards projecting Eastern wisdom and cultural heritage.
To invest in educational projects with a view to make them available to the masses at low cost.
To consult on collation and acquisition of distance education materials.
To develop synergy with foundations, trusts, societies with a view to give them instructional technology support.
To develop synergy with overseas educational foundations for possible adaptation of ready materials.
To organize conferences and events targeted towards life style education including those relating to personality development.
The primary focus is on evolution through personal growth. One of the key focus areas of the organization is to devise educational inputs through print, media and other structured forms of communication with a view to explain the concept and content of Spirituality in terms of Life Skills Education to people so that they can apply it to their personal lives.
The idea is to wean people away from dogmas and develop curricular courses for people from India and overseas to enable them to understand and appreciate the cultural and spiritual heritage of India.
This is sought to be achieved through intensive research into the reservoir and resource base of Indian spiritual traditions and project the same through modern communication technologies with the help of internet and other media including computer graphics, illustrations and diagrams.
Based on this research, we are currently developing courses on Spirituality. Spirituality is the Science of being or the art of living. Our subtle body and latent consciousness in our physical bodies has a Science of its own which is required to be understood by the young and old alike because on understanding it depends largely the quality of our lives and our life experience.
There is a great amount of research that has been done by Indian sages, masters and scholars in this area and all of it is in our scriptures.
The foundation has expertise in propagation and dissemination of materials through a variety of platforms targeted towards enrichment of education. The promoters of this organization believe that we can make use of the developments in educational technology to make available good quality software and multimedia resources at affordable prices to the people.
- To prepare children living below the poverty line and inculcate a sense of dignity, self-worth and self-confidence so that they could enter school at an appropriate age.
- To remove the gender bias existing in different strata of society by encouraging the girl child to enter school.
- To inculcate a sense of hygiene and cleanliness among small children from poor strata of society so that they could realize the importance of this value and go on to make a positive contribution to the society.
- To provide nutritive meals to the children deprived of the same with a view to fulfill their requirements at a crucial stage of their life so that a precious human life is not wasted or deceased because of scarcity of food.
- To inculcate a sense of selfless service in people who have plenty and would like to contribute to the society in a meaningful way.
- To encourage a sense of dignity in keeping with the charter of human rights and values as endorsed by international and professional bodies.
- To establish a system of structuring a course syllabus for pre-school poor students who would otherwise not enter school and would otherwise never have access to the school system.
Sewing facilites and training for women has been provided at our facility in Dwarka to help women earn a living with dignity. Women converge at the facility and exchange view points, discuss their problems including economic and social issues and feel enriched and empowered with the opportunity for social interaction with their peer group.
Our project for children in Bharat Vihara and Zakhira, New Delhi continued to achieve good progress. A few hundred students passed out from our school for street children. Fourteen to twenty or more students could find admission in a Public School each year along with scholarship which would not have been possible but for the training provided to them under the guidance and leadership of our instructors.
This project is targeted at street children and children of labourers who normally just while away their formative years and because of which their entry into the school educational system gets permanently blocked. If they are not made acceptable to the educational system, they can become a burden to the society and also turn to criminal activities.
Many of the children when inducted into this school were earlier taking intoxicants like gutka, supari etc. and had no proper goals or plans for education. They were given proper clothing and counseling to remain clean and also maintain certain norms of hygiene and cleanliness.
Hundreds of very poor children have been benefited by this project who had missed going to school because of poverty and neglectful upbringing and consequently fallen prey to substance abuse.
In keeping with the objectives of the United Nations, we have been pursuing this project to remove illiteracy. We are focusing on the poorest of the poor street children who are totally neglected, are often emotionally handicapped and are in the danger of falling into bad company in their formative years.
Apart from curricular education to facilitate their entry into the formal school system, the children are being taught the values of hygiene, respect for surroundings, social values and decorum in society.
One computer learning center for slum children near Nehru Place is also running successfully. Further, skill development courses for training of maids and servants in cooking and for training people in driving skills for employment are in the offing.
An eminent educational film maker and media person, Umesh Mathur is developing permanent showcases for projecting India's cultural heritage and spirituality in the country and overseas. He is also developing curricular courses on spiritual education through user friendly media technologies, a Garden and also a Center for spiritual education.
He is a filmmaker with over 300 educational and documentary film productions, former TV anchor with archival value entertainment industry television programmes, former Correspondent with Hindustan Times, Indian Express publications, Founder – Director, India Japan Software Research Committee, conceived, executed and served on the National Media Planning Committees of several govt. ministries, headed Teleteach, India's Educational Technology project for mass education, with studios in Delhi and Bombay making available over 2500 films from a single source.
