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Features

Sugata Mitra interview: ‘A reduction in resources can cause something nice to happen’

The guru of self-guided learning on teaching in prisons and the future of exams

10 May 2014

9:00 AM

10 May 2014

9:00 AM

Fifteen years ago, Sugata Mitra, a scientist from Calcutta, conceived of an interesting experiment. He went to a slum in Delhi, installed a computer into a public wall in the manner of a cash machine, then he waited to see what would happen.

As he had expected, the local children crowded round and began to experiment — but what he had not expected was how very quickly the kids mastered the basics of computing and began to search the internet for new areas of study.

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