The Good of Ed-Tech

By Policy Fide

India is home to 472 million children, the largest child population in the world. When it comes to children, basic rights, the right to education and healthcare come into light as basic asks. On which, Indian Policymakers have been trying to progress on improving access to education in India- with policies like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 2002, Right to Free and Compulsory Education under Article 21(A) of the Indian Constitution and reforms in National Education Policy. While enrolment rates have increased tremendously, access and availability of quality education remain a challenge. India and the world at large have seen a recent boom in EdTech, but we must ask: are these solutions solving the problem of access?

The process of providing and availing education has seen its ups and downs based on social, cultural and economic factors. The growing prominence of technology has changed the approach to education through audio-visual tools, multi-media content-based classes, learning through smartphones, which has stimulated children to learn differently. 

Though access to technology has been marked by its own challenges such as the widening digital divide, unstable internet connections, and eclipsing of lower-middle-income families. Some organisations have trespassed these limits and are creating an impact, despite the pandemic’s halt on schools.  

Case of Schoolnet-

Schoolnet is moving with ambition and nurturing minds in over 45000 schools, with the support of state governments. It has been present for more than 20 years in the learning landscape by actively building digital capacities of schools and teachers, to in turn improve the learning outcomes of students in middle India. It was one of the first EdTech service providers in India, long before the current revolution. Their product K-Yan or vehicle of knowledge, has changed the teaching methods, improved teacher-student classroom productivity through digitised classrooms. 

Inevitably, these products have been challenged by the pandemic and have impacted school-based learning. However, the flexibility of the models came in handy, with efforts by school authorities, initiatives by teachers and students.

Dr Rajesh Sharma, Principal of Vinayam Public School, turned the learning crisis into an opportunity by using K-Yan. Instead of bringing students to schools, they decided to take the school to the students. The features of K-Yan enables teachers and students to teach and learn from anywhere and were carried across the town and villages to ensure that learning did not stop.

 Arindam Ghosh, Head of Strategy at Schoolnet shared “For us, passion and commitment to improving access to quality education are what drives us. There are over 200 million children in India from the Middle and Bottom of the Pyramid, who cannot afford the current prices of supplementary education services. But that does not mean that they should get left out of the education and EdTech revolution.”

Schoolnet’s initiative and intent are not limited to classrooms but also gives a helping hand to children at homes through Geneo, their personalised learning solution. It is no different than other ed-tech products of the present, but we found it to be more affordable, culture-specific, learner-centric. It let the school teachers remain in the equation and the learner has access to the online resource and human guidance through their educators. 

A grade 8 student from Maharashtra shared “I could not afford online learning during the lockdown. My school timing was haphazard, so I felt like my own teacher – which was nice sometimes. I started to take lessons from Geneo which was not only affordable but also useful. The live sessions and the recorded sessions were very helpful. I also liked that my schoolteachers could help me through Geneo. The teachers taught very well, made concepts easy to understand, and gave good examples.”

Every initiative matters, but utilising the opportunity for a community revolution holds great power, especially during a crisis such as a Coronavirus pandemic

In  Assam, Schoolnet started a Home-Based Learning Program with help of OIL India Limited. The task was to design programs and provide education to students with low or no access to the internet. Using IVR technology and utilising YouTube, the model reached and impacted 6000 students across 30 schools in Assam. The assessments showed positive learning feedback.

In another corner of the country in Jharkhand, Schoolnet’s community of teachers and ICT leaders agreed on a common point, that learning cannot regress. To move ahead, they created a YouTube channel ‘The Learning Corner’ with more than 4800 subscribers. The channels provide short lessons, live classes, assessments to more than 1200 students daily. 

Over the last two years, we have seen innumerable stories of struggle, courage, hope, and community efforts. It took a worldwide crisis for us to open our eyes to the deep-seated problems in the education system. Schoolnet has been dedicated to this space for over 20 years and works with a strong ecosystem approach that aims to leverage technology to improve access to quality education at scale. 

Education in the past year has taken a backseat, but pandemics should not be driving children out of learning. Schoolnet has been working to bridge the existing digital divide and is aiming to democratise education as the EdTech revolution should resolve the problems rather than expanding the differences and divides.