Page 66 - Education World September 2021

Special Report

Challenge & response • Education start-up ThinkZone promoted

by Binayak Acharya, a former World Bank
he Covid-19 pandemic has massively disrupted edu- consultant, has provided learning support
Tcation of India’s 240 million school-going children. The to over 10,000 children in the Odisha dis-
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education in its report tricts of Khorda, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and
‘Plans to bridge the learning gap… and plans for re-opening’, Cuttack since the start of the pandemic
submitted to Parliament on August 6, admits that 70 percent last year. Acharya’s edtech start-up has
of India’s 240 million children have had no access to online provided class I-V children remote instruction on feature i.e,
learning over the past year. Against the backdrop of unprec- non-touchscreen phones through text messages and auto-
edented disruption of education and low learning during the mated voice calls.
past 16 months, several education leaders and organisations • Class Saathi started by Pankaj Agarwal, an
have ideated innovative responses to overcome pandemic alum of IIT-Kanpur and Harvard Business
challenges and ensure learning continuity of children in rural School, has innovated tech-enabled at-home
India. Some shining examples: learning smart solutions for government
• C. S. Satheesh, a teacher in the Govern- schools in rural Madhya Pradesh. This initia-
ment Lower Primary School in Mullur vil- tive is funded by global tech giant Samsung.
lage in Kodagu district, Karnataka, has • Livolink Foundation, an associate of Tata Trusts, has pro-
built a makeshift room at the top of a man- vided a home-based learning support programme for tribal
go tree, to enable him to access cellular children in the districts of Kalahandi, Rayagada and Kandha-
connectivity to conduct online classes. mal in Odisha state for over one year.

mon intent is to make a difference in materials or online digital learning dur- According to him, children in rural In-
the lives of children by providing them ing the pandemic. dia have high potential and if given
quality education that is increasingly modestly good education and oppor-
being accepted as the passport to pros- HILE THE COUNTRY’S tunities, they will propel the nation for-
perity and better living standards. W political establishment ward both, economically and socially.
Pradhan, Shrivastava, Sahu and Ka- and insular middle These indomitable educators aren’t
lal have all chosen to focus their ener- class tend to be indif- afraid of confronting challenges inher-
gies on reforming and upgrading rural ferent to the yawning divide between ent in their mission. Sujata Sahu of
India’s education system because 21st town and country, a small but growing 17,000 Foundation recalls the daily job
century technology and pedagogy in- minority of people with a conscience of navigating high altitude rural Lada-
novations have completely bypassed have taken on the challenges of work- kh as “excessively tough”. She and her
it. The Annual Status of Education ing in the deep rural hinterlands. These team have “slept in cars, pitched camps
Report (ASER) — published by the challenges including managing apa- and cooked meals by the roadsides,
globally-respected education NGO thetic government officials, motivat- washed cookware by the stream, got
Pratham — which measures student ing local communities, encouraging stranded in snow, sand, mud storms…
learning outcomes in rural schools, is a school teachers to upgrade their skills, put kerosene stoves underneath tanks
grim reminder of the continuously slid- enlisting volunteers, introducing digital of vehicles when fuel gets frozen”.
ing K-12 education standards in India. technologies into administration and Such altruism requires financial
ASER 2019 highlights that in rural education. The rural poor, according to sacrifice and material self-abnega-
India, 50 percent of class V students experts whom Education World spoke tion. Ashish Shrivastava liquidated
cannot read a class II textbook; 56 per- with, feel that education and health all his personal savings to set up his
cent of class VIII students are unable sectors are still mired in the early 20th NGO Shiksharth. “In the early days I
to solve basic mathematical problems. century. Schools are dilapidated, teach- survived on just one meal per day. I
Moreover, only 16 percent of class I ers uninterested and curriculums and didn’t have money to repair my only
children surveyed in 596 rural districts pedagogies not customised to suit local pair of shoes. It was a particularly low
can read prescribed texts, while almost needs and conditions. “Every Indian moment. I still have those shoes as a
40 percent cannot recognise alphabets village has its own unique character reminder of my early years’ experience
in any language. A more recent ASER and culture, and if we are to make any as a social activist,” he recalls.
2020 report which assesses the impact progress in rural education we need to Lokesh Kalal of Alfa Society admits
of the Covid pandemic, indicates that adopt global content-local context as to facing taunts from local villagers
two-thirds of rural children in India our mantra,” says Ashish Shrivastava, and his own relatives even to this day
did not receive any physical learning founder of Shiksharth (quoted earlier). for not following a conventional career

66 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2021