Page 47 - EducationWorld January 2021

neering graduate of schools, five preschools and two
PESIT, Bengaluru and business management colleges in
economics postgrad north India with an aggregate enrol-
of Goethe University, ment of 20,000 students mentored
Frankfurt (Germany), by 800 faculty. Against the backdrop
Grover has many years of the Covid crisis disrupting K-12
of rich and varied expe- education and conventional pedago-
rience in the IT industry gies, and teachers having to switch
having worked with to digital teacher-training, SAJGEI
SAP; VMWare; (24)7. launched STTAR with the mission
ai; BloomReach; AdNear statement to “equip school teachers
and InMobi. In April last and leaders with the skills and profi-
year, she quit InMobi to ciencies required to create meaning-
promote Shunya Impact. ful student learning experiences by
“In 2016 en route to Grover: remedial education initiative developing professional expertise
office, I started giv- founded on scholarly inquiry, design
ing rides to children to reach their adding “intelligent features to make thinking and research”.
government school. This continued learning more personalised”. “This Direct talk. “The role and expecta-
for the next three years. During this is the first edtech platform that tions of a teacher have radically
time, I began thinking about how measures the learning gaps of chil- changed after the outbreak of the
new IT technologies could be applied dren and enables teachers to bridge Covid-19 pandemic. At STTAR, we
to benefit and improve children’s them through remedial education. believe teachers need to be urgently
learning experiences. Last April, I Given engagement challenges due provided well-researched profes-
took the plunge and started Shunya to Covid-19, K-12 learning gaps will sional development programmes
with the objective of applying ad- continue to widen, and we are hope- to enable them to deliver continu-
vanced technologies to revolutionise ful about teachers embracing this ous education to children. Though
teaching-learning in schools,” says new technology to enable children to we had to adapt our conventional
Grover. recover lost ground,” she says. teacher training pedagogies to the
Direct talk. According to Grover, Fair winds! online mode, it’s been a blessing in
Shunya LMS is revolutionary inas- Summiya Yasmeen (Bengaluru) disguise. Now teachers across the
much as it applies latest machine country are able to sign up for our in-
improve the learning experience of STTAR star tensively researched online training
learning and AI technologies to
classes and workshops,” says Raturi,
K-12 school children. “The unique former head of teacher training at
proposition of Shunya LMS is that n alumnus of North-Eastern SAJGEI. Prior to signing up with
it charts an individualised learning Hill and Lucknow universi-
programme for every child based on Aties, SUSHMA RATURI is the Raturi: online teacher training focus
her academic history and progress. first dean of the newly launched Saa-
It does this in a content agnostic marthya Teachers Training Academy
manner, as content is often a hyper of Research (STTAR), Ghaziabad.
local phenomenon. This app is very The academy provides online teacher
helpful to teachers who can provide training modules in 12 domains
customised remedial education to including content development and
every child and thus raise overall structural planning, leadership and
teaching-learning standards. Hyper- assessment systems.
personalisation of K-12 education is Newspeg. STTAR was launched on
specially needed to enable teach- July 15 by the Seth Anandram Jaipu-
ers to identify and remedy learning ria Group of Educational Institutions
gaps resulting from the prolonged (SAJGEI) in collaboration with its
shutdown of schools because of the flagship Jaipuria School of Business,
Covid-19 pandemic,” says Grover. Ghaziabad. Since then, it has con-
Future plans. With Shunya LMS ducted 50 online training sessions
receiving enthusiastic feedback for over 3,000 teachers.
from schools, teachers and students, History. SAJGEI (estb.1945) is the
Grover is focusing her energies on umbrella organisation of 19 K-12

JANUARY 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 47