We are learners and we need to be future-ready

Why must we always talk about developed, developing, and under-developed countries… these are terms that fixate our minds with borders that the world can do without. The truth is that we are all learners and it is just so that some of us have learned our lessons faster, on time, and have graduated to better times, better lifestyles, and an overwhelming sense of prosperity. It is equally important to understand that we must remain learners throughout our lives because this is what really connects us all globally. However, another truth that we must acknowledge is that there are geographical areas where the concept of being a learner still needs to be strengthened.

Look at India. Our country. A country where nearly 65% stay in rural areas and if percentages seem encouraging, the actual figure is 800 million people. This is humongous and when we superimpose literacy and learning over this figure, the issue of education gets really serious. Figures shared at the recent Google.org education grants press meet revealed that 130 mio kids are unable to tackle basic math problems even after 4 years of schooling. A representative from Pratham Education pointed out that “MHRD data indicates about 260 million children enrolled in schools across the country, but 50% of all children in 5th grade cannot read a 2nd grade text or do a two-digit subtraction problem.” The Right to Education act came about in 2010 and yes, there has been a positive movement in terms of infrastructure, enrollments, and literacy levels but an overwhelming inequality in learning abilities still looms large. MHRD reports talk about over 1 lakh schools still functioning with just one teacher. Despite all the technology proliferation, we have over 74% of our kids with little or no access to the internet. Why I am bringing up technology in an article about literacy levels is because there are organisations and good intentions making an effort to raise learning by employing it in ways that it doesn’t appear intimidating.

Google.org recently announced grants of US$8.4 million to four Indian NGOs including Learning Equality, Million Sparks Foundation, Pratham Books StoryWeaver, and Pratham Education Foundation over the next two years to expand and scale the work they are doing to enhance the learning experience for students in the classroom. These grants are part of a global US$50 million commitment that Google.org made a few weeks ago and will go towards supporting nonprofits that are building tech-based learning solutions. Grants from Google.org will be used to scale existing initiatives to reach more children, and to build more innovative and engaging tech-based learning solutions to close the gap in learning and academic opportunity.

So what are these people talking about? What are tech-based solutions? Are they a part of yet another massive dose of words and promises that will finally be forgotten and dismissed? The organisations eligible for these grants did speak about what they intend to do. Pratham Books have a concept called StoryWeaver eligible for a $3.6 million grant and their plan is to give structure to an open-sourced platform for translating books and to increase Story Weaver’s reach to more than 500,000 active users and 20,000 titles. They plan to connect readers, authors, illustrators, and translators to create free stories that can be translated, remixed, and even newly authored. Pratham Education was awarded grant of $3.1 million to promote and proliferate their Hybrid Learning Program that empowers students to use self-driven, tablet-based curricula to learn outside of the classroom. Yes, these tablets will be shared and will encourage a sense of collaborative approach even in the kids. Million Sparks Foundation gets a grant of $1.2 million to go ahead with ChalkLit, a digital content platform and social community that supports high caliber teaching with lesson plans, learning modules, and videos etc. They plan to do this by using a lightweight app that works even in areas where connectivity isn’t strong. Learning Equality gets a grant of US$ 500K for India as part of the $5 million across India, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and they aim to take digital content offline for students without internet. They aim to do this through a free open-source software to bring online materials—including books, video tutorials and quizzes. Their platform, Kolibri, runs on numerous devices and helps educators access, organize and customize digital content, even in the most remote locations. I do hope that Nick Cain, the program manager of Google dot org has planned adequate checks to ensure that funding isn’t used to just paint a rosy billboard but with little else to show. Google dot org also needs to share reports of progress made with journalists and bloggers. Only open and transparent functioning can help the real cause of promoting learning as NGOs are already viewed with a lot of suspicion not just by the common man but also the judiciary.

The truth is that countries like India need to focus on improving the quality of education and, therefore, must emphasize on production and dissemination of the right sort of learning material, encouraging a sense of dedication and informed awareness in teachers, and ensuring that learning doesn’t end inside the classroom. Learning needs to extend beyond the walls of a classroom to evolve into a powerful tool of prosperity. If all this happens, we can be nearer our goal of watching education exercise a positive influence on the GDP. It is said that education can actually increase GDP by almost 23%… and, therefore, quality education is what is needed in India.

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Grantees Learning Equality, Million Sparks Foundation, Pratham Books StoryWeaver, and Pratham Education Foundation along with Rajan Anandan, VP South East Asia and India, Google and Nick Cain, Program Manager Education, Google.org present at Google.org event in New Delhi.

Google.org Infographic

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Arvind Passey
13 April 2017