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Electronics and Information Technology ExpositionElectronics and Information Technology Exposition

e - Educatione - Education

Every child has the right to childhood

Dileep Ranjekar, Azim Premji Foundation April 26, 2005

Delhi

Azim Premji Foundation Technology Initiatives

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Opportunities: 16% of world’s population

34% of population below 15 years

Adding over 150,000 qualified engineers per year

Challenges Contributes to just 1.6% of world GDP

Human development rank – 125 out of 175 ranked

Among bottom 30% in the Governance Index

Paradigm change – “receivers of knowledge” “creators of knowledge”

Need a fundamental review of our education system

Opportunities and challengesOpportunities and challenges

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Schools: Implementation machines, not thinking

entities Culture - stressful and boring Low motivation and competence of teacher

(Pre and in service training)

Parent & community participation in schools non-existent

Learning: Equated with memorization (exams primarily test

memory recall)

All round development of the child ignored Systemic accountability for learning and

development of every child is missing Cannot be a first class country with second class education

Current vexations in educationCurrent vexations in education

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Children who are Critical thinkers

Creative

Team players

Well developed in cognitive, affective & psychomotor domains

Citizens who are just, humane and equitable

Education that is Individual

Interactive

Integrative

We needWe need

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Myth 1: Technology itself improves social lifeMyth 2: Progress in technology = progress of the society

Reality

• What Technology achieves for the society is important

• Only when technology is in the hands of the majority of the members in the society and they use it imaginatively for the well-being of the society can the society be called progressive

The focus must be on the application and not on knowledge itself

Myths about TechnologyMyths about Technology

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IT & EducationIT & Education

Long Term Global Access to knowledge Sharing of experiences and best practices Self paced and self based learning Virtual world of information Simulations Experiential learning Distance learning of high quality Special learning tools for the uniquely challenged IT will become a fundamental literacy for the world

Short Term

Attracting and retaining children in school Creating excitement in and around the school Joyful learning

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A Not-For-Profit organization with 140+ full time professionals and over 1700 paid field volunteers

Operational since Jan 2001

Funding through personal resources of Azim Premji

Partnership with Government in all programs

Vision:

“Significantly contribute to achieving quality universal

education as a foundation for a just, equitable and humane

society”

About Azim Premji Foundation About Azim Premji Foundation

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Outreach of the programs March 31, 05Outreach of the programs March 31, 05

Current approach in going to states – demand based

Accelerated Learning Program

(Concluded as of April 2004)

Learning Guarante

e Program

Computer Aided

Learning

Child Friendl

y School

Total

Reach**

States Karnataka Karnataka,

MP

AP, Chhattisgarh,

Gujarat,

Karnataka, Orissa,

Pondicherry,

Rajasthan,

Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal

AP, Karnataka

AP, Chhattisgarh,

Gujarat, Karnataka, MP, Orissa,

Pondicherry,

Rajasthan,

Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal

No. Of Schools 1000 3,400 6000 1,100 >11,000

No. of Children 70 K 680 K 726 K 240 K > 1.75 Mln

Paid employees 1000 600 40 75 >1,700

Teachers reached 4,000 10,500 11740 4,000 >30,000

**The total figures are appropriately discounted to accommodate overlap of programs in the same school

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e – Education Initiatives

OfAzim Premji Foundation

e – Education Initiatives

OfAzim Premji Foundation

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Make a significant contribution towards

realizing quality universal elementary

education

ObjectiveObjective

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Multimedia curricular content Child centric

Interactive

Self paced

Animation, games, play based

Local language

Fun based assessment tools

A leveraged model of content deployment Partnership with Government

Both in school and out school models

Local content development to develop creativity & excitement

Technology solutions to build capacity Education management in Government – through EMIS

Education functionaries, teachers & community members

Key initiativesKey initiatives

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Continuous, indepth interaction with teachers, educators

Identify topics that are Hard to teach, boring to learn

Fundamental building blocks for learning

Map on state curriculum

Develop content: Scope definition

Script

Prototype

Animation, music, voice, games to create joyful learning

Rigorous quality approval at each stage by a team of Pedagogists, child psychologists, educators

Final testing with children to get feedback

Content development - processContent development - process

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Content deployment - processContent deployment - process Role of the state Government

Express serious interest by understanding process at the Foundation

Dedicated academic team to review and validate content and translation

Dedicated team of master trainers to train teachers

Agree to create a monitoring system for effective deployment of content

Ensure that every child gets minimum 80 minute (2 periods) exposure per week to the content within the norms prescribed by the Foundation

Role of Azim Premji Foundation

Translation of content in the state specific language

Train master trainers of the state for teacher training

Provide a representative in the state to help the state to monitor program

Provide free content through master CDs

Carry out research to understand factors influencing learning, impact, quality feedback etc.

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Local Content Development - processLocal Content Development - process

Provide resources and leadership in schools to encourage children to develop content on issues of their choice to promote

Curiosity

Creativity

Passion to learn

An attitude to share learning

Provide an opportunity to children to interact with the community

Facilitate learning through activity based projects

Create a bank of locally created knowledge by children for dissemination schools across the region

Contests to identify the best efforts

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Education MISEducation MIS

First phase of MIS development completed

The Foundation is catalyzing successful implementation through

necessary modifications, training of personnel, recommending optimum hardware and

software requirements etc. Careful documentation of learnings

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Technology innovationsTechnology innovations

Objective

• Lower cost,

• Lower power consumption

• Lower voltage power

Solutions

•Three in one PCs

• Step up stabilizers

• Solar power packs

• Monitoring software (under test run in schools)

17Partnership: State level for content creation & District level for

deployment

Objectives for 2005- 06 (Quantitative)Objectives for 2005- 06 (Quantitative)

Description Status as of

March 2005

Objective for 2005-06

Content

Master titles

# of languages

Assessment CD

80

10

1

125

13

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Local Content program - In 5 states, in 250 schools

School coverage

Program launched

Launch in progress

# of States/ UT covered

10,211

6,000

4,211

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17,000

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Program monitoring systemProgram monitoring system

SCHOOL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT - 10 POINT MONITORING

Sl. No. Parameters Yes = 1, No = 0

1 Are all the CDs available in the School  

2Do Teachers accompany class children to Computer Aided Learning Center?  

3 Have teachers viewed CD content pertaining to their subjects?  

4 Are Teachers using/integrating CD content in their class room?  

5In the opinion of teachers, does the CD content impact the learning of the child?  

6Has content exposure @ two periods per week been provided to each child?  

7Are the teachers equipped with basic computer skills to manage the centre?  

8 Is the Head Teacher aware of CALC program?  

9 Does the community support/participate in the initiative?  

10 Do the children possess minimum computer skills to interact with the CD?  

Effective program = score of min. 5 out of 10This system has now been extended to 5 States / UT

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Key Research FindingsKey Research Findings

Significant improvement in learning levels among children from teacher involved Computer Aided Learning schools

Schools where program is run without teacher involvement do not show much improvement in learning levels

In case of children with learning disabilities (external research by Spastic Society of Karnataka):

Most children showed improvement in visual motor coordination, social intelligence and non-verbal reasoning

Tremendous improvement in social behaviour, attention, language (verbal), communication and motivation

Positive impact in promoting reading skills

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• Infrastructure– Power, electricity– Cost– Connectivity, Speed

• Content– Excessive focus only on IT and not on subject matter content– Content in local context and language

• Urban mindset vs. rural reality/needs

• Robustness of the model– Sustenance– Maintenance and replacement issues– Ownership, participation of community

• Talent development– Leveraging on existing local talent– Building managerial / supervisory talent

e – Education – some challenges e – Education – some challenges

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Thank YouThank You

For further details, visit us at www.azimpremjifoundation.org