1 The challenge of educating the poor

India has numerous education schemes for school going children but that have been
hindered by certain demographic and infrastructural issues. India ranks poorly on
the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) (71 out of 73 nations) and
that is because of numerous reasons. Apart from a few pockets like certain pilots
run with the help of NGOs for schools in urban and rural areas, the access to
education for the under-privileged, specifically using good ICT services is still a far-
fetched scenario. Reality is that poor infrastructure plagues majority of our schools.
There are fewer schools in remote and tribal areas, school locations that are difficult
to reach, ill-trained teaching staff, very high student-to-teacher ratio, which all leads
to low quality of education. Add to that the harsh reality of children as a
supplementary source of income in the under-privileged strata irrespective of
whether we speak of cities or backward areas and still somewhat pervasive mindset
against education for girl child, all lead to a further lower utilization of whatever
basic education services that are being offered.
While we see major policy level mandates such as free education for the girl child
and many such schemes which are in support of improving the level and uptake of
education, we also see a strong need for changes because traditionally the focus
has been on enrollment and not on attendance. Further, it is well-established that
unevolved teaching pedagogy and ill-designed curriculum which doesnt impart
lifelong skills and knowledge would lead to more dropouts consistently as well.

2 Data sets on low literacy levels

https://data.gov.in/catalog/state-wise-literacy-rates provides government data on
literacy rates across states
https://data.gov.in/keywords/literacy-rate other data sets on literacy rate by religion,
SC/ST, urban and rural over the years
http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/UIS-literacy-statistics-1990-2015-
en.pdf UNESCO Global literacy level comparison

3 Role of ICT in educating the poor - what's happening on the ground?

We clearly see ICT playing a critical role in a large education system like that of
India. It is a powerful tool to disseminate education both formal and informal to
large sections of society. On the ground, the government has designed policies to
support the ICT initiatives such as the national policy on ICT in school education
outlined by the Ministry of Human Resource Development which provides guidelines
on ICT enabled learning process, automation in school management and delivering
digital content.
http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/revised_policy
%20document%20ofICT.pdf
But the implementation of such policies has not been uniform while the ICT
infrastructure has developed modestly, there has been a general lack of awareness
for the ICT as well as a lack of understanding of the needs of the poor and rural
students such as language requirements. Their ICT education requirements differ
from urban students and are reliant on community efforts and on the teachers.
Yet we see efforts being made to deliver education to large sections of society
through ICT. The National Institute of Rural Development has designed curriculum,
training materials and guidelines and is utilizing current ICT channels of government
to deliver the education content. Government is also utilizing current e-governance
centers such as e-choupal, n-Logue to deliver education content in poor and rural
regions. Other significant efforts such as Grameen Sanchar Seva Organization
(GRASSO), InfoThela, Computer Based Functional Literacy Program, Schoolnet India
Limited are all part of national effort for robust ICT education. http://www.ci-
journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/313/429

4 Major developments that led to a rise in the literacy levels in a particular

village, district etc.
We keep seeing numerous efforts by individuals and organizations alike that have
significantly increased literacy rates in specific regions and have transformed their
societies. For instance, one such program has been the Lok Jumbish program in
Rajasthan which not only increased literacy and enrollment rate in primary school
children but also increased the retention of girls in rural schools. The retention rate
of girls in the schools set up under this programme is four times that of schools set
up elsewhere. The program coordinators developed an innovative community-
centric approach, gender sensitivity and decentralized management systems,
constantly evaluated the program and shared responsibility of the community and
the government to create a good learning environment.
Another example is the Andhra Pradesh Primary Education Project (APPEP) which
has focused on increasing the quality of teachers as the state already had basic
required infrastructure for schools but not enough trained teachers. The project has
trained an estimated 80,000 teachers in 23 districts and more than 3,000 teaching
centers have become operational. The program has been successful because of
inclusive approach towards the various stakeholders of the rural regions and a
rational decision making by working with the limited resources of teachers in the
rural regions of AP.
In the western region, Gujarat saw a successful program initiated by an NGO
Gyanshala. The project started by providing primary level education in slums of
Ahmedabad at a cost which is 1/4 th the cost of a government school. The effect was
that the students showed 60-100% higher learning gains than their government
school counterparts. The program was successful because of using a standardized
curriculum and constant monitoring and evaluation of the classrooms to update the
curriculum and teaching pedagogy. The organization has since scaled up from its
original location in Ahmedabad in Gujarat to the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and
West Bengal covering over 8000 schools.
These kind of holistic programs is what we need which not only focus on increasing
literacy in rural and backward regions but do so by involving the community and
understanding the demographics as well as societal needs.
http://www.nrcddp.org/resources_data/res100024.pdf - Lok Jumbish program source
http://www.teindia.nic.in/mhrd/50yrsedu/r/6H/HF/6HHF0501.htm - APPEP program

5 Major technology providers in this space - doing good work in recent

times in using ICT for rural education
We feel that delivery of rural education relies on few aspects good ICT
infrastructure, quality content and robust connectivity. There are many startups and
established foundations working in this field and are trying to address two main
issues - lack of quality teachers and of good quality learning material.
We have seen government itself implementing various ICT infrastructure in schools
such as the Aakash Tablets for students which has provided students in rural regions
an opportunity to connect to the web for their learning needs. Then there are
indigenous products such as the InfoThela designed by scientists at the IITs, which
is a battery powered low cost computer which provides information directly at the
doorsteps in rural regions. We also have organizations like NIIT and HCL which have
been supportive in providing the ICT infrastructure and education tools to various
states in India, but new players are coming up who are leveraging governments
efforts to connect rural India through network by providing quality content in a
digital format. There have been large public listed firms such as Educomp and
Everonn which deal with not only urban education content but also rural content
and then there are dedicated firms such as Hippocampus which focus purely on the
rural sector. http://www.digitalindia.indiaincorporated.com/india-smart-classroom-
market-report-2015-2019-with-educomp-solutions-everonn-education-hcl-
technologies-liqvid-elearning-niit-dominating/
With the boom in the startup culture, we foresee young firms taking up the
challenge of delivering good educational content in the rural space and scaling their
operations rapidly. Digital content providers such as Shikkhok.com and Agastya.org
are now present and providing education content customized in local language and
through Mobile Science Vans leveraging ICT respectively. Then there are innovative
digital content providers such as 4S Learning which uses its Digital Education in a
box utilizing a portable container which is solar powered and connects to the
internet to provide digital education material in remote areas.
http://www.networkedindia.com/2015/06/12/these-initiatives-are-giving-rural-
education-a-tech-boost/
With the push from the government for a digital India and connecting remote areas
on the fiber optic network, we see more such firms coming in the market and
providing high quality digital content to the masses.
6 Role of government programs
We see governments key role, through various programs, in creating awareness
about the importance of education in both urban and rural regions and providing
financial support for better infrastructure and resources. Schemes have been
created to support education efforts in all regions such as The Non-Formal Education
Scheme (NFE) which was followed by Operation Blackboard as part of National
Policy of Education to provide minimum required infrastructure to schools. The ICT
program has been included as part of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan
(RMSA) (http://mhrd.gov.in/ict_overview ) to help secondary standard students to
develop ICT skills. All these efforts have been done to address key issues which
hinder the growth of any scheme lack of awareness, managing expectations with
the right amount of education efforts, rightsizing ICT infrastructure and resources as
per area needs and focusing on attendance rather than enrollment. Similarly SMART
Schools are being developed in district to play a role model part in the efficient use
of ICT for imparting education.
http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/govt-raises-the-bar-for-smart-
schools/
Besides these, general ICT initiatives for a digital rural India are underway such as
Warana, Dristee, Sari, Sks, E-Chaupal, Cybermohalla, E-Mitra, Friends, E-Seva,
Lokmitra, E-Post, Akshaya, Honeybee, Praja. Government is also focused on
providing high speed internet connectivity through fiber to rural regions connecting
them to information sources both for business and education.
But therein lies the issue of ensuring effective implementation of the schemes.
While numerous government programs have been launched, poor monitoring leads
to ineffective evaluation of the schemes leading to unskilled teachers, high dropouts
after enrollment, old teaching pedagogy etc. We feel that there is a need to better
manage the schemes either through direct increased government involvement or
through private partnerships as has been done under NFEs by partnering with
Volunteering Organizations (VAs). http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/In-India-
poor-kids-are-illiterate-despite-4-years-of-education-Unesco-
report/articleshow/29524124.cms

7 Aggregation of school related data

http://img.asercentre.org/docs/Publications/ASER%20Reports/ASER
%202014/National%20PPTs/aser2014indiaenglish.pdf National report on Rural
education by PRATHAM
http://www.dise.in/Downloads/Publications/Documents/U-DISE-
SchoolEducationInIndia-2014-15.pdf School education in India statistics
http://www.dise.in/flash.htm other education statistics
http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/statistics/SSE_11-12Final.pdf ,
http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/statistics/EAG2014.pdf -
comprehensive data on number of education institutes and literacy levels across
states, enrollment levels etc.
http://mhrd.gov.in/statist?field_statistics_category_tid=30&=Apply national
level statistics on education

8 Comprehensive approach to using technology that not only covers

student education but all the supporting factors like teachers, governance
etc.
Having a high speed connectivity to every school and outfitting classes with PCs
may not automatically translate to better education. A comprehensive step-wise
approach would cover not only technology but also sustained public-private
partnership and awareness.
Not all areas have the same ICT requirements. First step would involve
understanding the requirements of the region. While some may require bare
necessities of ICT infrastructure, other areas may be facing a dearth of good
education content which can be delivered through digital mediums.
The second step would involve deploying a pedagogy environment which utilizes
technology to fit the demographic of the students. Urban areas have started
adopting a blended environment where digital content is being delivered in
audio/video channels. For the rural areas, a flipped environment
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom) can be implemented where
students understand concepts in their own free time at the ICT centers and then get
their questions answered in the school through interaction with the teacher either
face-to-face or over video channels. Digital education content can be delivered on
mobile or at ICT centers in local languages.
Lastly, technology needs to be used to involve teachers and implement governance
and evaluation of education programs. School Management Systems covering
attendance, student scores and performance, teachers performance and digital
education content would be required. Especially for the rural regions, digital content
needs to be designed to train the trainers and delivered through the School
Management Systems. Such systems can also store information on current literacy
levels in that region and provide direct information to government and NGOs.
Beyond technology, we foresee a combined public-private effort to modernize
education using ICT and create awareness among the different sections of society.