Welcome to Bengaluru’s Meghshala, a school on the cloud
new delhi — Government schools in India are cheap as far as costs go. At the same time, these institutions are suspect because the teaching methods are completely outdated and even the naturally bright students run the risk of growing disinterested in their studies. Besides, corporal punishment, though banned, is widely employed by semi-literate teachers.
A Bengaluru-based social education startup Meghshala, is trying to change that. In one word, the programme aims at making the process of education one of engagement. This means interaction on the part of the students with their subjects, and teachers who help them generate their curiosity.
Tools like projectors, videos, games, and three D models come into play, helping children to make studies more fun, and more application-oriented. Meghshala — ‘School on a Cloud’ — is a non-profit trust, founded by a former teacher Jyoti Thyagarajan and entrepreneur Sridhar Ranganathan,
Meghshala creates digital lessons for different subjects based on the national syllabus and trains teachers to use them in the class rooms.
The lessons are uploaded on the cloud, which the teachers download using tablets. They teach the lessons on blackboards or walls, using projectors provided by Meghshala.
Jyoti, 65, has worked as a teacher in reputed schools in India and abroad for over 30 years. She ran into Sridhar at a conference, who had similar interests. Sridhar had developed CloodOn, a learning system that can be uploaded on the cloud. When Jyoti experimented with the system in the school she was teaching, she found it to be effective. Jyoti and Sreedhar collected a group of teachers from across India and abroad to build engaging lessons, which were then translated into different Indian languages and loaded on the cloud. “School teachers can use the free kits that come with the program and these tell them exactly what to do, and what to teach next,” says Jyoti.
Meghshala now has a 30-member team. Close to 300 government school teachers in Bengaluru, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Pune are using the system in their classrooms. The Meghshala team frames the Teachkits. The philosophy of teaching is to make students think creatively and critically. The lessons follow the national curriculum. The subjects include English, Maths, Science, and Social Studies. Lessons for each unit are uploaded on CloodOn. Since the new teaching method requires initiation on the part of the teachers, Meghshala conducts training sessions.
These sessions help the teachers to familiarise themselves with the technology. The team also tracks how teachers are using the kit. The tracking helps the team to improve the efficiency of the teachers.
“We watched teachers using this platform and realised they are no less than teachers at high-end schools, asking questions and waiting for answers, till the students have thought through the problem,” said Jyoti.
In 2016, Meghshala received a national award for its contribution to the field of education. In March 2017, the team was invited to talks with the Ministry of Human Resource Development on how to reach 100,000 teachers across India by 2020 .
It is possible that soon Indian schooling is set for a massive shift. With CloodOn and similar programs around, for the typical Indian student the sky seems to be the limit.