Class Work
An e- learning initiative is transforming rural schools in Maharashtra
In 2015, Harshal Vibhandik, a 35- year- old New York- based investment banker, returned to his hometown Dhule to partner with Pragat Shaikshanik Maharashtra, a state programme to bring government schools onto digital learning platforms. In just two years, Vibhandik and his team have managed to equip 52,000 of the 67,000 Marathi- medium schools across rural Maharashtra with computer- based audio- visual learning facilities.
Tablets and interactive projectors have replaced textbooks and notebooks in wi- fi enabled schoolrooms. Maths and science classes now employ LCD projectors and laptop computers. Initially paid for from Vibhandik’s savings and contributions from his NRI friends in the US, local zila parishads pitched in with funds after seeing the results.
Almost 70 per cent of the funds required for the project are being raised by local villagers now. According to the Maharashtra State Council of Education Research & Training ( MSCERT), rural residents contributed an impressive Rs 312 crore between July 2015 and September 2016. The money was used mainly to build or repair classrooms, toilets and buy computers and
MINISTER TAWDE SAYS 44,000 PUPILS HAVE LEFT PRIVATE ENGLISH MEDIUM SCHOOLS TO JOIN MARATHI MEDIUM ONES
related hardware.
The transformation is truly remarkable: the state education department’s annual report, released last March, recorded a 15 per cent jump in attendance in village schools over the past two years. Officials acknowledge that interactive education has become a “bigger glue than mid- day meals” for students to stick around in classrooms. Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report ( ASER 2016) also notes that the number of children ‘ out of school’ came down 1.5 percentage points in 2014 to 0.9 per cent in 2016.
Maharashtra’s education minister Vinod Tawde proudly points out, “Around 44,000 students have left private English- medium schools to join our state Marathi- medium schools.”
But there’s a new problem now. Schools equipped with the new digital learning platforms are finding it difficult to pay the fatter electricity bills, in some cases up to 10 times more than before the computers were installed. The zila parishads ought to bear the burden, but most of them are already strapped for cash. Keen to keep the project going, Vibhandik has decided to knock on the doors of corporate houses. “They helped us in the past; I hope they will do the same during this crisis as well,” he says.
Union human resources development minister Prakash Javadekar wants to replicate Maharashtra’s digital learning model in other states. Vibhandik says he is prepared to help but only “if funding is not an issue”.