New Ed-tech Initiative to Give 1 Million Disadvantaged Children Access to Digital Learning

BENGALURU: A new ed-tech initiative aimed at enabling online access to education for 1 million underprivileged school-going children across India was launched on Saturday, August 14, by Bengaluru-based GiveIndia. The Bharat EdTech Initiative has been set up to address the stark digital divide between students from wealthy and low-income communities, exacerbated by school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic.

With EdTech and Community partners El-Mindspark, Toppr, Vedantu, Akansha, Bal Utsav, Educate Girls, People For Action, Saajha and Sarathi on board, the program is designed for school goers from classes 3 to 12, belonging to families whose monthly income is ₹25,000 or less. A key focus area will be to provide equitable access to girls and other vulnerable groups.

The program, covering Language, Mathematics and Science subjects, will be implemented in two phases. The first phase – till August 2022, will target improved engagement and learning from home-based personalised digital learning solutions in key geographies for 100,000 children. The second phase, from September 2022 onwards, will scale these proven solutions and execution models across the country to impact 1 million children.

GiveIndia will manage partner relationships and fund administration through clear data-driven metrics while Sattva will be the design and program management partner. Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is the anchor funder for the initiative. ConveGenius is the measurement and evaluation partner. Collaborative funders include Barclays, Danaher and Intuit.

GiveIndia, Sattva and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation invite corporates to join as partners at various levels – from funding hardware and data charges, to supporting other aspects of the program – to bring about a change in India’s digital learning landscape.