Education based NGO Bal Utsav brings smart infrastructure to Government schools of Hyderabad and Chennai
Bangalore : India’s leading education-based NGO, Bal Utsav today announced its foray into Hyderabad and Chennai. The NGO aims to replicate its successfully run flagship program ‘iShaala’ in the city, starting with Mandala Praja Parishad Primary School, Nizamabad and Government Model Higher Secondary School, Saidapet, Chennai. Bal Utsav is also looking to execute its 360-degree revaitsation program in 400 schools in Chennai and 300 schools in Hyderabad.
iShaala are model schools designed for children studying in Government schools, that are Innovative, Inclusive, Interactive, Internet Powered and Inspires Communities. These internet powered Classrooms will be implemented in the already existing government schools. Through iShaalas, Bal Utsav brings interactive mode of learning by partnering with leading content providers (India’s top ed-tech companies) to make age-appropriate content available, and to enable blended learning for students. This content can be accessed seamlessly either through their personal devices (of children) or that of their parents/guardians or even Smart TVs and tabs provided to teachers and schools.
The program also consists of focussed & sustainable interventions that include four key areas-School Infrastructure (Including Smart Infrastucture such as internet connectivity, Smart TVs and Ed-tech content), WASH (Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene), Teacher development (Upskilling), and Scholarships for students.
According to the ASER (rural) survey, 70.3 per cent of children in India are enrolled in government schools in 2021. But only 8% and 18% of government schools have internet facilities in Telangana and Tamil Nadu respectively. Evidently, there is an urgent need to make these institutions fully functional and enable them to operate at their highest level of efficiency. Thus it is important to have model schools like iShaala to arrest the trend of ailing Public Schools and revitalising them. The Telangana and Tamil Nandu governments are aggressively promoting to set up smart classrooms and train students as well as teachers to adapt to this new mode of learning. To further fuel digital learning, Bal Utsav will replicate its success in Nizamabad and Chennai, will equip the Mandala Praja Parishad Primary School and Government Model Higher Secondary School with Smart TVs that come with pre-loaded educational content, empower teachers with tablets to conduct classes within the community in case there is another lockdown.
Commenting on the foray, Ramesh Balasundaram Co-founder & Director of Bal Utsav said, “We are reshaping the landscape of education guided by our holistic approach of whole school revitalisation through our two core programs-Sampoorna Shaala and iShaala. In the last decade we have successfully made a dent in the public education space and brought life-changing education to children. We are looking forward to positively impacting the children studying in the Government Schools of Hyderabad and Chennai, ensuring they have access to quality education which is no different from a child studying in a private institution. The cost of implementing a program like iShaala (in existing govt schools) is 1/8th of the cost that a central or a state govt, (on an average) would spend per child in a government school. This move has brought us a step closer to our larger goal of operating in at least 1 school complex (~1000 Children) per district in India.”
Binu Verma, Co-founder & Director, Bal Utsav also commented After having successfully rolled out the program in other States, the thought of seeing children in Tamil Nadu being supported through the iShaala rollout and to bring life-changing education to children in Tamil Nadu is really exciting, and I believe we can only do it together. We have a long term view and strategy for our operations in Tamil Nadu and we want to potentially create the ability to help exponentially more children get effective education, which we believe will have an even greater impact over time.
Over the last few years, Bal Utsav has partnered with 100+corporates – from Banking & financial services domains to Software & Hardware product companies and manufacturing to transform public school education. BalUtsav’s iShaala program looks at organising and bringing efficiency into the existing system instead of reinventing it. The NGO also has a track record of implementing the blended learning model in more than 100 government schools through their ishaala program in Karnataka. Due to this convenience of learning, some of the Bal Utsav supported government schools witnessed reduced dropouts, and a significant increase in reverse migration i.e kids in the district moving to Govt schools from other private institutions. Bal Utsav till date has reformed over 200+ government schools through its sustainable interventions and helped over 8 lakh students.