Finding Out Reasons

Implementing Agency
ASN Sr Sec School

Website
www.asnschool.org

With the intention of sensitising the people of Delhi on the atrocious state of River Yamuna, the school organised a six day event. Seeing the plight of Yamuna River, which has been declared as a ‘dead river’ by WHO, ASN Sr Sec School (ASN) resolved to come up with many more awareness programmes. Such projects are necessary to senstise students and society to know about the importance of clean reasons behind the degradation of the river environment.

Objective
To increase the awareness among students about the environmental issues.

Achievements
• It worked out as a practical way of bringing the students close to the nature
• The whole school was involved in this project, thus the students learned to work as a team.

Target Group: The Youth of  Today-School children

Challenges: There were several financial constraints in organising this on a mega scale. We overcame this problem by involving NGOs and Corporate houses who provided financial assistance. Getting pure water from Yamunotri in the Himalayas was a big challenge. After that we had to book IG Stadium for12000 odd spectators. So there were several logistical issues involved. Inviting the various judges for 70 different competitions was also a difficult exercise.

Ladders for Learning

Implementing Agency
Shanti Asiatic School, Ahmedabad

Website
www.shantiasiatic.org

The I Cube Learning Ladder is an unique teaching-learning methodology that has been adopted in Shanti Asiatic School, Ahmedabad, for creating a joyful school environment that will generate happy, righteous and quality individuals, equipped to make right choices in life and grow up to be responsible citizens of the world. The I Cube Learning Ladder is woven in the strong belief in the theory of ‘Think Global but Act Local.’ It is dedicated to bringing about a global vision in the students.

Objective
• To make a child inquisitive about a subject
• To ensure that the curiosity developed is sustained
• To build a healthy inquiry based learning approach

Achievements
• Message of awareness was broadcasted across the region

Target Group: Students of Class I to X

Challenges: The first key challenge we face was in development of the methodology. We had to train the trainer so that he could impart further training to the students.

The Cafe

Implementing Agency
Mahatma Gandhi International School

Website
www.mgis.in

The Cafe Project is a pedagogical initative undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi  International School, Ahmedabad. The focus of this project is running the community kitchen in schools. It offers several opportunities for learning traditional subjects like cooking. Under this Cafe project, one is able to address several subject competencies through a meaningful and fun filled approach.

Objective
• To bring fundamental learning for survival (food) in the mainstream education of K-12 schooling
• To integrate innovative and experiential pedagogy to teach subject

Achievements
• Students voluntarily opted for a healthy diet due to heightened awareness
• Students understood important principles of hygiene and safety

Target Group: K-10 Students

Challenges: The students and the teachers have to be careful with the tools being used in the café. They have to have full knowledge of the working of the tools and the systems. Fire related hazards  are also an issue. Another key challenge we faced was related to  infrastructure, which had to be developed in such a way that the entire class  could be accommodated in the kitchen premises. Time management is also a  cause for concern. The project had to be designed in such a way that the  younger children could be given extra training in safely cutting and chopping vegetables.

Reinventing Partnerships

Implementing Agency
IBM India Pvt Ltd

Website
www.ibm.com

The IBM Reinventing Education (RE) programme is driven with the motivation of enhancing the quality of schooling. The project works in partnership with the local governments in various countries. Launched in 1994, this programme is now available in 25 cities throughout the United States, as well as in Australia, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, China, India, etc. It is a holistic model for teachers’ professional development and child centric learning aligned to national goals.

Objective
• To improve the quality of teaching and learning in the secondary school sector

Achievements
• Teaching moved from teacher-centred to child-centred active learning
• Drop-outs rejoined in school after seeing their friends ‘enjoying’ the learning experience

Target Group: Secondary school teachers, students and school heads in selected government schools

Challenges: The major challenge that the company faced in the initial stages was due to the lack of ICT integration in teaching learning process. Also in government schools there is hardly any opportunity for teachers to take up continuous skill development. We overcame these challenges by taking various steps to reinvent the education programme.

Imparting Shiksha

Implementing Agency
Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt Ltd

Website
www.microsoft.com

Project Shiksha, a part of Microsoft’s PiL programme, aims to incorporate innovative methods to provide new avenues of social and economic  empowerment for the underserved communities. With the help of ICT based education, teachers are able to integrate IT tools in their classroom teaching and thereby bring efficiency to the process of teaching. Till date, this project has trained over 6,94,426 government school teachers who in turn have impacted over 32 million students by making ICT a part of their teaching.

Objective
• Bringing innovation in the teachinglearning process in a classroom
• Empowering the teachers with ICT skills
• Digital inclusion

Achievements
• The reach of the Project Shiksha is across 12 states in India
• Microsoft has trained over 6, 77, 000 government school teachers till date, who in turn have impacted over 32 million students

Target Group: Government school teachers

Challenges: A major challenge came from the fact that teachers were not that eager to pick up new skills. Some of them argued that they were due for  retirement in a few months or a year or two and did not foresee the necessity  of picking up new skills so late in their professional lives. Lack of infrastructure for the running of the programme was also an issue. Even when a computer lab came into being, the school

Active Teaching

Implementing Agency
RUMI Education Pvt Ltd

Website
www.rumieducation.com

Rumi Pre-Primary (PP) Curriculum with Active Teaching is a complete end-to-end pedagogical system that ensures optimal learning outcome. This system meets the needs of the school’s pre-primary section. The system works through the involvement of teachers and students. It operates across the classrooms, schools and geographies in a standardised, scalable, monitor-able model. The exercise gets conducted within the academic framework of the school.

Objective
• To support the school with a single system that includes books, teacher manuals, methodology, teacher training, monitoring delivery, and assessments

Achievements
• Successfully adopted across multiple states
• Trained over 800 teachers

Target Group: Schools at every level.

Challenges: Parents compare their child with others in their friend/family circle and are concerned if their child has not learned as many alphabets or numbers. The product therefore had to meet the expectations of parents who are very discerning, when it comes to the educational needs of their own children. At parent teacher meetings, parents were sensitised of the fact that basic skills like gross motor, fine motor, kinaesthetic, reasoning etc. are important for all round development of the child. We also faced challenges due to different educational background of the parents.

MoU Between Students and School

Implementing Agency
Salwan Public School

Website
www.salwangurgaon.com

The entire idea was conceptualised with a simple proposal. The students of the school wanted a month long celebration on the occasion of children’s day. The Principal agreed on a simple condition that there should be improvement in academics and behavioural aspects of the students. The idea behind the project was to empower all stakeholders and enhance a range of leadership skills. A think tank team was formed to plan the event.

Objective
• To enhance knowledge sharing
• To instil the sense of camaraderie and collective responsibility

Achievements
• Self Discipline generated by peer monitoring especially by the Shadow Council
• The list of defaulters in the discipline register drastically reduced.
• Workshops on communication skills helped in developing inter-personal skills

Target Group: Management, Parents, Students, Faculty, Support Staff and Community at large

Challenges: It was a mammoth task to successfully manage the initiative. Initially when the collaborative framework was read in the assembly, few students refused to sign as one of the clauses was to improve the academic performance by 5 percent. The members of the student council, shadow council and the faculty with the counsellor counselled the students. The House Captain also helped the new students improve their performance.

Towards Spiritual Intelligence

Implementing Agency
DLF Public School

Website
www.dlfps.com

Objective
Inspiring children to adopt the three important precepts of life – Morality, Mastery over the mind, and Wisdom

Achievements
• Students have been winning the Yoga World Cup for India for the five consecutive Years
• Many case stories of children who have benefitted immensely from this programme

The School follows the Vipassana Meditation regime- one of India’s most ancient non-sectarian and scientific techniques of meditation. It is a significant part of the school curriculum. The students practice ‘AANPANA Sati’, the meditation of in-and-out breathing following the Vipassana meditation regime twice every day, in the morning and in the afternoon. Each classroom is equipped with a Speaker. Thus, the entire School follows ‘Guided Meditation’. ‘Yoga and Meditation’ an important part of the School curriculum.

Target Group: Students of Class III to Class XII

Challenges: One of the major challenges had to do with management of the logistics. Each classroom had to be equipped with speakers to aid guided  meditation. We had to foster association with Vipassana Sadhana Sansthan to carry out a long term effective programme. Initially it was a challenge to get the teachers to meditate with the students. The teachers were quite resistant to even attending the Vippassana Meditation Camps. They had to be cajoled into attending the camps. Also it is a difficult task to make all the students attend the Yoga sessions.

Developing Research Skill

Implementing Agency
Mount Abu Public School

Website
www.mountabuschool.com

The success of teaching is determined principally by evidence of improvement of some kind in the students being taught. This project is based on the assumption that educational evaluation is a professional responsibility of the academic staff. It arises from a commitment to understanding the effects of teaching on the students. The most important point is that not all teaching innovation requires special funding. Some of the most useful innovations are simple, cost-neutral changes in style, structure and parameters.

Objective
• To develop thirst for gaining new knowledge
• To develop research skill among the children and the teachers

Achievements
• Children became extrovert and developed efficiency
• Developed critical thinking among the students
• Developed creativity and proficiency
• Improved ranks in English, Science and Maths Olympiads Cloud

Target Group: School Children , teachers and parents across the globe

Challenges: The crunch of resources was a major problem. Some students lacked enthusiasm. So there was lack of complete participation from students. At times, we faced problems related to punctuality and regularity. The concentration level of students also left much to be desired.

Social Media in Education

Implementing Agency
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Vijayanagram

Website
N/A

Global economic and social trends over the past few decades have had profound implications on educational reform and the use of technology in schools. The pervasiveness of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have changed the way people live and made it necessary for educational systems across India to reinvent teaching and learning to prepare students with 21st century skills. Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Vijayanagram (JNVs) embarked upon the ICT journey to facilitate the integration of effective, existing, and emerging technologies in order to enhance learning opportunities for all students.

Objective
Provide increased opportunities for individuals to master basic and advanced technical, academic, and job-related skills

Achievements
• Virtual Room – Learncentral allowed students to attend a class from even outside the school like a real classroom
• m-Learning tool for especially visually and physically challenged

Target Group: School Leaders, Teachers and Students

Challenges: Making teachers and students familiar with the tools is by itself a challenge. Lot of training is needed to be provided during the initial days. The infrastructure had to be prepared. During Online Classroom Session unless everyone has fast Internet, things slow down if everyone turns on their webcam at once.

ICT Based Agri- Education

Implementing Agency
University of Colombo Institute for Agrotechnology and Rural Sciences.

Website
www.uciars.cmb.ac.lk

Agriculture is the mainstay of the rural sector in Sri Lanka. Farmers are resource poor and face constraints in gaining access to information and knowledge that could improve their crop productivity. To expose rural farmer to knowledge, University of Colombo has built an Online Diploma in Agro-technology in local languages. This is the first-ever attempt by Sri Lankan university system for giving opportunity for farmers to pursue further education through Open and distance learning. A prototype was developed and implemented with farmers all around the country.

Objective
To open new avenues to the rural farming community <

 Target Group:
Farmers, young entrepreneurs from rural areas, agriculture related professionals

Achievements
• Many Sri Lankan Farmers have started to use e-mail and internet information search
• Government authorities became to be aware of expansion need of the program

 Challenges:
 The difference in the age and levels of qualification of the farmers was a cause of many problems. This was solved by providing the farmers with one month of training in basic computational skills. Most farmers lacked computing skills, so we had to organise workshops to train them. Basic English language skills also had to be imparted.

Online Education

  Implementing Agency
Marss Education Private Limited

Website
www.imiedu.in

Marss, through its various initiatives like the Indian Management Institute, is working with Indian Universities for building digital courses and curriculum to meet the demands of the industry. The courses, the pedagogy, the methodology and the content, produced by the Indian Management Institute, are contemporary, relevant, practical, industry aligned and deep rooted. The online learning platform of Marss, complete with a host of audiovisual
content provides an excellent flexible learning platform to the students.

Objective
• To provide best quality education to the students
• To reach out to the under privileged areas, tribal section
• To realise vision of creating and crafting the University as a centre of excellence in education

Achievements
• Courses are based on the latest syllabi that is industry oriented, versatile and cover the latest technology of the stream.

Target Group:
Working professionals and fresh graduates.

Challenges:
A key challenge is related to the lack of penetration of computers. The organisation is attempting to  overcome this problem by offering free laptops or tablets to the students who enrol for the course. It is a challenge to convince people that online education can lead to betterment of knowledge and the thinking process. Now that IMI is providing university degree to its students, there is a new recognition of the value in distance education.

The e-Learning Platform

Implementing Agency
Sikkim Manipal University

Website
www.smude.edu.in

The EduNxt platform is an easy to use delivery system. It enables a collaborative and interactive environment for learning and includes small group mentoring, virtual classrooms, simulation, self-study content, recorded presentations and shared browsing.With a reach of over 400,000 students enrolled across 825 learning centres in India, EduNxt is the pinnacle of learning management system in India.

Objective:
To open a channel of communication between the 400 thousand students on the rolls of SMU-DDE in India.

Achievements:
• The EduNxt environment has shown a 260 percent growth in usage over the last year
• Students, Faculty and Industry Experts on a Single platform.

Target Group:
Students pursuing Higher Education at the Graduation and Post-Graduation Levels. Age Group – 18 to 50.

Challenges: It is a cause of concern that many of the students are not inclined towards usage of modern technology. As large percentage of our students are working professionals, they need access to their learning environment and their mentor’s during non-working hours. We addressed this by putting large number of content online which can be accessible anytime anywhere.

The e-Connect

Implementing Agency
Lovely Professional University (LPU)

Website
www.lpu.in

LPU e-Connect is a strong and secure online connection and common platform, specially made to cater to the needs of Distance Learners, that links the University, its study centres and its students located at different parts of the country and the globe. Based on enterprise web portal technology, it automates all the processes of distance education and minimizes the physical differences by providing 24×7 accessibility through its various useful features.

Objective:
To make online connection a boon for the students by providing them personalised learning environment.

Achievements:
• The University is able to save papers by developing completely paperless system of operation
• The system is now being used by more than 16000 users

Target Group:
Students and staff members at institutions.

Challenges:
Initially it was a challenge to provide help and support to many students based at study centres in different parts of the country. There was too much load on the server at some points of time. So we had to bring about improvement in the server architecture and set up clusters of servers at the backend. Bandwidth was also improved to ensure smooth functioning of the system. The acceptance of the system by end users is also important. Addressing the security and privacy related concerns was also a challenge.

e-Examination System

 Implementing Agency
Punjab Agricultural University

Website
www.pau.edu

Web based Examination System is secured with IP based policy and students are allocated with roll numbers for logging into the system. The Online Examination System is a web based application developed through an open source MySQL and PHP solutions. This customised software has been developed for dual degree students of PAU. This is run from an In–House Apache Webserver on their internal network. The examination consists of different types of multiple choice questions and subjective questions. The questions and time to attempt are fixed. The answers are evaluated and the marks obtained for each along with the answer given by the student are stored in the database. The examiner can get the results immediately. The software maintains the details for each student as well as provides a facility for editing the student details if required. There is password based access for individual answer sheets and general mark lists. This Online Examination System in PHP and MySQL can be modified and customized to suit the need of any Educational Institutions, Primary and Secondary Schools, Colleges, Professional and Vocational Institutes, Universities or Training Academies.

Objective:
To automatethe  examination procedure

Achievements:
• Online Sharing of Data, Records and information
• The system is now used by more than 10000 users

 Spreading Education

Implementing Agency:
Gedaref digital city organisation

Website:
www.community.telecentre.org/photo/albums/idea

Gedaref digital city organisation (GDCO) is a civil society in Sudan founded in partnership between Gedaref and Eindhoven communities. GDCO established projects target the illiterate children and young who are often outside the umbrella of mainstream education providers. The students study for two years and then are accommodated in fourth grade in e-school. After eight years of study, the student is given an international certificate from the Sudan National Telecentre academy (SuNTA) from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in India.

 Objective:
Connecting the unconnected in rural communities

Achievements:
• Added value e-services including agriculture extension, e-Sheppard, e-tanker, telemedicine
• Utilisation of Telecentres to reduce the cost of education and improve its quality

Target Group:
Children, youth, women and people with disability

Challenges:
The major challenge we faced is due to the fact that ICT is not part of our culture and it is not a priority. The poverty in the country also makes it difficult to undertake such projects for education. The cost of e-infrastructure is relatively high. At times children in rural areas are engaged in bringing water from  the river, so they hardly have the time to read and learn. Overcoming the digital divide is a challenge.

Elevating Employability

Implementing Agency
Aide – et – Action India

Website:
www.aide-et-action.org,
www.aeasouthasia.org

ILEAD tries to address the employment concerns of one half of the world’s poor who live in South Asia. Skills training is offered in about 30 areas, including Information Technology, Hospitality, Dress designing, Secretarial training, Beautician courses, Mobile Phone services and repair.

Objective:
To bring about a reduction in the number of households living below the poverty line Achievements  iLEAD along with Aide et Action has trained various international organisations like American Indian Foundation, Children International and a few others.

Achievements:
iLEAD along with Aide et Action has trained various international organisations like American Indian Foundation, Children International and a few others

Target Group: School and College drop-out youth from disadvantaged sections of the society between 18 – 25 years
of age.

Challenges:
Youth having biased choices of courses – The youth many a times tend to choose courses under the influence of either the family or friends. Such a selection of course leads to a mismatch between the skills of the youth and the course. Also it becomes difficult for the youth to retain in the course or on the job. To avoid this kind of a biased selection of courses, iLEAD has developed an Aptitude test for the youth. Along with the aptitude test, the youth are counseled about the course and the market demand.

Digi-library

 Implementing Agency
SoftTech Engineers Pvt Ltd

Website
www.elearningsofttech.com

SoftTech offers digital learning library covering more than 100 subjects in Vocational education streams. Vocational education covers skills as recommended by National Vocational Training under Director General of Employment & Training. These can be used by institutes and students to achieve their education/training objectives.

Objective:
• To bridge the gap between academic curricula and industry expectations.
• To bridge the gap in availability of qualified faculty in remote institutions.

Achievements:
• Success in generating more employable resources for the industry
• Adoption in ITIs from Himachal Pradesh

Target Group:
Vocational Institutes, Students.

Challenges:
Teachers from institutes were reluctant to adopt the new technology. SoftTech invested significant efforts to create awareness on its value as an effective learning and reinforcement tool which complements the role of teachers. Support to remote clients about installation was a big task due to lack of basic computer knowledge. Company has taken local support to overcome this issue. Later on remote applications are used to solve the problems. Due to variation in the syllabi throughout India there are difficulties in marketing of the digital library.

Education for The Professional

  Implementing Agency
Suryadatta Group of Institutes

Website
www.suryadatta.org

Suryadatta Group is devoted to vocational education programmes. The organisation has taken number of initiatives such as Computer Literacy Programme for Senior Citizens, Workshop by Mumbai Dabbawala, English & IT Awareness  Programme for Auto Rickshaw drivers etc. Suryadatta Group has hosted many activities spreading awareness amongst society as regards to fatal issues, inculcating employability skills etc.

Objective:
To enhance self esteem and improve the career prospects of participants

Achievements:
• These programme helped participants to enhance their self esteem
• The programmes increased employment opportunities for participants.

Target Group:
Housewives, school children, senior citizens, auto drivers, and other needy sections of society.

Challenges:
The idea of providing computer literacy to poorer sections is quite difficult as they have education related constraints and also time related issues. It takes lot of time and effort to help them develop the right kind of concepts. Even senior citizens find it difficult to pick up computer related skills.

Virtual Learning

Implementing Agency
Virtual Voyage Institute Of Design, Media and Management

Website
www.virtualvoyageworld.com

Virtual Voyage Institute of Media and Management is striving to provide world class training to students. The institute is focussed on creating job-ready individuals, who are skilled enough to work in modern industry. During the education process, the students are given ample opportunity to interact with industry.

Objective:
Virtual Voyage believes that concentrated production work combined with industry lead to better results

Achievements:
Seminars in different fields to provide participants exposure to industry.

Target Group:
Virtual Voyage is focused on central provinces of India. We cater to the students and professionals from in and around Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Challenges:
The major challenge we have faced is linked to the fact that today’s youth and their parents are mostly unaware of the vocational stream of growth in the Industry the career opportunities that lie in it. A lot of interest and acumen is required to get the best out of these fields. People are more inclined to pick up traditional courses and they simply run after meaningless degrees. Spoken English, soft skills and communication are also a major barrier.

 The Mind Enhancer

 Implementing Agency
Brainwave educationconsultants

Website
www.brainwaveeducations.com

The self modulated programme named THOUGHTWEB and FLEXILEARN have been specially designed to facilitate psychological upliftment of people of all ages and professions. It provides training for handling of interviews and public
speaking.

Objective:
To extract life skill  with self help to induce the right moral values through motivational speaking

Achievements:
• Above 10,000 students trained since last 10 years
• Interview cracking has become far more easier
• Adolescents feel more comfortable in the classroom
• Teacher student relationship has become more conducive

Target Group:
People Of All Age Groups, Castes, Sex and Creed

Challenges:
The adamant attitude of some village folks was a big challenge for us. Lot of counselling had to be done to overcome this problem. Also the senior students tend to be argumentative; then there is the issue of too much interference by the parents. Availability of adequately qualified staff was also a cause of concern during the initial stages.