This is a story about how District Mineral Funds are used to improve education in East Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya. It shows how these District/ State level and CSR funds can create real change in the education ecosystem and empower both government and social organizations to bring a meaningful change in the society.
How Former District Commissioner of East Jaintia Hills Used DMF Funds for Improving education?
Allocating DMF the DC initiated Project Ka Lawei – The Future. It is an ambitious project aimed at introducing digital learning in schools. One of the district’s major challenges back then was the low passing rate in Class X. iDream education is happy to share about the progress and impact of digital learning on the education of the district.
Their initial implementation was “20 Smart Classrooms across 20 schools”
The Smart Class concept was chosen as a cost-effective and easy-to-implement solution. In phase 1 of our initiative, we implemented iPrep Digital Class with Smart TVs, a preinstalled Learning Management System, and preloaded Meghalaya Board aligned Digital English Medium Content for grades 8 to 10. This included subjects such as Mathematics, Science, History, Civics, Geography, and Economics, along with Computers and English Grammar to ensure access to comprehensive educational content.
Despite access to engaging video lessons and practice materials, student adoption and learning outcomes remained low. The initial challenges observed by iDream Education were:
- Language Gap: While English is the official medium of instruction, many students primarily speak Pnar, a local dialect of Khasi. This created a significant comprehension gap.
- Lack of Awareness About Education: East Jaintia Hills, known for its coal mining legacy. However, the ban on coal mining has left a generation grappling with many families lacking awareness about the end game of education leading to low student motivation and a sense of disconnect between classroom learning.
Given the challenges faced by students, iDream Education focused on bringing finer Innovation into their products and strategies to address these issues. Their journey toward innovation and enhancing the adoption of digital learning includes:
- Baseline Assessment: They conducted a baseline assessment of 5,000 students using tablets, revealing a significant learning gap with most 90 % students performing 3-4 grades below their current level. This data-driven approach allowed us to personalize learning interventions.
- Expanding Access: They with the support of DC increased the number of smart classrooms to 146 more classrooms, reaching 30 more schools across the district.
- Enhancing Learning experience: They introduced new features like video speed control on LMS and , Khan added Khan Academy explainer videos, and targeted English content were introduced to improve comprehension and engagement.
- Bridge Course for Teachers: They developed a comprehensive bridge course to help teachers address foundational learning gaps in students, ensuring they were well-prepared for grade-level material.
- Personalized Regular Assessments: Monthly assessments on tablets provided personalized feedback to students and teachers, enabling targeted interventions and tracking progress. Their ground team in Meghalaya conducts monthly assessments on tablets for all students to evaluate their understanding of previously taught concepts. Student wise reports shared with the teachers that help them keep a track of progress, identify gaps, and pinpoint areas for improvement.
The results have been truly inspiring:
- Higher passing percentage of Class 10th: With 2 years of deep focus, the Class X board exam clearing rate has increased significantly from 25-28% to an impressive 60%.
- Increased Usage: Smart classroom usage has improved, with an average of 56 hours of use per classroom from March to August 2023.
- Improved Academic Performance: Monthly assessments show significant improvements in student performance across subjects, particularly in Science and Social Studies.
- Increased Engagement: Students are more engaged in learning, leading to improved attendance and a growing awareness of the opportunities that education can provide.
iDream Education is happy to see improvements in learning outcomes in the EJH, Meghalaya! Their team in Meghalaya is working closely with students and teachers, and we’re hopeful for even more progress.
Way Forward
Experiencing the positive impact Project Ka Lawei has had on our students and community, iDream Education is looking for the opportunity to replicate these innovations in other educational initiatives of District, State and Foundation ensuring last mile learners have access to digital learning that has potential to improve educational outcomes.
If you’re interested in learning more about the project or exploring digital learning solutions that make an impact, please share your details here or write to them at prakashrohit@idreameducation.org
