A Digital Opportunity in the Pandemic

According to UNESCO, in India alone, nearly 321 million children (most of these from government schools) are out of school because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. To address this situation, we immediately started looking for innovative ways to keep the momentum on! The agility and collaboration of the team helped us pivot to the virtual platform within a short period.
Schooling Program


Magic Classroom on Television

Students have been out of schools since the onset of the lockdown. It has been difficult to continue education during the unprecedented situation brought on by the pandemic. The education system tried to address this gap by understanding the resources available to students.
A survey conducted by the SCERT found that maximum students have access to television. Pehlay Akshar took this opportunity and partnered with the SCERT, Maharashtra. This partnership aspired to reach every student in Maharashtra and thus digital content was created to broadcast on television. The content is based on the State Curriculum English textbooks across grades 1-8.
The in-house team acquired skills to create scripts, film videos, and edit them to make them broadcast ready.
In addition to the medium of television, all the video lessons have been uploaded on the Pehlay Akshar YouTube channel to make them accessible at a national level. Through this new initiative, we bring our magic classroom directly to students' homes so they continue learning!
Pehlay Akshar App
We have built an app for Android users that ensures children have fun while they learn English!
The App brings the ‘Magic Classroom’ live on the screen through interactive content and interesting stories! The gamified version of the App keeps the students engaged in learning English. It has been designed for all kinds of users across geographies and different levels!

Virtual Schooling Pilot

After the announcement of the Nationwide Lockdown in March 2020, we realised that our teachers and students were very restless as they couldn’t meet each other.
We created a WhatsApp group of our students and engaged them through stories and assignments. We conduct weekly sessions with students wherein we conduct theme based discussions and energisers!
We ensure students have the same magical experience in virtual classrooms by sharing digital certificates and conducting competitions to motivate them.
Training Program

Since physical training was not on the cards, we migrated to the virtual training model beginning of June 2020. Within a few days, we explored portals to conduct virtual sessions, modified the content, revised schedules, and developed teams’ capacities to suit the virtual platform.

Our Challenges

Outcomes

Our opportunities
- Building teachers’ virtual teaching competencies
- Providing resources to create engaging virtual classrooms and teach Functional English
- Increased frequency of rigorous workshops
- Enhanced monitoring
We conduct 2-hour weekly workshops that equip them to conduct virtual classrooms to optimize students’ learning experience. These workshops are followed by Saathi sessions in the same week to discuss implementation challenges and best practices
Locations - Mumbai and NashikTeachers Impacted

2500
Locations Covered

2