I presented at the World Social Work Day Conference in Dhaka last week - the sixth annual conference that also inaugurated the 1st Bangladesh CSR Conference. Here, I represented the Learning Yogi Foundation as a part of the delegation from Nanritam, West Bengal. 

As a part of the 'Education for All' delegation from Nanritam, I was able to squeeze in a few minutes to talk about the role of technology in early grade learning and the strengths of the Atlas Mission app. The Learning Yogi Foundation recently signed up with Nanritam to provide the Atlas Mission app to 9,600 children in it's network of 50,000 children across the country. Nanritam's outreach to such a large size of early grade learners is enabled by a change maker/volunteer network of 1,000 teachers - 400 of whom are also now able to use the AM app.

The audience was surprised to learn that this ground-breaking app is reaching children is some of the most remote parts of India for a cost less that Rs 2 a day - this includes the tablet cost, the app service cost, and the internet usage. The AM app is light and does not require constant internet access. Each tablet can create upto 8 profiles customised to students - keeping a track of their individual learning patterns. Even though children 3 years and older are using this app independently and in a fun way, without supervision, Nanritam's added support with changemakers to familiarise kids with tech is useful.

With this collaboration, the Atlas Mission tab will serve community spaces in West Bengal, North East India, and the UT of Ladakh. LYF, by the end of 2023, would have served over 10,500 children - enabling them to learn vocabulary, numeracy, STEM, and critical thinking skills.

The Learning Yogi Foundation understands that this number is just a drop in the ocean with the potential of size & scale India has to offer and is actively fundraising to make more collaborations possible.

A few week before Dhaka, I had the opportunity to visit the Nanritam Campus and see their work in Purulia.

The community centred approach works well in their tribal schools, for instance, the one in Susunia. Here, retired teachers from the same Santhaal tribal community, Mr & Mrs Tudu, run an open school for 113 children. While they started with this a few years ago, they still struggled with the pedagogical elements. Nanritam helped with this through some of the modules pre-tested at their Filix School. With the Atlas Mission app in tablets placed in their hands, this is the next level of learning and familiarisation for most of these students.

Technology may not necessarily mean heavy infrastructural investments. The right colour and limestone on the walls of a mud hut also goes a long way in being instrumental is learning with ease and simplicity. Learning applications that we often hear about may bring the complexity of 3d animation, but is that the experience we really want for our children, at an early age?

If you are connected to communities would would like to learn more about Atlas Mission or would like to connect with the Learning Yogi Foundation, please write to ngo at learningyogi dot org 

Thanks for reading!