Top 3 Creative Ways Sampark is Changing Rural Schooling in India

In India, almost 65% of the population lives in rural areas.

This statistic shows how a large portion of the country lives outside the radius of modern education centres, including millions of children of schooling age.

Rural areas are remote and underdeveloped compared to metro cities. The lack of appropriate infrastructure makes it harder for children to get the best education. This can have a significant impact on their learning abilities and slow them down in getting the best opportunities.

To solve this problem, various organisations have come forward, including us, Sampark Foundation. Our vision is to ensure quality education is within reach of every child, irrespective of socio-economic and geographical barriers, with our innovative educational tools and methods.

From the various initiatives of the organisation, three of them which stand out are:

1. Introduction of Six Innovations: With accessibility and affordability as core values, Sampark Foundation has created six smart tools that enable teachers to make learning more interactive and monitor progress alongside. The six innovations are as follows:

• Teach Easy Kits: This tool was designed to improve Math and English teaching and learning experience. It combines teaching learning materials, audio boxes, and board games to encourage classroom interactions.

• Sampark Smartshala App: It is a tool used by over 3.34 lakh teachers. It provides them with effective lesson plans, videos, and question banks, reducing their preparation time significantly. All this while being aligned with the SCERT syllabus to ensure children are on par with their counterparts.

• Sampark TV: Similar to the Smartshala App, this tool follows the standard SCERT syllabus. It is an audiovisual medium with pre-loaded content like lesson plans, videos, and gamified assessments to support teachers and engage students.

• Partner Dashboard: This dashboard makes the process transparent and tracks resource utilisation and allotment, following progress against key performance indicators and milestones.

• Sampark Didi Ke Sawaal: Classroom assessments often create anxiety among students, and to change that, Sampark Didi Ke Sawaal was created. It uses a quiz format and gamifies the experience to make it enjoyable.

• AI-Driven Speak English Program: As the teaching material is mainly in English, it is crucial that students and teachers can speak, listen, and learn the language. Hence, this AI-driven program features animated SCERT textbooks for pronunciation practices and improves the grasping ability of teaching materials by improving linguistic understanding.

2. Teacher Training and Support: The innovations cannot be utilised to their full potential without teachers. Sampark Foundation has recognised this and has adopted a ‘Teachers’ First’ approach. Only when teachers are confident and empowered can they teach well and empower future generations. To ensure the adoption of technology and new teaching methods, the following steps have been taken:

• SPARKs Program: SPARKs are experts who visit schools and provide practical training to teachers on how to integrate the six innovations effectively in their classrooms.

• Ongoing Teacher Support: After training is completed, Sampark also offers regular guidance through school visits to monitor progress and aid in covering the annual academic plan.

3. Collaboration With State Governments: Sampark Foundation functions in collaboration with governments across eight states of India—Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Chhattisgarh. Through these partnerships, community support has been garnered, making the changes sustainable and long-term, increasing their impact.

Need that Drives Our Innovation

We recognise the resource constraints faced by schools, especially government schools in rural areas, and the critical need for improvement. Without quality education, millions of kids may fall behind in their learning journey. To counter this, we have built more than 31,000 smart classrooms, impacting 1.5 crore children and contributing to paving a better future for our generations.

You can be a contributor to this mission by being one of our SPARKs and help make a difference on the grassroots level. Get in touch today!