Unsticking schools

Darpan Sharma doesn’t share the appearance of polish and sophistication of many of the principals we met in Pilani; nor does he have fancy advanced degrees which principals are eager to share. But he has a vision and love for his students; he wants to get beyond India’s rote system and bring more innovation to his students but he is stuck, so stuck that he even tried bribing a government teacher for the government e-learning product. He was denied so instead, he bought one off CDs in the market, which he admits are of poor quality, and has his senior science students stay after school to gather around his one computer to watch the animation.

This is what we are trying to unstick; schools with limited funds and more so, limited exposure are unaware and unable to leverage much of the innovation that is happening in education; no one is approaching them, and much of what is available is of poor quality or too expensive.

He is doing what he can and has even created 3D materials for maths and science, making cones out of construction paper and copying rupee note on his own to stretch his children’s imagination.

We are eager to learn from Mr. Sharma as we work with him to achieve his vision!

One Village at a Time

Visit Pilani, Rajasthan and you feel the potential of India. 70 years ago, Pilani was a remote village in the desert of Rajasthan. Today it is thriving town – often reminding me of Stanford’s campus – serving as an education center for Rajasthan.

Thank you, GD Birla. His commitment and vision for Pilani is something both other wealthy families with roots in small villages and organizations should be looking to emulate. He invested in building a world class scientific institution in his hometown, BITS Pilani, and has supported this villages transformation. Streets are wide, lined by flowers and fields and full of students, scientists, and doctors on their bikes. Gandhi’s statue is prominent and while the town carries a sense of scientific advancement, at the same time, in holds Indian values and tradition at its heart.

After observing a Bharatnatyam class (pictures to come) at Birla Balika Vidyapeeth, an all girls schools in Pilani, I asked if any of them wanted to come to New York. Unlike in most other classrooms where I ask the same question, only one hand when shooting up. Another girl explained, “We all want to come to New York to see the city but not to work or live because we want to improve our country first.” I only wish I heard that in more of the classrooms we visited and hope that as we work with schools and communities, this sense of service and giving back can be one of the things we emphasize.

It was equally exciting to see a positive response to our eTutor product in such booming educational center and I am hopeful we can build some partnerships that we will learn significantly from.

And now off to Hanumaghar and Ganganagar, a small towns on the Pakistan border where I am sure our learning will continue….