The COVID-19 outbreak has thrown the education world to an unprecedented learning crisis.
According to UNESCO, the pandemic has adversely affected the learning of over 1 billion learners (with the closures of schools, colleges and universities) across the planet.
In response to the crisis, countries across the world have adopted different EdTech initiatives in order to ensure continued learning for students at home. Multiple organizations across the world have responded to the crisis by launching databases of various resources to support learners. However, there have been very few resources in Hindi or other vernacular Indian languages. As a response to the shutdowns in India, Central Square Foundation (CSF) - a nonprofit organization working with the vision of ensuring quality school education for all children in India, has been working to build and share resources that are relevant for the Indian context.
Working to transform the school education system in India to improve the learning outcomes of all children, Central Square Foundation has long been focusing on EdTech and believes in its potential to bridge the learning gaps. In response to the ongoing crisis, which has restricted all learners and teachers at home, they have developed a repository of free EdTech solutions – IndiaEdTech.org, to declutter and categorize free digital resources to help teachers, students, and parents discover and use them during these difficult times.
The need for such a repository in India
Currently, over 4,500 EdTech solutions exist in India. Out of these, several private and not-for-profit players have made their offerings free to support continued learning at home during COVID situation. However, many such services are not known to many, or interested users often find it difficult to discover the right ones which suit their needs and requirements. So there is a need for an Indian EdTech repository, with products contextualized for the Indian audience so that students and teachers can easily scan the available digital content, tools and resources and continue teaching and learning uninterrupted. CSF’s repository aims to address this, to aid the discovery of online resources for governments, teachers, students, and parents.
Features of the repository (IndiaEdTech.org)
Central Square Foundation’s repository is built and developed to cater the needs of diverse learners affected by school shutdowns. Some of the key features of its repository include:
- Available in both Hindi and English
- EdTech resources in 12 Indian languages
- Products for K-12 across English, Science, Hindi and Maths
- Tools for IIT and JEE preparation, and also language learning
- Online teaching and professional development resources for teachers
Benefits of the repository for students, teachers as well as product companies
- Using the repository, students and teachers can discover key EdTech tools and resources available in India.
- Students and teachers across India can access content by filtering their grade, subject, and language of their preference.
- Product companies can include themselves in the repository by filling a form, which is available on the website.
Circulate this repository with those who might benefit from it. To access and to learn more about the repository, log on to indiaedtech.org.
