FALAH

About Solution

Falah aims to solve the problem of digital divide in terms of literacy and learning opportunities for downtrodden and under privileged children using digital and multi media education tools.As per the World Bank report of 2011 an estimated 23% of Indian population comprising 275 million people live below $1.25/day on Purchasing Power Parity basis.At the same time India is undergoing a digital revolution where the number of smartphone users are expected to be about 800 million by 2022 as per Cisco report.How does one reconcile these contradictions.The poorest of the poor need to work in order to earn their living and hence education needs to be designed to their needs which is Any Time on Demand.The most effective way is to deliver it through digital media/device like smart phones and Television.Falah has developed pedagogy on a standardised Teaching methodology which aims to teach English,Mathematics,Environment and Science in their native language to start with Urdu/Hindi from Kindergarten to High School.The content will be based upon animation and story telling incorporating Imagination,Action and Joy in learning.The pedagogy is developed till High school level while the content is yet to be developed/curated.Students can get into formal education from High school onwards through National Institute of Open Schooling(NIOS,India).The content could be accessed through a smart phone device(an android phone) or can be downloaded on a USB drive and connected to a Television set.Alternatively those students who wish to enrol for formal classroom classes could also do so.Falah aims to tie up with Madarasas(teaching schools imparting training in Arabic) and Mosques,Mosques are vacant between Fajr(morning prayer) and Zuhr(afternoon prayer) and most of the infrastructure to run a classroom is in place in most mosques or have a madarsa attached to mosques in India,the Imam (priest) can act as a facilitator for a stipend of $100/month and most of digital infrastructure like Television,High Definition IP Camera and battery back up can be set up with a Capital expenditure of $1000, ofcourse there are cultural challenges to installing a Television in a madarsa for teaching which was there as well when loudspeakers were installed for call to prayers(Azan),we believe there could be some resistance to this idea from the clergy but could be navigated with the help of a Fatwa(religious edict) and in this way we would be able to access infrastructure at a much lower cost, when more class rooms are required they could be created using sliding curtains which can convert a hall into a classroom and could be converted again to a hall for prayers.There would also be a system where these kids would be assessed using worksheets and third parties, in order to reduce drop outs, they would also have groups of four or five kid where if a kid drops out ,the group along with Imam would go to their home to re enrol them or to figure out if the kid has fallen sick or something else.Besides the challenge of developing an curating interesting content which is self explanatory and requires little teacher support and can create interest in the child ,it requires grants/aid in the initial years to run it because the poorest of the poor don't see much value in education when jobs are becoming scarce due to automation and technological disruption and their survival needs are more urgent.So it would require a minimum of 100 such pilots(critical mass) to create an impact for the community to take notice.So we are seeking funds to create content which would be free and Capital expenditure for a critical mass of 100 pilots, the operational expenditure for every new pilot for the first three years will be funded by Falah which will be generated by a cross subsidisation model, where the vernacular medium content will be provided to madarsa for free while English medium schools will be charged for content and the viability gap will be crowd funded through Zakat.The team is led by two people a medical doctor who also holds and MBA in finance and strategy from a Financial TimesTop ranked Business School ,Indian School of Business,Hyderabad www.isb.edu and an Ex Chief Operating Officer of $80 Million Hospital business.The other member holds an Engineering degree in Computer Science and works with the Reserve Bank of India(Monetary Authority and Central Bank of India)as an Officer and are passionate about education and technology and more importantly making it accessible.More granular details are available on request.

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