Project Nanhi Kali

Project Nanhi Kali (PNK) is one of India’s largest programs which enables underprivileged girls in government schools to complete 10 years of schooling. Since inception in 1996, PNK has served 400,000+ girls across 14 states. To ensure that girls receive continuous access to quality education, learn with understanding and complete schooling, PNK is introducing an adaptive, personalized learning software called Mindspark in partnership with Educational Initiatives. Powered by AI, Mindspark will allow girls to learn Math, English, Local Language and Science at their unique levels. Mindspark is being developed and contextualized especially for PNK in 9 languages, to meet the socio-environmental context of 9 Indian states. This customized software will be embedded into digital tablets, making it accessible to girls in all project locations; 80% of PNK operates in rural/tribal areas.

This solution is highly scalable and can be implemented through government schools to reach 100 million+ students.

India’s marginalized girls are denied access to quality education. Gender discrimination, patriarchal mindsets and regressive socio-cultural practices contribute to low female literacy levels of 65% nationally and 46% in rural India. School closures caused by COVID-19 have aggravated pre-existing gender disparities in education, having a disproportionally negative impact on girls from vulnerable families. Already at high risk of dropping out, parents will now be more reluctant to send girls to school, increasing chances of early marriage and exploitation. With only 27% of Indian households having internet access, the digital divide renders marginalized girls with no means to learn remotely.  

Poor learning levels is another challenge. The no-detention policy of government schools allows students from Grade1-8 to be promoted to higher classes without acquiring grade specific foundational skills. In rural India, 56% students in Grade8 are unable to solve a simple division problem, 27% are unable to read Grade2 level text. In low resource environments, constraints like high student-teacher ratios and diverse learning levels make personalized learning unfeasible.

With prolonged academic disruptions caused by COVID-19, education has come to a standstill for marginalized girls, exacerbating learning deficits. For these girls, returning to school will not translate to a meaningful learning experience. 

By integrating cutting edge educational technology into a well-established, large scale girl education program, PNK will transform the learning experience for marginalized girls in under served communities across India. Every girl in the Project will be provided with access to Mindspark, an adaptive, personalized, digital learning software powered by AI. Mindspark is designed to improve reading and listening comprehension, logical thinking, analytical and quantitative skills. This customized software will enable girls to learn English, Math and their local Language from Grades 1-10, and additionally Science from Grade 6-10. The software will be embedded into digital tablets, allowing girls to access quality education, even in remote rural/tribal parts of India where connectivity is a challenge. Each girl enrolled in the program will have access to her own tablet.

This solution will bring significant improvements in girls’ learning outcomes as it will allow them to learn with understanding, at their own pace and unique learning level. Girls will be provided with instant feedback for remediation and the software will constantly adapt as per the girls’ answers.  With a focus on conceptual learning, this interactive software will offer a nuanced understanding of each girl’s skill and competency level. 

PNK supports economically and socially disadvantaged girls from marginalized families in India. The project operates in remote regions characterized by challenges like low female literacy, strong gender biases and patriarchal mind-sets which make girls vulnerable to dropping out of school as they are kept home for chores/sibling care, forced into early marriage, child labour, or worse–trafficked.

Girls served by PNK attend government schools where the quality of education is a concern due to teacher absenteeism, multi-grade classrooms, high teacher-student ratio and diverse student learning levels.  

PNK will ensure that these girls receive quality education and learn with understanding, helping them successfully complete 10years of schooling. To complement the personalized learning through Mindspark, girls will receive school supplies and feminine hygiene material to help them attend school with dignity. Further, trained tutors will mentor the girls through their schooling experience and sensitize community stakeholders to create girl-friendly eco-systems. A professionally designed sports curriculum will also be integrated into the pedagogy.

This solution will affirm that every girl is given the opportunity to achieve her full potential. Equipped with strong foundational skills, she will have a fighting chance to pursue higher education, contribute to the workforce and become financially independent.

Marginalized girls in India lack access to quality education, have poor learning levels and are at risk of dropping out of school. PNK will ensure that these girls receive access to a personalized learning software which will strengthen conceptual understanding of the local Language, English, Math and Science. The software will match instructions to the unique learning level of each girl, ensuring that she learns with understanding. Bridging the digital divide, the girls will be given tablets through which they can access Mindspark. This will enable girls’ to successfully complete schooling and build the foundation for higher education and employment.

PNK is currently serving 170,000+ marginalized girls in India through a daily after-school academic support intervention which operates within government school premises. This unique model is led on-ground by an all-women team of 7,000+ tutors from local communities. To improve learning levels among these girls, PNK is introducing a one of a kind adaptive learning software, Mindspark via digital tablets. This will ensure that girls from government schools in rural and tribal India, who have always been left behind, will now receive the same cutting-edge EdTech learning solution as students in privileged schools.

Mindspark, a personalized adaptive learning software, is built on a decade of pedagogy-based research on students’ learning processes and misconceptions. It uses data on student learning gaps to provide tailored remediation and an adaptive learning experience to each individual student through scientifically designed educational content.

This innovative pedagogy is proven to improve learning levels, is supported by a sustainable financial model, is cost-effective, has an extensive outreach and is highly scalable in government school settings.

While improvement in learning levels among girls is an immediate outcome of this solution, the far-reaching impact includes more girls completing schooling, pursuing higher education and gaining employment. This could subsequently impact early marriages, child mortality and fertility rates and the socio-economic growth of communities.

Powered by AI, Mindspark is an adaptive and personalized learning platform.

Mindspark is adaptive in the level of instruction. The activities students perform are based on an initial diagnostic and performance in each subsequent activity. Mindspark “teaches at the right level” through its adaptive approach. Two students at the same level may be stuck for different reasons. The software examines patterns of error to target “differentiated remedial instruction.” For instance, if a student makes a mistake on which decimal is bigger (3.27 or 3.3), it may be due to “whole number thinking” whereas if they make the same mistake with 3.27 or 3.18, it’s probably “reverse order thinking.” Mindspark then targets activities based on the likely reason for the mistake.

Mindspark provides personalized learning content to students based on performance and prior knowledge. The sequencing of learning content is constructed to avoid cognitive mismatch such as cognitive overload for low performers and boredom for high performers thereby ensuring that the student is engaged.

The software contains a repository of questions of gradually increasing levels of difficulty. Questions are specially designed to test understanding and help students clear their misconceptions. When a student answers a question or combination of questions incorrectly, the intelligent system diagnoses the child’s misconceptions / weak areas. The student may be further provided with a simple or detailed explanation or be redirected to questions that strengthen conceptual understanding. These decisions are made by an adaptive logic which is expected to only get better with increased student usage.

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), led by Professor Karthik Muralidharan (co-chair of education) conducted an RCT of Mindspark deployed through stand-alone centres in Delhi as well as another subsequent evaluation in Government schools of Rajasthan. The finding stated that these were among the largest gains of any education intervention that were observed. This was published a paper in the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) on– “Disrupting Education? Experimental evidence on Technology-aided instruction in India”. http://www.nber.org/papers/w22...    

The program was equally effective for students at all levels of the achievement distribution. Treatment effects in the impact evaluation did not vary significantly by level of initial achievement, gender or wealth. Thus, consistent with the promise of customized technology-led instruction, the intervention was equally effective in teaching all students.

However, the relative impact of the program was much greater for low-achieving students, who were making no progress in school. While the absolute impact of Mindspark was similar at all parts of the initial test score distribution, the relative impact was much greater for weaker students because the “business as usual” rate of progress in the control group was close to zero for students in the lower third of the initial test score distribution.

The program had large effects on student achievement in Math and Hindi. The offer of the program led to doubling of student test scores in math and Hindi over a 4-5-month period. There was a linear correlation between usage and gain.

PNK will integrate Mindspark into its well-established, large scale after-school support programme for marginalized girls across 9 Indian states. The project will operate in locations where girls are particularly vulnerable and at risk of dropping out of school due to pervasive socio-cultural barriers and poor quality of learning in government schools. PNK will specifically run in government schools, beyond school hours, serving girls who are attending formal school, but not learning at their level and are at risk of dropping out. PNK will aim to improve learning outcomes among these girls by twice as much compared to the counter factual and be more cost-effective than traditional tutoring programs.

The Mindspark software will be localized and contextualized in 9 languages of instruction, deployed with primary and secondary grade state government curriculum in numeracy and literacy. The software will be delivered via digital tablets.

Girls’ learning will also be supported by female tutors hired from the local communities, who would mentor and nurture the girls, helping them navigate challenges through their schooling journey.

The goal is to improve literacy, numeracy, and critical learning skills as well as to increase the number of girls who complete secondary education. We expect that girls will become more proficient and confident in speaking, writing and comprehension of any age-appropriate text. This will keep the girls motivated to remain in school and to complete their education.

Parents and community members too will get access to the learning progress of their girl and appreciate the substantial improvement from technology-aided instruction, becoming motivated to send their girls to school more regularly. Parents will feel reassured that their girls are learning and will be encouraged to allow girls to complete schooling. If they perform well, parents will develop aspirations for their girls, who they earlier considered liabilities.

Further, better learning outcomes for women have several positive spillovers, including lower fertility rates, lower mortality rates for children, and improvements in women empowerment. Therefore, increasing learning outcomes of girls at scale through personalized educational modules has the potential of improving the lives of girls, families and communities alike.

1. PNK is currently serving 170,000+ marginalized girls

2. In one year, PNK is expecting to serve 120,000 marginalized girls. On average, the number of girls served by PNK increases by 8-10% annually. However, in 2020-21, PNK is expecting the number to reduce as:

• Donations received, especially from corporate donors, will be temporarily impacted by the COVID-19 crisis as Corporate Social Responsibility budgets are being re-directed to COVID-19 relief efforts.
• Parents may be reluctant to send girls back to school due to the COVID-19 crisis and some girls are anticipated to dropout, especially in rural areas.  
• Implementing the Mindspark solution will increase program cost, due to the investment in hardware and software. PNK follows a sponsorship model and this solution will necessitate an increase in the per child sponsorship price. This may impact donations in current crisis and reduce the number of girls served in the first year of implementation.

3. In five years, PNK is expecting to serve over 200,000 marginalized girls.

Since PNK operates in government schools in 9 Indian states, government schools will have the opportunity to experience the benefits of this solution and may be encouraged to adopt this methodology at scale. This solution will ensure the availability of a personalized learning software in 9 languages, customized to suit the government school context. While PNK will directly serve the number of girls mentioned above, this solution has the potential to be scaled-up dramatically; if adopted by government schools it could benefit over a hundred million students.

NEXT YEAR:

1. Provide technology-driven quality education to 120,000+ marginalized girls.
2. Improve retention rates among girls with reduced absenteeism and dropouts.
3. Improve learning competencies in Math, Science, English and local language. Girls will improve on average by 0.2 Standard Deviation per year.
4. Tutors who are locally recruited by PNK, will have bettered their pedagogical knowledge and teaching methodology, as they will be trained to interpret and address child-wise indicators of performance and learning nuances captured by Mindspark.
5. Parents and community members will see the value of technology aided learning and be more invested in the education of their girls.

NEXT FIVE YEARS:

1. Serve 200,000+ marginalized girls.
2. Improve the educational status of girls from disadvantaged communities as validated by achievements of girls from these communities and continuous increase in learning levels.
3. Girls to be more confident in speaking, written expression, comprehension of text and have the ability to use mathematics in real life settings.
4. Higher transition rates of girls from primary to secondary grades.
5. Higher number of girls successfully completing 10 years of formal schooling.
6. Increase in the number of girls who transition out of PNK after completing school (Grade 10) to pursue higher education/vocational training eventually leading gainful employment. 

1. Social and Cultural Barriers

• Patriarchal mindsets, prevalent gender discrimination and restrictive gender roles in communities create barriers to girls attending school regularly, particularly in the case of adolescent girls.
• The COVID-19 crisis threatens to widen pre-existing gender gaps in education, creating a truncated learning experience and increasing the risk of girls dropping out.
• Lack of qualified tutors, teacher absenteeism, and multi-grade classrooms in government schools in remote regions lead to poor learning levels.

2. Financial Barriers 

• PNK is funded by individual and corporate donors through a sponsorship model. Corporate donors in India typically support the project through their Corporate Social Responsibility budgets. However, in 2020-21 these budgets will be impacted with several corporates temporarily redirecting funds towards Covid-19 relief efforts.  

3. Technical Barrier

•  PNK operates within government schools in some of the country’s most remote regions. Government schools which cater to disadvantaged families are free of cost but lack infrastructure and have limited or no internet connectivity. The solution which is a cloud-based software product will be inaccessible to marginalized girls from these locations.

1. Social and Cultural Barriers: 

• Regular sensitisation activities and home visits are conducted with families of girls. Locally recruited PNK tutors also leverage their rapport with community members to address socio-cultural barriers.
• PNK will ensure girls continue to receive quality education and learn with understanding through Mindspark. When schools reopen after the COVID-19 crisis, girls will be able to learn at their unique levels and bridge learning losses caused by school closures. 
• Mindspark will reduce dependency on qualified tutors as it provides personalized instruction and immediate remedial feedback. Tutors will be able to devote more attention to the wellbeing of girls rather than be overwhelmed by delivering individual instruction.

2. Financial Barriers: 

• PNK is supported by 10,000+ corporate and individual donors globally. The project has a dedicated fundraising team who ensures funding stability and is continuously explores innovative funding avenues in India and overseas. PNK is confident that the impact of COVID-19 on funding is temporary.

3. Technical Barrier: 

• PNK will equip every centre with a Raspberry Pi that acts as a local server, making Mindspark content available to each girl. Digital tablets in the centre will be connected to this cost-effective device, that will also allow the tutor to monitor the progress of every girl through a dashboard. The tablets and Raspberry Pi will be charged at the local project office to ensure uninterrupted delivery and will be synced fortnightly to the cloud for central teams to access data for monitoring and evaluation.

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Project Nanhi Kali Team

Project Nanhi Kali is jointly managed by 2 reputed NGOs- K.C. Mahindra Education Trust & Naandi Foundation. The total number of staff members dedicated to the Project are:

• Full time staff:  340
• Part time (on-ground staff including locally recruited women tutors): 5739  

Educational Initiatives (Mindspark) Team:

• Full time: 250

The team comprises of experienced professionals from 3 organisations in India, including 2 leading NGOs - K.C. Mahindra Education Trust and Naandi Foundation, and reputed EdTech organization Educational Initiatives. Team members include Fellows of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, alumni from Harvard Business School, Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology and London School of Economics. The team includes specialists in pedagogy, curriculum planning, data science, training, on-ground implementation, strategy, software development, finance, fundraising and communications. Further, PNK has a well-trained on-ground implementation team established in 21 challenging locations across 9 Indian states. The Project has a network of 7,000+ female tutors, each of whom is responsible for 30-35 girls. The tutors are supervised 200+ Program Co-ordinators, each responsible for up to 800 girls. The Co-ordinators are led by 27 Program Managers responsible for 5,000 girls each.

While the PNK team has over 2 decades of experience in implementation and management of a successful large-scale education program for girls, EI has been instrumental in developing path breaking solutions to improve learning levels for children with the aid of technology.

The diverse expertise and experience of a highly skilled program management team and robust implementation team will ensure that the solution is effectively delivered to transform the education of marginalized girls in India.

PNK is jointly managed by K.C. Mahindra Education Trust and Naandi Foundation. The Project has recently partnered with Educational Initiatives to provide marginalized girls from government schools with access to a personalized learning software, Mindspark. Through this partnership, Mindspark content will be developed and contextualized in 9 languages to suit the local socio-environmental setting of government schools. This software will be customized into an app to be uploaded on digital tablets, which would be the most cost-effective hardware option for this solution. 

Against a backdrop of low female literacy levels, gender skewed child sex ratio, low female workforce participation and social issues like child marriage and child labour, PNK was started in 1996 to provide educational support to marginalized girls in India. Girls served through PNK attend free government schools, as they belong to families who cannot afford private schooling. The quality of education at these government schools is not up to the mark due to high student-teacher ratio, multi-grade classrooms and diverse student learning levels, far below grade specific competencies. As a result, girls are not motivated to continue schooling, with over 50% dropping out in secondary school.

Designed to help marginalized girls complete 10 years of schooling, PNK has served 400,000+ girls over 2 decades. Every girl is provided with 360-degree support including daily academic support through after school centres set-up in government schools. At these centres, trained tutors engage girls in concept-based learning. With Mindspark, PNK will leverage technology to meet each girl’s unique learning needs to ensure that she learns with understanding and successfully completes schooling. Additionally, a professionally designed sports curriculum is integrated into the pedagogy. The girls are also given an annual school supplies kit including feminine hygiene material to help them attend school with dignity. Through regular engagements with parents and community stakeholders, PNK creates conducive girl friendly eco-systems in under served regions.

 PNK affirms that girls receive continuous nurturing, dignity, quality education and care, enabling them to grow into empowered young women.

PNK is designed as a sponsorship model where individuals and corporates can support the education of girls at a standardized sponsorship price. Donors can support a girl/s for a minimum period of one year and can annually renew sponsorship to continue supporting the girl/s as she moves to higher grades in school. PNK is supported by 10,000+ donors globally including 750+ corporate/institutional donors who provide funding support as a part of Corporate Social Responsibility or through other grants.

A dedicated fundraising team ensures that the project receives sustained funding through the retention of existing donors and acquisition of new donors. Funds are also raised through campaigns, crowdfunding platforms, payroll giving schemes with corporates, one-time grants and fundraising events. PNK is also linked to foundations- Mahindra Foundation in the UK and USA to raise funds through international donors and diaspora of Indians in these countries.  

PNK’s sponsorship model is highly cost effective with an average annual sponsorship price $75 per girl. PNK is able to provide extensive academic and material support at low costs, as the project works within the government school infrastructure and has achieved economies of scale due to its large outreach.

The development of the Mindspark software for PNK is a one-time investment which will provide tens of thousands of marginalized of girls in India with quality education for years to come. The delivery of this solution to the girls will be sustained over the years through the Project’s successful sponsorship model.

PNK's solution of leveraging technology through a well-established girl education program will transform how girls in India are educated. The solution which serves marginalized girls, who are particularly vulnerable to dropping out of school due to a host of socio-cultural  problems, will ensure every girl receives access to Mindspark, learns with understanding and has a meaningful schooling experience. This will result in increased learning outcomes that will reinforce the girl and her family’s belief that the classroom is where she belongs. Through this solution, girls from India’s most remote areas will have access to quality education through a digital learning platform bridging a crippling digital divide.

While the project is funded through a sponsorship model, PNK needs to make  a one-time investment to develop and contextualize Mindspark in 9 languages. Once developed, the software will benefit tens of thousands of girls for years to come as the  Mindspark adaptive logic only gets better with increased student usage. The delivery of the Mindspark software will be sustained through the sponsorship model that will cover the expenditure of digital tablets through which the content will be disseminated as well as recruitment and training of tutors who are on the front lines of the project.

Funding received through MIT SOLVE will help PNK meet the expense of developing this innovative software solution which will not only educate tens of thousands marginalized girls through the project but also has the potential to benefit millions of students enrolled in multiple government schools across the country. 

• Funding Partnerships: PNK is looking to partner with organisations who can provide funding support towards the EDTech solution to marginalized girls across India. 
• Marketing, Media and Exposure Partnerships: Over 95% of the funds raised by PNK are spent directly on program expenses ,leaving negligible budgets for marketing activities. Partnerships that can build awareness and enhance exposure for the project will be very helpful.  

PNK will appreciate any partnerships which would help the project with its fundraising and marketing initiatives.

PNK's solution of leveraging technology through a well-established girl education program will transform how girls in India are educated. The solution which serves marginalized girls, who are particularly vulnerable to dropping out of school due to a host of socio-cultural  problems, will ensure every girl receives access to Mindspark, learns with understanding and has a meaningful schooling experience. This will result in increased learning outcomes that will reinforce the girl and her family’s belief that the classroom is where she belongs. Through this solution, girls from India’s most far flung areas will have access to quality education through a digital learning platform bridging a crippling digital divide.

While the project is funded through a sponsorship model, PNK needs to make  a one-time investment to develop and contextualize Mindspark in 9 languages. Once developed, the software will benefit tens of thousands of girls for years to come as the  Mindspark adaptive logic only gets better with increased student usage. The delivery of the Mindspark software will be sustained through the sponsorship model that will cover the expenditure of digital tablets through which the content will be disseminated as well as recruitment and training of tutors who are on the front lines of the project.

This innovative software solution which will not only educate tens of thousands marginalized girls through the project but also has the potential to benefit millions of students enrolled in multiple government schools across the country. 

PNK's solution of leveraging technology through a well-established girl education program will transform how girls in India are educated. The solution which serves marginalized girls, who are particularly vulnerable to dropping out of school due to a host of socio-cultural  problems, will ensure every girl receives access to Mindspark, learns with understanding and has a meaningful schooling experience. This will result in increased learning outcomes that will reinforce the girl and her family’s belief that the classroom is where she belongs. Through this solution, girls from India’s most far flung areas will have access to quality education through a digital learning platform bridging a crippling digital divide.

While the project is funded through a sponsorship model, PNK needs to make  a one-time investment to develop and contextualize Mindspark in 9 languages. Once developed, the software will benefit tens of thousands of girls for years to come as the  Mindspark adaptive logic only gets better with increased student usage. The delivery of the Mindspark software will be sustained through the sponsorship model that will cover the expenditure of digital tablets through which the content will be disseminated as well as recruitment and training of tutors who are on the front lines of the project.

This innovative software solution which will not only educate tens of thousands marginalized girls through the project but also has the potential to benefit millions of students enrolled in multiple government schools across the country.