Out of the Box Education

Yu Qian is a PhD student at MIT. He did his undergraduate at the National University of Singapore, and graduated as Valedictorian. He also holds a MPhil from the University of Cambridge (Gates Scholar). He was Senior Assistant Director at the Singapore Ministry of Trade & Industry. Between his studies, he founded a profitable education company, worked at a London based VC, and was Associate Faculty at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. He was also the President of the National University of Singapore Students' Union. He loves working with children, and has done volunteering work in South East Asian countries such as Cambodia.

1) Globally, there is high demand for quality but affordable preschool education, because preschool education is either very expensive or inaccessible. In major cities, rental cost are often high – preschool operators either pass the cost downstream to parents or are priced out completely. On the other hand, parents and teachers find it extremely difficult to regularly find and put together quality learning content and materials.

2) I'm proposing a unique classroom-in-a-box solution with both hardware and software. The hardware is a mobile, modular classroom-in-a-box that opens up to give a full learning experience. The software complements the hardware by delivering curriculum and learning materials.

3) Education is a key enabler to enhance social mobility, and early children education is critical for children's future growth and development. My solution elevates humanity by allowing quality but affordable preschool education to take place anywhere, even in places with displacements or natural disasters. 

The founding years of a child's education are critical, and formulates life-long implications for future success in life, interactions with society, social/community engagement, value building and economic contributions. Despite the established importance in the pivotal role of education in children's early years, around 263 million children and youth are out of school globally. This is equivalent to a quarter of Europe's population. The main factors and issues exacerbating this problem include:

1. Lack of proper and adequate education infrastructure around the world, especially in developing countries and countries facing displacements and natural disasters

2. Lack to access to quality learning materials, especially in poor rural areas

3. Schools too far, and in some cases unsafe for children, especially girls, to get to

4. Increase in displacements, crises, and conflicts all around the world

My project (Out of the Box) is a mobile, modular classroom-in-a-box for preschool children. It comprises two main components.

1) The physical hardware is a 1m cube with modular parts, made from sustainable and non-toxic materials. It opens up to provide a full fledged classroom learning experience for 10 to 12 children. 

2) A digital application accompanying the hardware, that provides teaching and learning materials as well as curriculum to complement the classroom-in-a-box. 

My project ensures quality education can be delivered in a low-cost, sustainable and quick manner when the situation requires. It allows a classroom environment to be set up within minutes with minimal fuss, and enables learning to take place anytime and anywhere. Each part is designed to be modular, of a similar size such that it can be interchangeably replaced according to the needs of the user group.

It does not require much technical expertise to open and close the box, and was designed such that any member of the community (volunteer, teacher, parent) can easily set it up.

My project serves developing countries and communities without proper education materials and learning tools. This includes rural communities in villages in regions such as Southeast Asia. For example, in my previous volunteering work in Cambodia, the children did not have proper learning materials and infrastructure. We work with the local communities and engage them, and also immerse in their environment to find out their needs, and better address their pain points.

My project allows quality preschool education to be deployed anywhere in the world, even places without proper infrastructure. This ensures that at a young age, children are not disadvantaged, and have access to educational opportunities. It targets and empowers communities that are traditionally left behind. Another major advantage of my solution is that it empowers local communities to become educators and facilitators, by using our classroom-in-a-box together with learning and teaching materials which are language neutral, anyone can become a preschool education and serve the community.

My cofounder and I have been working with children since approximately 1 years ago, and have done volunteering work. Throughout our journeys (see attached image), we have witnessed so many children in many different places without access to proper early childhood or preschool education, due to infrastructure, funding, accessibility, political, cultural, economic, and many other factors. This is a major problem around the world, and we conceived the idea as a response.

As mentioned above, my cofounder and I have been working with children for a long time. We strongly believe that education is the key enabler to enhance social mobility, and we are attached to many communities which we want to help. There is much work to be done, and we believe that our solution, with adequate support and resources, can really be very impactful to these communities. We hope to roll out of solution in Southeast Asia first, and eventually scale this up to places all over the work. We will pilot our solutions working with local communities that we have engaged, such as the rural village in Cambodia mentioned, and also poor places in China and Malaysia.

Out of the Box won an award at the World Bank Youth Summit, voted by over 1000 delegates all around the world, including developing countries. This is testament to the feasibility and belief in the idea, on a global scale. More recently, Out of the Box has also received an honorable mention in Fast Company's World Changing Ideas 2020. 

I possess a unique blend of technology, policy, entrepreneurship and education skillsets. For example, I was Senior Assistant Director in the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry, designing and developing technology and R&D policies. I have also previously founded a profitable education company in Singapore, delivering educational programs to over 1000 children. I was awarded a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge in 2017, as recognition for my leadership and commitment to improving the lives of others. Finally, I was also Associate Faculty in the Singapore University of Social Sciences, lecturing and design curriculum for over 100 students annually.

I wanted to set up a small technology classroom for children in a rural village in Cambodia (near Siem Reap region). By impacting basic word processing and language skills, we can help children move out of poverty, and get jobs in sectors such as tourism. This will prevent them from becoming delinquents, make a living, and value add to society in meaningful ways. However, I did not have sufficient resources or funding at that juncture. 

I approached large corporates and companies in Singapore, and eventually managed to collect unwanted, old corporate laptops and computing units. I put together a small team to refurbish and service these units, and refresh them. My partner and I eventually brought all of these to Cambodia (just the two of us), together with learning materials such as books, and we managed to set up the small technology classroom for the rural village/school. They are now doing well, taking in around 90 to 100 children every year. 

I was President of the National University of Singapore Students' Union in 2011 to 2012, representing over 20,000 undergrads and leading all faculties and clubs. In our flagship event (Flag Day), we mobilized all incoming freshmen to canvas for donations all over Singapore, and managed to raise over US$300,000 for the Singapore community chest beneficiaries, including adults with disabilities, children with special needs, youths at risk, persons with mental health conditions, and vulnerable seniors. I was given an 'overall outstanding achievements and contributions' award by the university for all my work.