YesGuruJi.com

Annually, 45 Million children across Nine states in India (grades 7th-12th in Hindi-Medium) get denied access to quality education because the education-infrastructure lacks by 30% (KPMG-2019 report), unimaginable Pupil-Teacher-Ratios (up-to 1:400 in UP), distance to schools, security concerns for adolescents etc. Lacking basic-amenities like blackboards and washrooms, state-government schools often see 50% adolescent dropouts from school, perpetuating low human-development-indicators and severe socioeconomic-conundrums.     

Solution: YesGuruJi helps affected children change their own Operating Environments.

• The online learning videos in simple Hinglish present lucid & self-paced lessons that are engaging, yet affordable.
• Contextualized examples help students study ANYWHERE, ANYTIME across devices, locations and pace of their choice.
• AI-directed chatbot-solutions will help automate answering curriculum-specific-problems with pre-recorded solutions to help convert household-smartphones into 1-to-1 personal classrooms for students.

Scalability: Online lessons, well-pervaded internet-devices and affordable cellular-internet packages have already generated popular EdTech applications, including adda247 for 40+ Million Hindi-Belt residents

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India sees~50% adolescents dropout between 7th-12th grades, propagating low development-indices for the society, and drastically hampering national progress.

Systemic inadequacies and gaps in education-delivery infrastructure are largely responsible. Socio-economic standing and distance to schools also impair student performances. Girl-students are doubly-disadvantaged with gender stereotypes, patriarchal norms, social restrictions associated with adolescence and taboos around menstrual issues. Dismal teaching-learning environment and undesirable outcomes affect ~45 Million lives, including ~20 Million girls.

Studies show the short-term action-points lie in Poor infrastructure, high PTR, inappropriate curricular and pedagogical resources and class-timings clashing with critical household-activities involving livelihoods, such as labor-intensive harvesting processes). We also need leadership initiatives to transform the societal mindset towards greater inclusivity and a greater emphasis on education.

Narrowing down the problem to workable chunks, 49% of Indian children study in Hindi-Medium schools. Six highly populous (Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan) also suffer from dismal performances (dropout rates - grade 10th -23% in UP to 74% in Bihar) as illustrated in the tables below.

Yesguruji video-based online lessons provide a Simple, Online Learning Environment, contextualized for students from disadvantaged Hindi-medium backgrounds. The 24x7 nature of the pre-recorded lessons also boosts inclusivity and equitability in access, liberating students from the restrictions of time, space, distance to K12 school and clash of School-timings with livelihoods and all those that hamper their comprehension of the curriculum.

1. The video content is contextualized to the daily lives and local points of reference of the children. This makes complex science concepts easier to understand, and makes video-based learning our favored approach in demystifying subjects considered most difficult for students.
2. The content is device agnostic, and internet-speed adaptive. It can be watched on all Smartphones, Tabs, PC etc. at all Internet speeds, including 2G speeds.
3. The Online Audio-Video lessons can be paused, repeated, self-paced per one's convenience and shared Anywhere and Anytime.

YesGuruJi is also pursuing AI-directed, “Ask a question” service (POC pending) that uses smart image-recognition technology to match problems asked by users to a pre-answered question-pool, with recorded video solutions.

49% of Indian children study in Hindi-Medium, mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds and communities. Of the 15 Million who took school clearing exams (Grades 10th & 12th) in Hindi-Medium schools across nine states in 2019, 1.7 Million children failed or aborted their exams midway in UP State alone (28 April, 2019). Research into the history of such children reveals they often register with inexpensive State-Government schools (90%+ in Bihar) or go through home-schooling. The State-Government schools are known for their cripplingly inadequate infrastructure, and throw unimaginable challenges like Pupil-teacher ratios of 1:400+ (2016–17 data from UP state as reported by Unified District Information System for Education U-DISE), joint classes across grades, and mass failures. Further aggravating the malaise are household preferences for pricier opportunities (such as better-quality private schools) historically reserved for male children. Children pressured to engage in assisting in livelihoods and economic activities during daytime (clashes with school-time) also cause frequent drop-outs.

YesGuruJi.com targets to serve grades 7th-12th in the K-12 segment among them, amounting to roughly 45 Million annually. The platform offers video-based online lessons that are more engaging than textbooks, not just because of the simpler Hinglish (conversational mix of Hindi & English), but also with interesting animations and contextualized examples from the daily lives of the target children. Finally, the self-paced, anywhere, anytime, relaxed learning environment provides students their own personal 1-to-1 classrooms without any fear of judgement typically seen in Physical classroom settings, both from peers & educators.

At YesGuruJi, we strongly believe our efforts can:

• bridge the yawning gaps in the education infrastructure
• provide equitable access to quality education to all Hindi-Medium students, especially to those denied access due to one or more reasons for disadvantaged backgrounds (economic, social, gender-based, distance to K12 schools, physical disabilities and such).
• reduce the pressure on state-government schools, and make them more efficient
• make learning more interesting, self-paced and engaging through video-based lessons
• make 1-to-1 learning and personal classroom available anytime, anywhere
• Set in motion a chain of events bringing forth higher HDIs (Human Development Indices) to the Hindi belt, currently among the worst performers Worldwide,

Given the online nature of the platform, and the deep penetration of both, internet devices and cellular-internet packages, we believe this is the right time for YesGuruJi to circumvent the infrastructural inadequacies. Taking cues from comparisons with private EdTech players in India, and assuming the projections below to be realistic, we hope to improve access to education to about 10 Million students by mid 2026

Comparable cases: Looking at comparable cases in English Medium (Byjus, UnAcademy, Vedantu etc., each of which grew 80-100% from 2019 to 2020, cumulatively 125 Million subscriptions in 2020), YesGuruJi expects to scale up and help:

1. the first Million students by mid-2023
2. Five million students by end 2024
3. Ten million in 5 years (i.e. mid 2026) assuming market dynamics, new players and competition

Though State Governments run Hindi-Medium schools across NINE states, and 49% children in India study in Hindi-medium, this segment also has the least support in education. In the most populous Uttar Pradesh (UP) alone, 200 Million residents face gaps of 30% in Education infrastructure (KPMG-2019 report). Unsurprisingly, 50% of these disadvantaged students never complete K12 education. 

YesGuruJi.com aims to supplement the K-12 curriculum with Video-based online learning lessons, that are engaging, yet affordable. Focusing on adolescent students (Grades 7th-12th) will help design education programs for children when, historically, they record the highest school-dropouts, also their most formative years.

Multiple large organizations have tested Video-Based Online Learning models successfully. Examples from India:

• a)Byju’s: Indian EdTech Unicorn offering video-based K-12 learning packages (Premium, English Medium)
• b)Khan Academy: American non-profit EdTech (Primarily English-medium, now translated into Hindi too, though without contextualized content).
• c)Diksha: by Ministry of Education, Government of India: claims 3.1 Bn digital learning sessions already consumed (mostly digital textbooks)

None however, offer Hindi-Medium video-lessons for children with limited access to K12 education. Their disadvantaged status and low paying-capacities hinder organized efforts at addressing these challenges.

Given the high penetration of Smartphones and affordable cellular-data packages, online Video-Based Learning models have become feasible. Pandemic-induced lockdowns have only hastened the transition to online schooling. The time is therefore perfect to Pilot-launch YesGuruJi’s, already tested, video-based online learning model, and leverage AI-directed image recognition technologies and problem-answering systems (case-in-point: doubtnut.com) to bridge infrastructural gaps.

1. YesGuruJi content in conversational Hinglish (easy to understand conversational & unofficial mix of Hindi & English), and examples adapted to student’s backgrounds & daily lives helps simplify complex scientific concepts. This forms our most important approach in demystifying subjects considered most difficult for students. Our team members understand ground realities because of our roots and our own backgrounds from the Hindi-Belt.
2. Video-based lessons are more engaging, and can be paced as per each student's individual needs.
3. AI-based "Image-recognition-technology" (planned for future) will help answer student's curricular problems, both theoretical and numerical, with pre-recorded videos of solutions and concept-clarifications
4. Videos can also help those with poor reading and comprehension capability, historically the consequences of systemic flaws and weak education systems
5. Education supplemented through online Video-lessons can leapfrog the needs of expensive physical infrastructure, both by governments and by individuals.
6. Online education eliminates restrictions of class-timings, school locations, teacher & learning quality, and high Pupil-to-Teacher ratios that have historically kept the Hindi-Belt students at low educational performances. They are therefore, sustainable longer-term, overall more cost-effective than physical schools, and unlike physical schooling, can be followed along with other daytime activities, including helping households with livelihood

1. Currently, about 10 Thousand
2. By mid 2022, about 300 thousand
3. By 2026, about 10 Million

10 Teachers - Contractors                          :  Part Time

1 Video Editor & Videography -- Contractor : Part Time

3 Co-Founders & Team members   --           : 30 hours per week

• Our truly diverse team consists of members with stellar professional standing in their respective fields. Thus, our team boasts of an eminent Doctor, a Senior Director in Technology Leadership and a Business Strategist. Our team members understand ground realities because of our roots and our own backgrounds from the Hindi Belt.
• Our commitment to cause a lasting impact in the simplification and delivery of education trumps the solely profit-driven objectives of EdTech companies.