ThinkZone

There are many children in pre-primary and primary school who lacks the foundational skills that are required for higher classes. The long-time lockdown has further deepened this problem. Children having access to smartphones and the internet still attend online classes, but those having no access to smartphones are the sufferer.  

ThinkZone works with children in the age group of 3 to 10 years from low resource settings to develop foundational skills using a community-based model. ThinkZone identifies, trains and equips youth from a community to teach children focusing on foundational skills in the same area. ThinkZone also provides assistance to parents using remote instructions: text messages, automated calls, and IVR services to practice learning activities with children at home.  

The problem: 50 million children in primary grades are yet to attain basic mastery of literacy and numeracy. Achieving foundational skills at an early age help children comprehend the complex concepts in higher classes. These deficits have compounding effects because without basic skill mastery, students cannot learn from books or other written learning materials, creating a self-perpetuating cycle where the weakest students struggle to catch up and often fall even further behind. As a result, many children leave primary school with such low literacy and math skills that further education, formal employment, and even civic participation are all but impossible.  

Bridging the learning gap: ThinkZone uses offline-enabled mobile application solutions for training and equipping youth to become educators. Through ThinkZone’s data-driven technology and research-based methodology on learning, youth support children aged 3-10 years in their communities to develop foundational literacy and numeracy skills. We also use voice, SMS-based & Whatsapp-based low-cost technology to provide free, interactive learning resources for families. We work with communities to support at-home learning for children aged 3-10 years.

ThinkZone applied a design thinking process to design the project. We collected data from all key stakeholders: parents, children, community, youth, and educational researchers. Door-to-door visits, parental engagement workshops, community meetings, and focus group discussions were conducted to understand the needs of the problem better. We also conducted webinars, and workshops with young professionals, educational researchers, teachers, and youth to design the solution. By combining all our observations, the team sat down, brainstormed and came up with all the possible solutions. In the end, the team prepared a prototype of the project, and this was tested in 50 villages in a district.

Activities: 

• Program Partnerships with Government and Private Organizations
• Identification and training of youth
• Education Program Delivery(activity-based teaching, assessments, data tracking etc.)
• In-person parent engagement workshops and parent support through IVR, text SMS and voice calls
• Content & Technology R&D
• Program Monitoring

Outputs: 

• Youth become skilled in teaching children using technology and play-based methodology
• Children learn basic skills in literacy like speaking, reading, writing
• Children learn basic skills in numeracy like counting, seriation, four mathematical operations
• Parents become aware of their role in children's learning

Short term outcomes:

• Children achieve foundational literacy skills
• Children achieve foundational numeracy skills
• Parents supporting children in studies
• Youth teaching children focusing on foundational skills

Long term outcomes: 

• Tech-driven education becomes a major form of providing quality education
• Children are better prepared for the complex concepts in higher classes
• Parents play an active role in children's learning
• Integration of ThinkZone programs in government-led initiatives

According to Nesta's Standards of Evidence, our current level of evidence integration is level 4. We have done an RCT evaluation where we collected data from 6369 students, in which 3098 students were in the control group, and 3271 students were in the treatment group. The evaluation found a 12.3 to 21.6% improvement in arithmetic scores and a 13.8 to 24.9% improvement in language scores in children. 

We have also conducted an independent evaluation of our project. The evaluation found a significant increase in arithmetic and language scores of children. The evaluation also found a rise in children's interest in learning, parent engagement rate and skills of youth. Play-based methodology like rhymes, learning games, puzzles, discussions, and group activities in the classroom positively impacted children's interests.   

In Good Times and Bad: Low-cost Mobile teaching during a Pandemic

ThinkZone has both internal and external monitoring and evaluation (M&E) teams. Through our Thinkzone application, we capture real-time data from the ground which helps us resolve the issue quickly. Our internal M&E team regularly collect feedback through Key Informant Interview (KII), Focus Group Discussion (FGD), and also in virtual modes.  

Indicators: Number of youth enrolled  

Data Source: Thinkzone application

Current metric: 1246 (2022) 

Indicators: Number of children registered  

Data Source: Thinkzone application

Current metric: 3081 (2022) 

Indicators: Percentage of skills improved among youth

Data Source: Thinkzone application (assessment, quizzes), Training performances, observations of field managers

Current metric: Ongoing (Yet to measure)  

Indicators: Number of children who can read simple sentences

Data Source: Thinkzone application (assessment) 

Current metric: Ongoing (Yet to measure)  

Indicator: Number of children who can write words 

Data Source: Thinkzone application (assessment) 

Current metric: Ongoing (Yet to measure)  

Indicator: Number of children who can do simple operations in mathematics 

Data Source: Thinkzone application (assessment) 

Current metric: Ongoing (Yet to measure)  

Indicator: Engagement rate of parents 

Data source: Incoming calls in toll-free number, observations in parent engagement workshop 

Current metric: 74% (till now) 

ThinkZone uses technology and play-based methodology to improve children's foundational skills by equipping youth. 

Many young people in low-income communities teach children at their homes as a part-time income-generating opportunity to supplement their own higher education. ASa part of the community, the youth deeply understand the multiple problems the families and the students in their communities face. This study will look into the value added by such a micro-entrepreneurial approach toward education. 

There is currently limited research work on rural entrepreneurship in the form of ‘tuition centres’  and the current research project will address this gap by analyzing primary data on youth engaged in educational programs. our research project will focus on the skill enhancement aspect of youth who teach these children, and the students who attend these centres in their communities. 

The study will analyze if the educational programs implemented by these community educators (youth) lead to improvement in learning outcomes of children and help the youth in getting up-skilled, which could potentially open up multiple job opportunities for both. 

The new Indian National Education Policy emphasizes the role of the community in education. It is expected that this study will inform policy practice and strengthen existing plans in the NEP for utilizing community volunteers in supporting schools.

Some of the broad research questions of the project are:

1. Study the pathways of a rural education program to understand the role of community educators (youth) in improving educational outcomes.  

2. How are these programs helping the youth to utilize technology to upskill themselves.

3. Measure the improvement in educational outcomes of children due to the programs being delivered. 

Potential deliverable of Leap project: 

1. List of factors impacting the educational outcomes of children 
2. Pathways to incorporate a community-led model to improve educational outcomes children mainstream education system 
3. Indicators to consider while measuring impact

The successful outcomes of the LEAP project will help us connect with researchers and educationists in the education sector, which will help us redesign the project for better impact. It will also allow us to scale our program on a large scale by strengthening our community-based education solutions.