ThinkZone

Imagine if you could barely identify the alphabet, but were made to read and were tested on long paragraphs. Such is the condition of millions of children every day who don't get access to quality early-childhood support before enrolling into schools. This inability to cope with the curriculum causes them to drop out of schools. ThinkZone implements an affordable technology-enabled ‘School-in-a-box’ education-solution, aimed at bridging the learning-gap amongst children at the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid. By training and empowering local-women as educators in their communities, ThinkZone also creates dignified livelihood opportunities and greater gender equality. 

ThinkZone is creating a scalable model of technology and local community interventions that can be adapted to the local context. Collaborating with public machinery will not only help ThinkZone expand its outreach to 25 million children in India, but also have an already established and trusted partner spread our efforts of providing quality education in under-resourced communities.

Education to the BoP is a huge challenge across the world. In India, we have managed 97% school enrolments. But leading non-profit Pratham has found out that over 40% of students drop out before the age of 12. Imagine being asked to read long paragraphs and tested on it without ever getting the chance to learn the alphabet; or having to solve mathematical equations, without knowing numbers. That is the struggle of over 25 million children in India everyday who suffer from serious learning crisis which has been found out from government administered large-scale surveys along with the national ASER test. This is a key reason why they drop out of the mainstream education system. Even if children continue their formal education, they remain several grades behind due to lack of quality after-school support. Education during the formative years of a child defines his/ her career and life. In fact, most of the children across India don’t have exposure to a proper learning environment before they receive formal education because the government-run childcare centers focus merely on nutrition and don’t give importance to early learning. As a result they start at a disadvantage even when they just enter school.

According to government administered surveys, Education Ministry data and yearly village-level analysis by leading non-profit Pratham (ASER), almost 25 million children of the 50 million children enrolled in early-grades are suffering from serious learning deficiencies. Most of the students are either enrolled in public schools or have dropped out of the system. 50% of students in Grade 5 level are not even of Grade 2 level!

Similarly, 80% of the 30 million kids (aged 3-5 years) going to 1.3 million Anganwadis(public-run childcare centres) in India  don’t receive quality early education support because the current focus in these centres has been just on providing food/nutrition. So they are at a disadvantage when they enter the public education system and lack the basic skills to do well in schools.

ThinkZone follows a 360 degree approach of working directly with children, women and parents with the twin objectives of improving the learning outcomes of early-grade learners and skilling young rural women to become micro-entrepreneurs. We work in the early-grade education space (early-childhood and primary) for children who are going to Anganwadis (government run childcare centres) and for students who are enrolled in public primary schools from Class 1 to 5. 

Our award-winning social enterprise ThinkZone implements an affordable technology-enabled ‘School-in-a-box’ education-solution which is aimed at bridging the learning-gap amongst children at the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid. By training and empowering local-women as educators in their communities, ThinkZone also creates dignified livelihood opportunities and greater gender equality.

Using offline technology, proprietary teaching activities and class management tools, local women deliver quality early-grade education programs following the Teaching-at-the-Right-Level approach (an MIT evidence-based pedagogy) to improve learning levels of children.

This will be the very few times in India where a localised tech-based pedagogy is being built for first generations learners and for improving the skills of facilitators who come from a limited education background. ThinkZone has already provided ‘level-based’ quality early-childhood and primary level education for 4,000+ children at under $1/month per child and has simultaneously created income-generating opportunities for 100+ women across remote villages of India.

We use accessible technology to identify train and equip young rural women to become micro-entrepreneurs and community change agents.  Using an innovative localized solution, offline technology and a SMS-based community interaction platform, women become skilled and effective facilitators and work towards improving the learning outcomes of children in villages.

For children who have not started formal schooling and already behind actual learning competencies, the multi-level early childhood education programs makes them school ready through development of skills like literacy, numeracy, engaging in learning activities, ability to follow directions, working well with other children etc.

OTHER INNOVATIONS:

• Our innovative, asset light ‘school-in-a-box’ based model is readily implementable in difficult to reach areas where the necessity of quality education interventions is absolutely necessary
• As we all know that till date, the rural hinterlands in developing countries still lack reliable internet access. Our operational model, the major part of which includes offline technology will help instructors to implement quality and effective education programs
• Our innovation lies in the fact that using our technology requires very limited knowledge of technology! Due to this, women who come from a limited education background and have little exposure to latest technology can use it with basic training. Our platform solves the twin purpose of educating children and skilling and employing women via using mobile as a medium.
• Our interactive skill-based modules built specifically for women help them to become skilled and earn a dignified livelihood in their own community. 

Why Current Solutions Don’t Work: The existing education solutions present is of poor quality and following the age-based curriculum leading to children falling behind in their learning levels. The few good quality existing solutions present are not sustainable or scalable in the long run due to over emphasis on brick and mortar based learning. The remedial education programs are mostly based in metros and cities only and the few private schools and tutors present in rural areas are unaffordable and well beyond the means of most low-income group families.

The importance for quality education support for children has grown, yet the only options the low-income families have are local untrained teachers and low quality childcare centres. Good education is inaccessible to them due to location issues and exorbitant fees charged at high-end schools. The families at the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid are looking for affordable quality education in their locality which has quality pedagogy and follows a real-time process-oriented approach.

Need for a Disruptive Solution – THINKZONE:  ThinkZone is creating a scalable model of technology and community interventions that can be adapted to the local context. Our working model has the following USPs which the current solutions don’t have:

1. Quality Learning: Level-appropriate focussed on children’s learning outcomes and not on capex (buildings, benches, tables etc)
2. Affordable: Program-based and Technology-enabled, replacing the brick and mortar model
3. Accessible: Community-based approach leveraging the local talent(women) and knowledge
4. Scalable: Unit profitability ensures no disruption to education and fast expansion

For women based in low income communities who are unskilled and are devoid of white-collar livelihood opportunities, we intend to upgrade their skills and provide them with dignified livelihoods options. For young mothers we also provide them with a platform to gain knowledge about family issues and how to tackle them. Our model will give women the independence to deliver programs at their own homes/community centres etc. Also this helps us to reach out to families who are not able to send their wards to distance places for getting education.

Because of our asset-light model, for one-time investment of 300$, we can provide quality education to 30-50 students every year, helping them thrive in the education system as well as create a job for one woman in her own community. Through years of development, we have made our operations lean enough to cover education cost for one child at less than 1$ a month, yielding 30-35% overall operating profitability. This helps us reach out to more families on a limited budget.

The cost-effectiveness in our model makes us to offer the programs to the rural BoP population at an affordable price. By involving local resources, we are ensuring financial sustainability at a micro-level and subsequently the process can be easily scaled and taken to more areas. The model is sustainable, as the women micro-entrepreneurs generate their own revenues; replicable, through well-defined, people-independent processes & scalable, ensuring execution through capacity building & continuous learning of everyone in the value chain.

So far 4000+ children have received quality education, reporting a 50% average increase in learning levels. The impact of a students’ increase in their learning have been measured across 3 age-groups (2+ years, 3+ years and 4+ years) & 4 different skills of physical, language, memory & social for the Early Childhood Program. Similarly, for the Primary Grade Program, the learning levels have been measured across arithmetic & language skills, which have been divided into five levels (Grade 1 to 5).

With 90% re-enrollments & 10 % dropout rates along with a coverage area of 300+ villages, we have an operational impact at a substantial level. Our programs have ensured a 50% increase in the students’ pass-out rates from entry level to the next & have reported 80% on-time fees payments to the entrepreneurs.  Our work has also led to the creation of 100+ women entrepreneurs, who are now earning from implementing ThinkZone’s programs & have reported a 40% increase in their average family income.

More than 80% of the children enrolled in the primary grade program over a period of one year have jumped two levels up from their existing learning level(Ex:- From Level 1 to Level 3 in maths and language). Similarly 90% of the children enrolled in the Early Childhood Program have developed 6 of the 7 required learning parameters over a period of one year under the 4 required skills (physical, language, memory and social & emotional).

ThinkZone has already provided ‘level-based’ quality early-childhood and primary level education for 4,000+ children at under $1/month per child and has simultaneously created income-generating opportunities for 100+ women across remote villages of India. In the next one year we are looking to improve the learning outcomes of 8000 children in the state of Odisha by atleast 40%

ThinkZone is focused on addressing 25 million children, from 3 to 10 years old and over 800 thousand women present in 150000+ villages. The total population we will be indirectly impacting is around 70 million. Over the next five years, ThinkZone is looking to impact children and women present in the low income group states of India which includes Odisha, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Bihar. Reaching out to at least 10% of the entire target segment over the next five years through direct and partnership modes will help us directly impact reach 950 thousand children and 90 thousand women. We will be able to indirectly impact 3 million villagers (community) spread across 20000 villages.

ThinkZone asset-light technology enabled working model helps us to implement quality three level early-childhood programs and five level primary grade programs at minimal costs. We currently implement programs directly and the overall plan of action is to work via organizational partnerships to multiply our impact rapidly. The different ways in which we intend to progress further apart from implementing programs on our own are via both public and private partnerships.

ThinkZone is creating a scalable model of technology and community interventions that can be adapted to the local context. Collaborating with government education departments and women & childcare ministry will not only help ThinkZone expand its outreach to 25 million children in India, but also have an already established and trusted partner spread our efforts of providing quality education and bridging the gender barrier in low income group areas of India.

Technological enablement of education is inevitable. Having refined our curriculum, operation model and performance monitoring system, our solution is easily replicable and quickly scalable. The overall goal is to replicate our work in the public system by training and monitoring local childcare workers and teachers to deliver effective early-grade education programs, thereby exponentially scaling our work at minimal costs.

The government has invested so much into education and we plan to showcase that our process and pedagogy can be effectively integrated into their process due to our accessible yet robust early grade education platform.

Barrier No 1: Process implementation of the program including continuous technology usage of our platform – The community teachers, despite being trained in using activity-based teaching methodology fall back to the pre-existing rote-learning methodology due to parental pressure. We have found out that following the TaRL(teaching at the right level) approach takes some time for the community teachers to get accustomed to. Apart from this, usage of the content present on the mobile application and training modules are not done properly when the teachers are initially onboarded. 

Barrier No 2: Proper execution when done in partnership mode: Another key challenge will be when the program is implemented via different program partners (public and private players). 

Barrier No 3: Community Mobilization and Understanding of Quality Education Programs: Creating the importance of a paid quality kindergarten education program and an acceptance of a formal remedial education is one of the key areas which will lead to the success of the overall program. We have identified that our work can give the desired effect once the community buys into the idea that our effective methodology leads to better learning outcomes for their children.

Solution for Barrier No 1: We have been able to find out solutions for the program related challenges(resources and technology usages):

• Continuous engagement during in-person training and mentoring has led to us to usage of our resources and lesson plans. The idea of the process bringing the desired change among the students within a short amount of time has led to the teachers using the methodology
• Effective monitoring practices at the field level wherein designated field associates visit and help the teachers out in using the process has also led them using the process including continuous usage of the content present on the mobile application

Solution for Barrier No 2: The whole program process of using new methodology can be properly  followed when there is

• Good understanding of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) along with continuous mentoring support to the partners.
• Effective monitoring practices at the field level by our associates wherein they handhold the partners for the first few months until they become comfortable and understand the whole pedagogy

Solution for Barrier No 3: Continuously engage with parents via in-person learning camps so that they understand the development needs of their kids. This happens via using an established community network of selected parents who engage with other people of the community. Apart from that we implement a proper localised campaign to showcase the importance/quality of our education programs among families via our network of teachers and field associates.

Not Applicable for us

ThinkZone has 7 full-time team members and 9 field associates who are full-time consultants. Apart from 16 team members, we have 5 part-time team members who also happen to work on content and technology.

Binayak Acharya - 6-YRS EXPERIENCE IN EDUCATION, 2-YRS EXPERIENCE IN TECHNOLOGY, LAUREATE GLOBAL FELLOW, MASSCHALLENGE ALUMNUS AND CEMEX-TEC GLOBAL SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR: Experience in Global Education Practice with World Bank along Impact Investing, Business Development, Rural Marketing and ICT4D experience will help Binayak in implementing ThinkZone programs at scale.

Nrusingha Nath Nayak - 10-YRS EXPERIENCE IN TECHNOLOGY, MEAN STACK & OPEN-SOURCE EVANGELIST - Multiple years of experience in leading large development teams in MNCs and also worked towards executing  the large scale government projects

Shrideep Mohapatra - 6-YRS EXPERIENCE IN EDUCATION, 4-YRS EXPERIENCE IN TECHNOLOGY – Shrideep’s experience in ed-tech product implementation and project management(led teams for large scale online testing at different government organizations) will help him implement quality education programs and monitor them effectively.

Pragyan Khatei - 4-YRS EXPERIENCE IN TRAINING & EDUCATION OPERATIONS – Pragyan’s experience in grassroots level training implementation and education program operations will help her to manage the pool of onboarded teachers effectively.

Sneha Nagarajan - 6-YRS EXPERIENCE IN CONSULTING & EDUCATION CONTENT: Sneha’s experience in early-grade education content and consulting background will help us in building advanced training modules for trainers

Snehanshu Shome - 3-YRS EXPERIENCE IN SOCIAL-IMPACT EDUCATION CONTENT, COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST – Snehanshu’s experience in content management and communications in developing quality community engagement modules

Manoj Mallik - 15-YRS EXPERIENCE IN RURAL PROGRAM OPERATIONS: Manoj’s rich expertise in grassroots program operations will help us to engage with the BoP communities effectively and implement programs properly.

Gray Matters Capital - $107,000 – GMC, a leading US-based impact investor with their rich expertise in the education and training sector in emerging markets is helping us in streamlining systems and processes for scaling.

BPCL - $51,000, Ministry of Petroleum - Government of India – BPCL is a leading public sector undertaking and with its varied experience in large scale operations is also a knowledge partner for working with public partners in future.

INVENT - $15,000(Department of Science and Technology-Government of India) – This is a leading social enterprise development initiative by the government

UnLtd India- $17,000 – This leading social enterprise program is also supporting us in partnership development and effective monitoring practices development.

Learning Equality - $15,000 – This Google backed initiative has a diverse technology experience in technology and is helping ThinkZone to test its innovative hardware model in a variety of formal and non-formal learning contexts.

US Distribution Inc. – $16000 - They are supporting ThinkZone in networking and partnership development.

Department of MSME, Government of Odisha - $15000 – The state government initiative is supporting ThinkZone with appropriate network support at the grassroots

Content Partners – Pratham, IDEK and Aflatoun International  Knowledge Partners – MassChallenge, International Youth Foundation,CEMEX-TEC, World Ban

We generate revenues from fees we receive from the three level early-childhood programs and five level primary grade programs through B2C mode and also from B2B modes by implementing our programs via organizational(public and private) partnerships

The collaboration with government/ public players can happen under 2 broad levels:

- Central Government: ThinkZone learning and skilling programs can be implemented as a part of different large scale development initiatives run by the central government. Some of these include the skilling and entrepreneurship programs, early-grade reading programs, Training of Teachers Programs, Aspirational Districts program etc.

- State Government: ThinkZone learning and skilling programs can also be implemented as a part of different large scale development initiatives run by the state governments. Some of these include the remedial programs implemented across schools, skilling programs for women, Anganwadi workers training program etc

The public partnerships can be implemented financially either by government approved funds as a part of different budgeted programs. Apart from direct public partnerships, our model can be further implemented in partnerships with corporates on a cross-subsidy mode or also a hybrid model (ThinkZone - MNCs - government)

Our programs can be implemented as a part of the CSR (corporate social responsibility) programs run under different MNCs. The corporates also include public sector undertakings (PSUs) whose mandate is also to implement development programs. Financially the overall implementation becomes viable when we work along with corporates and work in tandem with government (hybrid mode)

Ours is an economies of scale model and reaching to more end-users will help us become sustainable. We have already shown even with limited resources our work leading to better learning outcomes among children and simultaneously skilling women to have dignified livelihoods.

Our fee-for-service model works in three ways:

1. B2C Implementation: Parents of children pay a subscription fees for enrolling their children at a ThinkZone educator at their village.

2. B2B Implementation: Corporates and public sector(our clients) pay for the entire program implementation costs to us for implementing the education programs in different geographies. In this case, the education programs are both implemented in public schools and childcare centres.

3. B2B2C Implementation: Corporates and public sector(our clients) cross-subsidize the B2C implementation i.e. they pay for the one-time expenses of setting up ThinkZones in different villages(i.e. cost of training ThinkZone educators and school-in-a-box) and then the operational costs are covered in a similar manner as in Point No 1(B2C Implementation)

Our revenue generation model will help us break-even at a business overhead level over the next two years. We will continually raise external capital(grants, convertible notes and equity) for faster expansion with the aim of thousands of children over the next five years. 

'Solve' will help me get connected to fellow stakeholders who are striving to build a sustainable society. It will also provide me with a structured opportunity to be exposed to the challenges involved in scaling up enterprises. I will get great managerial insights from the deep knowledge of the unique challenges faced by people working on different areas of social impact. I really want to a part of this platform where knowledge can be shared towards building a more inclusive eco-system for sustainable social impact startups. Being a leader of a social start-up and striving continuously to make it successful, 'Solve' will give me a chance to meet with established sector experts who can guide me in taking my enterprise to the next level. Apart from this, the networking opportunities will help me build partnerships for my enterprise, which will help me in accelerating my work thereby multiplying our organization's social impact on ground.

In short, the Solve community will offer me ever continuing intellectual capital which I will be taking back to improve my enterprise. The financial support will help me to work on specific organizational targets, which will lead to greater social impact. 

Not Applicable for us

1. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

2. The Rockefeller Foundation

3. Dell

4. Google.org

5. US Aid - DIV

6. Children's Investment Fund Foundation - CIFF

Not Applicable for us

We use accessible technology to identify, train and equip young rural women to become micro-entrepreneurs and community change agents.

Using an innovative localized solution, offline technology, proprietary training activities and a SMS-based community interaction platform, local women become community tutors and work towards improving the learning outcomes of children.

This is one of the very few times in India where a localized tech-based pedagogy is being built for improving the skills of women facilitators who come from a limited education background.

The micro-entrepreneurs also train the community members on different subjects of family importance like health and hygiene, childcare related activities etc. ThinkZone is also building a community enhancement model via technology wherein BoP families (young mothers) are directly connected to us via a SMS based system using feature phones to get daily 5 minute training and updates about different issues.

For women based in low income communities who are unskilled and are devoid of white-collar livelihood opportunities, we intend to upgrade their skills and provide them with dignified livelihoods options. For young mothers we also provide them with a platform to gain knowledge about family issues and how to tackle them.

Not Applicable for us