PhoneShaala: an innovation ensuring that learning doesn’t stop despite the lockdown

With India in the midst of a lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools and other learning institutions remain shut indefinitely. Technology has played a huge role in helping teachers reach their students and continue their classes despite schools being shut. Conference calls on Zoom, Google Hangouts or video lessons sent via WhatsApp are helping children stay engaged and on track with curriculum and studies, even in India.

However, there is a significant group of children who are missing out on learning due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Children belonging to low-income families across India are missing out on education because of the digital divide and the lack of access to smart-phones and the internet. A worried school teacher Samina Quettawala turned to eArth Samvarta Foundation (eSF) to share her concern. Samina says, “I am sending video lessons for my students on WhatsApp so that they can continue learning despite the lockdown, but many of them don’t have access to smartphones due to financial constraints. For those who may have smartphones, access to the internet is still costly for them.”

This is when CEO and Co-founder of eArth Samvarta Foundation (eSF) Chandarprabha Sharma stepped-in to bridge the gap. Having taught at-risk students herself, Chandarprabha explains, “Teachers of at-risk students spend months inculcating an interest for formal learning among their students. This is mainly because there are many other competing demands on the child like earning a livelihood. Once that barrier is crossed, teachers spend more effort to inculcate confidence in a child that they can learn. It is heartbreaking to imagine the face of that child, scared about how he or she will cope again after returning to school from the COVID-19 lockdown. Or to imagine the teacher whose months of hard-work might get undone due to this forced break in learning.”

eArth Samvarta Foundation turned to its friends and technology advisors at Krazy Devil Creationz (KDC). Vachan Kudmule, Founder, KDC lives by the value that everything can and must be designed. He quickly came up with the technology solution at the heart of PhoneShaala. KDC developed a TOLL FREE technology that students can call to listen to a lesson that is specially crafted by teachers. The child can choose their grade and the subject they want to learn and hear the lesson from their teacher completely free of cost. Vachan says, “The technology underlying PhoneShaala allows children of low income families to call from a basic feature phone and learn without their parents bearing any cost of the call. We aim to help bridge this digital divide in learning for children from low income families not just during the COVID-19 crisis but also beyond.”

Mrunal Raiborde, Headmistress of Vanita Vishram School, Mumbai mentions that PhoneShaala will also help parents be more involved in their children’s learning.

eArth Samvarta Foundation’s Chief of Operations Vaishali Singh, an educator herself, highlights how this technology will also help children learn important values of environmental conservation- eSF’s main area of focus. Singh explains, “Under the Sentinels program at eSF we harness the power of education to raise eco-conscious citizens for our planet earth. But when a majority of children cannot access education due to a technology divide, even the mission to educate and train future leaders in environment conservation suffers. PhoneShaala helps bridge that gap and the lessons will include important values for environmental conservation.”

eSF’s Chief Strategy Officer and renowned expert in mental health, Deepa Singh highlights, “for many children of low income families, school was a safe space from child abuse. During this lockdown, PhoneShaala aims to provide engagement to aid the children with their mental wellness.”

eSF’s chairman & managing director and Co-founder Abhishek Singh is dedicated to lead eSF to develop solutions that break the barriers in learning and gaining knowledge for the underprivileged. Singh says, “In an unexpected way, our efforts to fight COVID-19 pandemic brings a ray of hope for the education sector in India, especially the underprivileged. The lockdown has made the existing barriers to education even more known and urgent. PhoneShaala by eSF and KDC thus aims to turn crisis into an opportunity by building a solution for children of low income families so they never stop learning- Seekthe Raho being the motto of PhoneShaala.”

(We got this information in a press release.)