Sampark Foundation was started in 2005 by Vineet Nayar, former CEO and Vice Chairman of HCL Technologies, a large IT firm, and his wife Anupama Nayar, an expert in special education. They chose to focus on primary education in government schools because of the dismal record in learning outcomes for India’s 144 million children in the public education system, and a visible lack of innovation at scale. Being a technology entrepreneur, Vineet was keen to find new and innovative ways to fix the existing broken model and create large-scale transformative change.

…a learning-outcome focused intervention that innovatively uses technology… Sampark is currently working with an astounding 7 million children across 76,000 schools at the cost of just $1 per child/annum

They realized that the Indian education system is undergoing several challenges at the moment:

• Despite increased enrolments, India has the highest number of out-of-school adolescents in the world
• The Indian education system is characterized by rote learning, rather than critical thinking and problem solving, resulting in poor learning outcomes of the children.
• Within the classroom, curriculum and pedagogy are lackluster, and not tailored to the needs and abilities of the child.
• There is little room for creativity, and textbook knowledge and test scores are favoured over open thinking.
• Large numbers of schools in India are not only multi-level, but also multi-grade. Mixed ages and learning levels make the delivery of lessons and follow-up more challenging for teachers, who are often not qualified for the role.
• India grapples with the problem of poor quality teachers and teacher absenteeism. It also has fewer total teachers in comparison to other countries.
• Education expenditure as a share of GDP has been lower compared to other developing nations.

About Sampark Smart Shala™ - The Solution

Sampark Smart Shala^TM is a learning-outcome focused intervention that innovatively uses technology, a voice mascot called ‘Sampark Didi’, toys, stories games and teacher training modules combined with rigorous monitoring in collaboration with the State Governments. Sampark is currently working with an astounding 7 million children across 76,000 schools at the cost of just $1 per child/annum.

Changing the Face of Education from Primitive to Trendy

Sampark Smart Shala™ uses a 5-step model for change:

1. PARTNER with the Government – 6 MoUs for State Governments to rollout the Sampark Smart Shala™ in 76,000 schools
2. PROVIDE innovative Training and Learning Methodologies – 150,000+ Math and English kits distributed
3. TRAIN teachers in blocks or villages – 200,000+ teachers trained every year
4. TECH_ENABLE the teachers – 200,000+ trained teachers use the SF App
5. MONITOR learning outcomes – 70,00,000+ children’s learning outcomes monitored

The impact of the program is so striking that its supporters include some of the highest functionaries of the country. Speaking about the program in 2016, the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Dr. Raman Singh, had noted that “The Sampark Smart Shala” is a very innovative intervention that is bringing excitement back into the classroom and significantly improving learning outcomes.”

The Way Sampark Defines the Problem

The one thing distinctive about this organization is that it likes to get to the core of the problem first. Before starting an intervention on education, the founders had asked themselves, ‘How can we improve learning outcomes by overcoming teachers’ discomfort in teaching English and Math?’ This was a practical question, not a theoretical conjecture.

There are 144 million children studying across 7, 14,000 public funded schools in India. According to the National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2014, over 41% children in Grade 3 cannot do basic reading comprehension and over 37% cannot multiply. Poor learning outcomes remain among the biggest challenges in the Indian public school education system.

The big worry is that India’s demographic dividend could soon become its largest social challenge if this issue is not addressed with the urgency it warrants. In five years, from 2008-2013, the budget for elementary education in India has doubled; from INR 80,000 crore to INR 1, 63,000 crores – yet learning outcomes have steadily declined. The founders rightly surmised that an increase in expenditure alone is unlikely to impact learning outcomes.

“When we began our field research to understand the reasons behind poor learning outcomes across government primary schools in India, we found under-qualified teachers and a general discomfort with teaching English and Math to be the salient reasons. The pre-existing inadequacy of resources and weak education infrastructure further complicated this problem,” recalls Vineet Nayar, who had left the far more privileged contours of a corporate leadership role to work full-time as Sampark’s Chairperson and chief innovator.

“While many educational initiatives are in-flight currently, we realized they have not been able to deliver impact, because they are either sub-scale or resource intensive or they ignore the ground realities surrounding these children. For example, you can’t just solve this problem by giving iPads to these kids. In fact, the opposite: at Sampark, we believe that for any long-lasting change to happen it has to be driven by practical and sustainable solutions that are frugal and scalable.” The challenge the organization faced, therefore, was one of frugal innovation: how could we leverage pre-existing infrastructure to deliver a comprehensive, multi-fold improvement in learning outcomes?

The Sampark Smart Shala^TM is a very innovative intervention that is bringing excitement back into the classroom and significantly improving learning outcomes.

Sampark’s Inspiration

One reason behind what has turned out to be the organisation’s phenomenal success is its unlikely source of inspiration: Bollywood! Going to a movie in an Indian village is an open-air, deeply immersive experience of life enacted through dance, songs and dramatic scripts. “When we started, we asked ourselves – could we bring that experience to the classroom too?” recalls Vineet.

The organisation’s second inspiration for the innovation came from watching people in villages charge cell phones using their cycles. Could this battery drive an audio device with a big speaker that could be used in a class?

Their third and last inspiration came from Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs). Students retain 70% of what is said in first 10 minutes and only 20% of what is said in last 10. Adding visual aids and stories increases retention by 250% even in the last 10 minutes. Could this be uses in classrooms to increase engagement and curiosity?

These three inspirations, mixed with a dose of creativity, led to the creation of Sampark Smart ShalaTM, delivered through an audio device, with a long battery life, through the voice mascot, ‘Sampark Didi’, toys, folklore, board games, teacher training modules and ‘SF App’, combined with rigorous monitoring.

Sampark Smart Shala^TM – Innovation at a Glance

SF APP
The SF App is a free learning platform with over 200,000 teachers as active users that enables learning through animated videos, games, puzzles and worksheets. The inbuilt BOT tracks usage and interacts with teachers.

SOUND BOX
A rechargeable audio device that uses a voice mascot, ‘Sampark Didi’ and 112 carefully researched lessons accompanied by fun songs, music and games to ignite learning.

3D TEACHING & LEARNING MATERIALS
Specially designed teaching and learning materials help teach in concrete form before abstract.

MULTIMEDIA WORKBOOKS
Illustrated and tech-enabled English and Math workbooks to provide real-time access to online and offline video lessons by scanning the QR codes in each topic.

VOICE MASCOT
‘Sampark Didi’ is a virtual role model for both teachers and students alike. The mascot humanizes the teaching and learning methodologies and has become extremely popular in the 6 states where the program has been running so far.

Proven Pedagogy to Drive Learning Outcome

First, teach in Concrete form using learning materials, and then teach in Abstract form using workbooks.

Similarly, first, teach Listening & Speaking using an audio device, before Reading & Writing using workbooks.

Power of Sampark Smart Shala^TM

• The first and most important feature of the program is that it works with (and not in parallel)
  with India’s education system, and is rolled in the form of state-level partnerships.
• Secondly, the founders personally oversaw and funded years of R&D that led to the generation of a multimedia-enabled, multiple intelligence-based training and learning methodology which included toys, games, materials, workbooks and activity sheets and audio lessons specifically designed to ignite learning in typical Indian schools. This has eventually developed into the core of the Sampark offer.
• Thirdly, large-scale training programs were rolled out for teachers, platforms where teachers could learn concepts even as they learnt how to teach. 
• Fourthly, these trainings were tech-enabled by giving teachers apps that could be used to ask questions, revise lessons and brush up concepts.
• Lastly, the program inculcated rigorous monitoring and an evaluation technique to monitor
  children’s learning outcomes.

Driving these learning outcomes was the pedagogy – the learning methodology that was actually at the heart of the Sampark innovation.

“One of the most visible ways in which change started to happen was with and through the use of the Sampark Learning Kits, which used concrete materials to explain abstract concepts such as numbers, addition and subtraction,” says Vineet. “Two hundred thousand teachers learnt to teach better, going from simple to complex, from known to unknown and teaching listening and speaking using the Sampark audio devices before reading and writing using workbooks.”

The Impact

After a year in this programme, children in grade 2 were assessed in February 2016 across 25 districts of the two states. The results showed a multi-fold increase in learning outcomes. In Math, amongst the children who attempted the end-line test, over 91% could add, 89% subtract, 83% multiply and 73% could do division sums.

The NAS 2014 report showed that only 51% and 63% could do addition in Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand. In English, over 80% children could recognize 500 new words, form 100 new sentences and tell 25 stories and rhymes and perform an English play – ‘My Family’ – at the village square. Thanks to the Sampark Smart ShalaTM English Programme, kids are now learning at a swift speed and teachers have also outgrown their discomfort of teaching English and Math having found a helping hand in ‘Sampark Didi’ who helps them simultaneously learn and teach in the class. Excitement is back in the classrooms thanks to the contagious enthusiasm of the children and teachers.

Based on exciting early results, the team is now in full pursuit of creating 10 million new futures by 2020 across 2,00,000 schools and also actively seeking out others and help leverage this idea to make sure it reaches all 144 million children in our public schools.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kusum Mohapatra is President, Sampark Foundation. She has established a track record in setting up and managing organizations, designing and realigning strategies, creating scalable models to direct positive social change, establishing systems and processes across functions, creating partnerships both strategic and financial at international levels, proven ability to lead programs and large teams since 1999. Kusum specializes in Project Cycle Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, setting up sustainable and scalable models in Education, Health, Livelihood and Governance, Training and Research, Communications, establishing strategic partnerships with Government, Non-Government, Bilateral and Multilateral Agencies and Corporates. For more information about Sampark Foundation, visit www.samparkfoundation.org Follow the Sampark story on https://www.facebook.com/samparkfoundation and https://www.linkedin.com/company/sampark-foundation