Project Nanhi Kali looks to deploy more 'Yellow Tablets' to reduce drop-out rate

Project Nanhi Kali, a non-government girl-child education programme jointly managed by K.C. Mahindra Education Trust (KCMET) and Naandi foundation expects to further deploy 25,000 more 'Yellow tablets' in the coming two-three years to improve training standards, overcome the shortage of teachers and reduce drop-out rate in the most backward districts of rural India.

According to the programme's implementation partner the Naandi Foundation, the project which has been in existence for more than 22 years has imparted education to over 350,000 girl students from across 10-15 states.

The programme not just retains girl students by free access to education, it also provides for items such as "uniforms, socks, shoes and sanitary napkins" been provided through the programme to give the girl students "dignity".

Similarly, last year, another unique item -- Yellow Tablet -- was added to its arsenal to not just reduce the drop-out rate, or the lack of trained teachers in rural India but also to maintain high standards of education levels.

Enter the 'Yellow Tablet' which utilises Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide a dynamic learning platform developed through content aggregators. The pedagogy is based on competency based learning as emphasis is laid on practice.

Since its introduction, 49,000 secondary 'Nanhi Kalis' studying from standard 7th-10th have had access to the tablets with each one of them having unique ID, individual login and password.

The AI backed computing in the tablet not only provides individual focus to each and every 49,000 students, it has also reached an astonishing level of personalisation as well, says Manoj Kumar, CEO Naandi Foundation.

Presently, 18,000-odd tablets have been deployed which are shared between three students on an alternate day basis and the "improvement" in visible, Kumar says.

"We have had a 9 per cent improvement in the overall learning level in one year itself. We normally would have 10 per cent drop-out rate. We have further reduced it by another 2 per cent so that's the specific data point within one year," Kumar told IANS.

The Trust's Senior VP CSR, Trustee and Executive Director Sheetal Mehta corroborated Kumar's version. The Mahindra Group has been a prime sponsor of the programme and has invested Rs 22 crore into it.

"The unique reason why we brought a tablet at the secondary school level was that because it's been only one year and it is definitely going to lead to much lower dropouts," Mehta told IANS.

--IANS

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