ThinkZone survived the pandemic, what's up next?!

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused abrupt and profound changes around the world.? This is the worst shock to education systems in decades, with the longest school closures combined with global economic uncertainties. Students, teachers, and families are facing new time and resource pressures as schools resume, making learning challenging and placing educators with the mammoth task of getting students on track. ?It is critical that we take steps in order to prevent the current generation of students from experiencing irreversible losses in their learning and future productivity, and so that they may be able to participate fully in society.

To cater to this humongous challenge, ThinkZone has been implementing accelerated learning interventions that address the foundational literacy and numeracy skills of children living in low-resource environments. Our continuous focus is on improving the learning outcomes of students and we have been doing so by implementing community-led solutions that utilize accessible technology. ThinkZone has been strongly advocating that community participation is essential for enhancing children’s learning, something which India’s new National Education Policy has also mentioned.

2021-22 has been filled with many positives for us. ThinkZone collaborated with the Odisha government’s Mo School Abhiyan to extend the home-based learning program across all the schools of Cuttack Municipal Corporation and Cuttack Sadar. ThinkZone's home-based learning program, a low-tech innovation that empowers parents without smartphones to support their children's learning was selected for the TechForGood Awards by NASSCOM Foundation. The award reinforces our conviction that such innovation is the key to bridging the learning gaps among children from low-resource settings.

ThinkZone also formally collaborated with District Child Protection Unit, Cuttack for enabling Child Care Institutions across the district to help children reach age-based competencies. We also expanded our fellowship program in 2 new districts (Jajpur and Jagatsinghpur) of Odisha. The fellowship program trains & equips youth from low-resource settings to become education leaders and support children in their respective communities. ThinkZone’s fellowship program is now being implemented across 6 districts of Odisha. ThinkZone has also formalized a partnership with Cuttack Municipal Corporation to officially roll out the fellowship program in Cuttack city.

ThinkZone was among the 28 social enterprises across the globe to receive International Youth Foundation's Global Youth Resiliency Fund. This year, ThinkZone was also selected to be a part of the Google for Startups Advisor Program: Sustainable Development Goals. The global recognition and support reaffirm our belief that simple solutions can work at scale!

In 2021-22 we have been able to substantially increase our outreach, with our programs also leading to improvement in children's learning outcomes. This year we provided quality learning opportunities to 24714 children, an increase of 128% from last year, and we also up-skilled 2103 educators, an increase of 184% from last year.?

More than 1000 youth successfully completed the ThinkZone Fellowship program this year and it’s heartening to see that nearly 80% of them are continuing to teach children in their communities even after the fellowship period.

Independent RCT evaluation carried out this year by IIM Nagpur & O.P. Jindal Global University has shown a significant causal impact of ThinkZone programs on Mathematics and Odia (language) scores, with average scores improving by as much as 24.9% in 5 months of program implementation! These results highlight that one does not always require flashy things to bring about positive change or create learning opportunities for children.

The above successes have been made possible by the exceptional team at ThinkZone, whose continuous focus has been on designing and implementing cost-effective solutions that produce meaningful results on the ground. Our team is aware that final-mile education delivery will always be challenging in low-resource environments, especially when multiple stakeholders are involved. Although this is the case, we would passionately strive to work towards our goal of helping children who otherwise would not be able to access quality learning opportunities.

2021-22 has reinforced our belief that community-led solutions that utilize accessible technology tools can lead to significant learning gains, even if traditional educational institutions continue to struggle to meet the immediate needs of children. We are of the firm belief that the essential role of the community is to support the existing education system and not replace it. We are therefore actively seeking government partnerships in 2022-23 in order to provide technical know-how to the appropriate stakeholders so that our innovation can reach all children regardless of socioeconomic background. Additionally, we intend to formalize technical partnerships with more grassroots-based organizations and provide them with adequate technology and program support for the implementation of our innovations.

Learning deficits resulting from being disconnected from an educational environment can lead to immediate dropouts and decreased social mobility for many first-generation learners. There is no single way to ensure children catch up on their learning after a crisis. However, upskilling youth and increasing parental involvement can be considered two vital sources of learning, something that ThinkZone is continuously working on.

I hope you do get a chance to go through our annual report on the theme ‘Technology Driven Community-based Solutions’. In case you feel our team might be able to collaborate with you in some capacity, please email us at [email protected].