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India is the fastest growing economy in the world but our education system is still far behind everyone else's. With exception of few states states, all other states have poor educational statistics.
More children are in schools than ever before, but the quality of education in government schools has sunk to unprecedented lows. Due to this, parents who earn less than ₹100 per day, spend their entire live savings, sending their kids to private schools. They are under the perception that only private school can provide their kids with quality education and state of the art facilities.
As responsible citizens, our prime duty includes that we ensure all kids in the country receive equal quality education. To do this, we can provide government schools with the same facilities as in private schools and match the quality of education there, if not exceed it. This will stop parents who have low incomes from sending their kids to expensive private schools and further improve the enrollment and attendance, as they will see their kids are receiving high quality education.
If we do this, the kids will create good future for themselves, and later help their poverty struck families, to live good healthy lives.
When we’re on our way to changing an entire nation, it often begins with a small step. Project Kaleidoscope is an initiative taken by a group of youngsters with the objective of transforming classrooms in 45 government schools in Taranagar, Rajasthan into smart classrooms by installing computers, projectors, printers and internet connectivity. We need financial support to execute the project, so please donate and if you're not in a position to, ask someone who can.
Actions speak more than words. So take an action, make a difference.
More information about our project.
Project Kaleidoscope aims to improve the quality of education, by providing teachers with digital tools and computer literacy to students.
Project Kaleidoscope is a pilot project with the objective of transforming classrooms in 45 government schools in Taranagar, Rajasthan into smart classrooms by installing computers, projectors, printers and internet connectivity.
We fellows at Piramal Foundation for Educational Leadership (PFEL), working closely everyday in schools of Taranagar, have found that the students are able to understand and apply concepts when lessons were presented to them in an interactive digitised format. We conducted smart class sessions in various schools to consolidate our findings. These sessions have also helped our teachers realise the importance of technology in classrooms.
Based on these findings, we have designed Project Kaleidoscope, which is a 4 phase pilot project. Phase 1 of Project Kaleidoscope aims to digitally enable 10 schools, which in turn will spearhead the phases to come.
Just like a kaleidoscope which infinitely changes in shape and form every time you look into it, we aim to provide these digital tools as a portal for our students to acquire infinite knowledge every time they use them.
To launch Project Kaleidoscope we are relying on collective power of people coming together for a change, through a crowd funding platform. Our intention is to connect with all patrons and donors and update them about the progress of the project a real time basis.
Get to know us.
Who are fellows?
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I donate a pre-owned or new PC / Printer / Projector directly?
Fellows are a part of Gandhi Fellowship program designed by Kaivalya Educational Foundation (KEF), which is an initiative of Piramal Foundation. The organisation's support of fellows does not extent to monetary aid in projects.
Visit our website here for more information about the framework of the fellowship.
Where can I get more information about your organisation?
You can visit our website here
Why smart classes?
In this age of digitisation, we would like to provide our students with the opportunity to be abreast with the available technology so that they are in sync with the world. This also provides the teachers the necessary tools to enhance their skills and access to the wide range of learning/ teaching material on the internet. This ranges from a simple YouTube video about the solar system to a complex 3D rendering of the human heart.
Curiosity can be the greatest teacher and introducing these inputs would act as the perfect catalyst for students to learn.
What are other benefits to these smart classes?
More than 87% of India’s schools do not have access to computers. This means that students are exposed to computers very late in their career. As a result they struggle in jobs that need them to be computer literate. This limit the opportunities that are available to students that attend Government schools.
Computer literacy can also be provided to students, as part of their curriculum.
What are we going to spend the money for?
We plan to purchase Desktop PCs at Rs.25,000 x 3 (approx $1200) per school and projectors costing Rs. 20,000 x 3 (approx $900) per school, printers costing Rs. 5000 (approx $75) per school and Internet connection costing Rs. 2000 (approx $30) per school.
With Computers and Projectors to be installed in classrooms of 3rd, 5th and 7th grade. The schools that we work in, are Upper Primary Schools with classes till 8th grade, hence we have chosen 3rd, 5th and 7th grade for the pilot project.
Can I donate a pre-owned or new PC / Printer / Projector directly?
You are most welcome to donate the equipment required directly too, please drop a mail at ashwin.srihari@gandhifellowship.org and we will provide you with the shipping information.
Do we have cooperation of government schools?
We have a Memorandum of understanding with schools in the areas that we operate. The schools agree to fully cooperate with the programs and projects done by PFEL.
What do we do after we put computers in schools?
We are going to provide schools with in-class software that Government of Rajasthan has created based on textbook syllabus. We also plan to use software from Khan Academy to centralise content. Meanwhile we are working on creating a separate curriculum to train teachers to use smart class efficiently.
We are going to closely monitor the progress of the project every week in all the schools, and send progress reports to our patrons and donors.
Where are we going to get the content for the smart class?
The state government provides the in-class software that is made directly from syllabus set for these schools. Therefore students can learn their syllabus through audio visual elements. Combining this in-class software with the valuable information available online, education in these schools can be truly revolutionised.
How are we going to monitor the project?
We fellows at PFEL, will work closely with the schools, monitoring the adaptability of the project by the teachers on a weekly basis in every school. We will also monitor the progress of students through continuous assessment tests.
Who will spend for service and repair cost?
The government provide the schools with an annual budget that includes cost of maintenance and service of equipments in the school. Cost of equipment's repair will be covered under this budget.
What are the different phases?
Phase 1 aims to digitally enable 10 schools. Phase 2 & 3 adding 10 more schools and ending with Phase 3 enabling the 15 remaining schools.
What are the timeline for different phases?
We have allocate 3 months time for every phase, starting from June 2017 for Phase 1, with Phase 4 ending on May 2018.
