The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the education systems across the globe. In India, taking cognizance of the damage caused to it, as many as 70% of Indian companies have expressed an intent to increase CSR spending towards education and skilling in the next financial year according to a new survey by TeamLease Edtech.
The EdTech companies in India have risen significantly over the last couple of years with the growth of online learning amid COVID-19 lockdowns. They have gained a lot of expertise in the sector in this period, putting them at an advantage to carry out their CSR programs effectively. Let us look at some of the EdTech companies in India that take CSR seriously.
BYJU’s
BYJU’s is one of the fastest-growing EdTech Companies in India. It has launched its CSR program Education for All with the aim of providing a favorable learning environment for pupils and assisting youngsters from underprivileged families in realizing and expanding their full potential.
So far, the EdTech giant has reached 3.4 million students and has now revised its vision to empower 10 million children, up from 5 million, by 2025. Under the initiative, BYJU’s has partnered with over 110 NGO partners and launched its program in 26 states, whereby its educational content is loaded onto the devices with free access for the students and the teachers.
The first component includes a voluntary program by the company which will allow children of school-going age (Classes 6-12) to opt for scholastic content from Byju’s Learning App for three years, under the edtech’s social impact initiative, Education for All.
Byju Raveendran, the founder of the ed-tech giant has highlighted the achievements of the ongoing program by saying, “Through our Education for All programme, we have been empowering and impacting millions of children across the country, and by partnering with NITI Aayog, our efforts are being strengthened further. We are confident that with this partnership, kids from underserved communities and locations will be empowered with tech-enabled learning and bring in positive systemic changes in the education ecosystem.”
The second component of the company’s collaboration with India’s top think-tank is in form of the career plus program. Under this program, the company will identify and provide high-quality coaching to 3,000 students of Classes 11 and 12 who aspire to appear for NEET and JEE. The coaching received by the students will be the same as offered by the Aakash Institute. For this programme, students will be selected through a pre-designed test and provided teaching and content material, along with mentoring support and guidance. This initiative will combine classroom and online learning.
In addition to these components, the company has clarified that it aims to make the supplemental learning resources available to children in the government schools in the Aspirational Districts on a pro-bono basis (without charge or nominal fees). The main aim of the program is to improve the online education system in India and mitigate the digital divide in education.
WhiteHat Jr.
WhiteHat Jr, the live one-on-one online learning platform, has launched its community initiative ‘WhiteHeart’ to give back to society by delivering live learning sessions to children and youth from underprivileged communities.
Led by WhiteHat Jr’s large community of 11,000 plus teachers, the curriculum for each of the sessions is customized based on the requirement of the NGO partner. The live sessions, delivered over the mobile phone, cover varied topics including basic literacy, digital literacy, numeracy-based topics with a focus on Coding & Math, vocational skills, interview preparation, and communication.
Till date, the platform has associated with 22 NGOs under the WhiteHeart initiative launched earlier this year. The company is targeting to impact more than 50,000 children by 2023. The NGO partners include Navjyoti India Foundation, LightHouse Project, Parikrma Humanity Foundation, Bhumi, Spark a Change Foundation, Lotus Petal Foundation, Antarang Foundation, VIDYA, SETU, CRY, Kind Beings, Apna Ghar, Aahwahaan, Peepal Tree Foundation, Salaam Baalak Trust, Udaan India Foundation, i Saksham, Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation, Sampark, Salaam Bombay Foundation, Udayan Care, SNEHA.
The WhiteHeart initiative has also conducted ‘Train the Trainer’ programs with employees and volunteers of the NGO partners helping them transition from offline to online teaching/learning.
As part of the association with Navjyoti India Foundation, WhiteHat Jr teachers have curated a mobile-based curriculum called ‘Orientation to Coding’ divided across 20 sessions covering the basics of coding. In all 1800 students from Navjyoti India Foundation have benefitted as part of this association. Further, the online platform has awarded scholarships to 5 meritorious students.
Vedantu
Vedantu, one of the leading EdTech start-ups has launched the ‘Help India Learn’ initiative, which will see a fund of INR 15 crore set up to help nearly 12,000 impacted children continue their education and academic progress by providing them with free education for multiple years.
Vedantu intends to reach out to children affected by the epidemic as soon as possible through this programme, giving emergency food, medical support, and long-term academic mentorship by academically adopting these children and providing free education to ensure their learning never stops. Vedantu will collaborate with a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the ground to help children affected by COVID-19. These groups will make sure that the impacted children receive resources as quickly as possible and in a transparent manner. The Help India Learn programme by Vedantu aims to help students who are unable to access for-profit ed-tech owing to financial restrictions or a digital gap.
Vedantu intends to use the pledged fund in the following ways:
A part of the fund will be disbursed through partner organizations to help them assist the impacted children including food, shelter, educational devices, and school fees.
Assist children with free education on Vedantu to help them continue learning across multiple years.
