THE ANYTIME ANYWHERE SCHOOL (AAS VIDYALAYA)
AAS VIDYALAYA’s objective is to provide SECONDARY EDUCATION using technology to the millions of primary dropouts in the mid-tier population
Instead of trying to bring the children to the school, AAS will take the school to the children. The idea is to create a school FOR the people & BY the people by creating a VIRTUAL SCHOOL (AAS stands for Anytime Anywhere School) which operates exactly like a regular school having time-tables, subject periods in which respective subject teachers would give lectures during their periods, class teachers who would monitor the progress of the children and in case required would reach out to subject teachers if the child needs help on a particular subject and even reaching out to the Parents if the child is not taking the school seriously. Educated housewives who want to do something and retired teachers would be the source for our teacher pool. There would even be holidays like a regular school. There will be regular assessments, even half yearly and final exams and even recognized certifications. The students, teachers & Parents connect and interact with each other through social network. There would even be offline activities like sports day and school trips to bring in bonding and personality development. We will follow regular CBSE English Medium curriculum.
The model has huge scaling possibility as it is self-creating and has self-maintainability.
India is split into two wide extremes of the ultra-rich and the BPL (Below Poverty Line). While the former sends their children to expensive private schools, the latter struggles to get two square meals and for them education is not a critical requirement. In between these two lies the mid-belly which construes almost 45% of the country’s population, accounts for 60% of the nation’s income and have an average earning between Rs 8000 – 25000 p.m. These people are aspirational and want their children to get good education so that they can move ahead in life but they cannot afford private education hence their only option is to send their children to government schools.
AAS VIDYALAYA (AAS stands for Anytime Anywhere School and it also means “Hope” in Hindi) is an ONLINE SCHOOL that uses technology to provide High Quality, Low Cost secondary education to the millions of students of the mid-tier of India’s population who are forced to drop out after Primary. As of date, 8.4 cr children are not going to school due to various reasons. As a matter of fact, acquiring secondary education increases incomes to 2X as compared to what one gets after doing just Primary schooling.
While the target group mentioned above wants their children to get good quality education they are unable to find decent government schools near them. While 90% of the kids born (20 Mn each year) enrol into Primary school, almost half of them never get any secondary education. As on date 84 Mn children are not going to school. Factually, 70% of the bread earners in India have only completed Primary education.
Over the last few years, Smartphones have made rapid inroads in the Indian market especially the TG. The screen size has increased from 3 inch to 5 inch while the cost of a decent smartphone/tab has come down to Rs 3000-4000. India will have 650 Mn smartphones by 2019. 80% of internet usage in India is through Smartphones which has helped increase the internet penetration in India rapidly to 35%. Internet speeds are speedily increasing especially with the launch of 4G network at affordable prices.
AAS Vidyalaya proposition (as above) would be delivered through Android App on smartphones.
While the proposition requires a shift in consumer mindset of attending schools having walls around it, the new generation, irrespective of the SEC, is digital-native as they have already shown us by their rapid adoption of Facebook & Whatsapp.
We envisage THREE major challenges in this pursuit, viz:
1. DRIVING BEHAVIORAL CHANGE – The typical mindset in India, when one thinks of school, is that it has four walls and a roof and that the child needs to be dressed up in school uniform and be under the supervision of teachers. Bringing about a shift from this mindset to a anytime anywhere school will be a tough ask. However, there have been more than a few examples of a similar shift that we have achieved over the last few years like online banking and shopping, also digital transactions. We would need to put lot of energies behind educating people in adapting technology as a medium to acquire schooling as well.
2. STATUTORY ENVIRONMENT – School and other educational institutes are still governed by strict government policies for eg schools have to be not-for-profit or certification needs to be from authorized bodies. However, we strongly believe that you cannot stop an idea whose time has come. Sooner than later, online schools will be an accepted form of schooling and would be able to provide their own certifications.
3. ALL ROUND DEVELOPMENT – Schools provide LEARNING & PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT in a 60:40 ratio. While online schooling will provide the 60%, we will have to create some offline programs & activities to cover the balance 40% of personality development that comes from inter-personal interaction & practical knowledge and exposure.