Leveraging technology and proprietary SEEK curriculum to reduce educational inequity
Introduction
In 2021, Aasraa Trust, a non-profit organisation in Dehradun, India, partnered with Rangeet to teach SEEK to underprivileged children.
The program was initially piloted in 6 schools and 6 learning centres, reaching 269 students.
The success of the pilot project led to further SEEK implementations in 2022-23 over an 18 month period with approximately 1,000 students and 40 teachers.
What is Rangeet?
Rangeet is a digital platform for authoring, delivering and measuring the impact of teaching materials for schools, communities and families. It features Rangeet’s proprietary Social Emotional and Ecological Knowledge (SEEK)© curriculum and teaching resources. Based on the latest international learning science, SEEK™ uses active, playful teaching methods to prepare children for the challenges of the future by measurably developing a breadth of skills, wellbeing, agency and global stewardship in every child aged 7-16.
Rangeet’s platform offers educators an affordable, scalable and inclusive curriculum / toolkit. Designed around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), Rangeet’s curriculum and teaching resources are designed to help children tackle burning social issues whilst developing a breadth of skills, including the 6Cs (Brookings Policy 2020, K. Hirsh-Pasek et al): communication, collaboration, content, critical thinking, creative innovation and confidence.
Problem to Solve?
- Generally, students in Dehradun do not have access to quality education. Previous attempts to address this loss had seen limited outcomes that were majorly cognitive in nature. They had also not been engaging.
- Teachers could see there were problems like bullying in their classrooms along with discrimination, but did not have the tools to address this with children.
- To foster the integration of isolated communities by addressing the digital divide, overcoming inequalities, and scaling up quality learning opportunities, a fundamental shift is needed through a technological solution. This necessitates the collaboration of diverse stakeholders to tackle a multifaceted challenge in unison, forming a public-private coalition.
Rangeet’s Role
Rangeet created a public-private coalition comprising:
- Aasraa Trust, a non-profit organization in Dehradun, India – provided facilitators
- Rangeet – technology, curriculum and implementer
- Government of Uttarakhand – provided government schools
Rangeet’s SEEK curriculum was implemented through its low-resource, easy-to-use mobile app to engage all kinds of learners. Training and support was provided to teachers to help them implement the program effectively.
Results and Outcomes
The Rangeet platform contains tools that collect feedback from teachers/facilitators and measures impact on children. Through this mechanism, the impact of the implementation could be determined by the end of 2022-23:
- A boy convinced his parents to help him stop their neighbours from marrying off their child and send her to school instead.
- A girl experienced/witnessed bullying at a bus stop. SEEK taught her how to deal with the bully and include elders to resolve the issue.
- A girl was teased for wearing glasses. Through SEEK, children realised this was wrong, apologised and stood up for her against others.
- Students were observed to be more confident, empathetic and apologetic for mistakes, while bullying and discrimination in classes decreased.
Testimonials
"Rangeet's curriculum is well-structured with good explanations. I observed that children really enjoy the activities. If I may speak for myself, I learnt a lot through this project and my energy levels get really boosted when I am teaching. I hope this project doesn't just reach children but the parents so that they also learn about the changes that the children are going through. I really enjoyed the training, we are given a lot of support in every lesson."
"It has been a great experience for me and students are also enjoying themselves. Two things I liked about Rangeet: one, it focuses on students' social-emotional values where they can connect to the society and learn about it and two, there are lots of playful activities for students. In this manner, they can enjoy learning. I would say the best part I loved teaching was the role-play sessions where students performed skits about discrimination. So, it was really fun how students were involving themselves and showing hidden acting talents."
"Through Rangeet I am able to understand the child better like what kind of society he or she lives in, or the day-to-day challenges they are facing. So we are able to build a strong relationship between teachers and students. The best part is we are able to include each child in each activity. The learning is not only restricted to Rangeet lessons but we can implement it in other lessons too, like we are showing animated videos in literature in English."
"Our role as teachers is to teach children well. Through Rangeet, I have learned that even virtual classes can be made interesting through activities. Rangeet also helps us teach a lot of other subjects. With the help of its activities, we can help teach other topics like mathematics. And children are starting to understand the difference between right and wrong."
Conclusion
Rangeet is an example of how play-based learning can be used to teach life skills and values to underprivileged children. The program has been shown to be effective in improving children’s learning outcomes and in promoting their overall well-being.
This demonstrates how Rangeet’s work at the intersection of technology and learning science-based curricula provides high-quality education to every child, regardless of background or circumstances.
Bridging the digital divide is an essential prerequisite for delivering quality education across diverse populations, regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic status, language, or geographic location. Rangeet has established a collaborative approach to address these challenges systemically. No single entity can achieve the desired scale and impact of an intervention in isolation and must leverage complementary partnerships. However, technology can serve as a facilitator of the intervention instead of an obstacle.
