New Delhi: In an effort to transform Government school classrooms into smart classrooms, Sampark Foundation, a leading NGO transforming primary education through frugal innovation, has launched Sampark FLN TV forgovernment schools in Himachal Pradesh. Government of Himachal Pradesh and Sampark Foundation is jointly implementing the program in the state. This initiative is part of Sampark’s vision to drive large-scale improvement in learning outcomes and support government schools in becoming future-ready.
Sampark FLN TV helps teachers use lesson plan, content videos, activity videos, gamification of assessments and worksheets to make the class smart, interactive and joyful. Sampark FLN TV is expected to not only increase attendance but also improve learning outcomes by at least 30%.
Till now, Sampark through a self-funded initiative has provided the Sampark FLN (Foundational Literacy and Numeracy) TV device for 111 schools in Himachal Pradesh across 12 districts in the state impacting 3500 children. So far 92 teachers in 3 locations have been trained on the usage of Sampark FLN TV while another 19 teachers will be trained this month. The TV sets for the program is being provided by the state government. Going forward, the plan is to install Sampark FLN TV devices in 800 government schools in Himachal Pradesh impacting more then 40,000 children. In the next few years Sampark FLN TV will be installed in all the schools of Himachal Pradesh.
Sampark FLN TV is a device that converts any television into an interactive learning platform, featuring quizzes, worksheets, animated content and so on. The device comes with preloaded lessons delivered by Sampark Didi (extremely popular mascot and virtual teacher of Sampark Smart Shala). Significantly, this device can work offline too without any internet. The set-up includes an android set-up box and a remote with chapters organised according to the state curriculum.
It will drive learning outcomes by following the right sequence of ‘Learn, Play, Practice, Earn and Celebrate’. It plays a dual role of being both a means of lesson delivery as well as a database for teaching resources from lesson videos to question banks. The content is integrated with the Maths and English programmes of Sampark Smart Shala, an app by Sampark Foundation, which makes learning interesting and meaningful.
“Sampark FLN TV is a huge step in our vision of providing quality education for all through innovative and large scale solutions,” said Vineet Nayar, Founder-Chairman of Sampark Foundation. “It represents our intent to bridge the learning gap in government schools by offering them access to interactive and engaging content so that students can bypass internet scarcity to learn at their own pace. Unlike other edtech platforms, our initiative comes at no cost to schools. Instead, we are investing Rs. 100 crore across the country to offer students and teachers a unique and highly impactful product.”
Nayar added. “The highlight of our programme is its interactive user experience which will completely change the way students engage with animated learning material delivered by Sampark Didi as opposed to static textbooks.”
The key highlights of this initiative are as follows:
• The self-paced programme will be conducted in the classroom to transform the physical infrastructure of government schools into a smart class.
• The content can be projected to a bigger group that will create an interactive classroom
• It follows the well-researched and duly tested pedagogy styles of known-to-unknown, simple-to-complex, and concrete-to-abstract styles of lesson delivery.
• Lessons are offered in a gamified quiz style, like the popular quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati, where students will earn reward points for offering the right responses. These reward points will allow them to unlock access to content at the next level such as games and stories.
• Each student has a dashboard where their progress can be accessed and monitored by the school and the teachers
• All lessons have detailed content both from state textbooks as well as content developed by the Sampark team for specific skills such as speaking textbooks which offer an audiobook-like experience where lessons are narrated by Sampark Didi to help students build LSRW (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing) skills, using the ‘whole language’ approach developed by Sampark.
In 2018, Sampark Foundation & the Government of Himachal Pradesh had signed a non-financial MOU to improve learning outcomes in Government primary schools in the state. Earlier this year the MoU was renewed between Sampark Foundation and Department of Education, Government of Himachal Pradesh for another 3 years (April 2022 to March 2025) to deliver Sampark’s learning program (Sampark Smart Shala) to impact all the government schools in the state. Under this program, Sampark will invest Rs. 25 Crore in the State to impact more than 3.5 lakh children with an objective to transform Learning Outcome in Elementary Grades. The Program aims to establish Himachal Pradesh among the top 10 states by 2026 in learning outcomes of English in Primary Classes and Science in Upper Primary Classes. Sampark will also implement English Speaking, Employability skills and Stem program in the state.
About Sampark Foundation: Sampark Foundation was founded by Anupama Nayar and Vineet Nayar (Former Vice Chairman and CEO of HCL Technologies and author of Harvard Business Press bestseller “Employees First, Customer Second”) with a committed investment of INR 700 Cr with a belief that “frugal innovation” and its effective implementation in partnership with the government can drive large-scale improvement in learning outcomes. Currently, the Sampark Smart Shala program is impacting over 1 crore children through its implementation in 84,000 primary government schools in 6 states (Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand). Many third-party surveys have shown that in the schools, where the Sampark Smart Shala has been implemented, there is a marked increase in the number of children who answered grade level questions in Math and English. For example, according to Feedback Consulting, a research organisation, in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Haryana, there has been a 34, 39 and 61 percent improvement respectively in performance of children in 2019, 20.
About Vineet Nayar: Vineet Nayar is Founder, Chairman of Sampark Foundation and former CEO of HCL Technologies, a leading IT firm whose transformation was architected from $0.7 billion in 2005 to $4.7 Billion in 2013 by Vineet, which led HCL’s management practices being taught as a case study in Harvard Business School. He is also author of the highly acclaimed management book, “Employee First, Customers Second – Turning Conventional Management Upside Down which has sold 100,000 copies till date. Vineet has been cited in “Forbes 48 Heroes of Philanthropy 2016 for the pedagogical innovations the Foundation has brought into classrooms. He is also an acknowledged management visionary and a radical thinker and has been included in the elite “Thinkers 50 List” in 2011-2012 which is a listing of the world’s top 50 business leaders.
