Project Aspiration – Capacity Building of DOE, Govt of NCT, Delhi

Sreeni’s Response, Updates, Feedback, Plan ahead

There is many a news coming up, in media, from Institutions passing the decisions to open from early July, to HRD ministry considering only 100 days of school, out of 235 days that has been the tradition thus far.

I will not be surprised if the school lock-down goes on to September/ October, especially keeping children at social distancing being almost impossible; and with the infection graph expected to hit the peak in June/July as the virologists predicting and the real numbers too showing up, India seems to getting into stage 2 now. I am afraid of the way the pandemic in India is going to turn out in the coming 6-8 weeks, and its impact, especially on children, education, and schools. Hope my fears are unfounded.

However here a few insights and feelings that I gather being part of the Project Aspiration since it was conceived and I started anchoring it from the very idea and inception, and my presence every day, in 3-4 classes, with, regular, daily interactions with educators, and also the students during the pre-class, post-class chats..

Educators

A. ONLINE educators are always expressing how this mode, the way it has been going, to be of big help to the entire class XII students of DOE, Govt of NCT, Delhi schools and that students are going to have a huge edge, in learning, with the entire resources at their disposal, 24×7.

B.  The enthusiasm of the subject teams in planning and coming with amazing content and engaging pedagogy has now gained full steam, in most subjects. They have found the mojo. And they keep expressing “Maza aa raha hai”. Same is the case with students, with their participation. And this momentum should not break. Hope everyone in the DOE team has at least watched one class of every subject, live and happening.

C. Educators keep sharing that they would love to cover the syllabus in the most inspiring way they have ever done, and that the class XII students with COVID19 confinement, have a great opportunity to finish the syllabus before the schools reopen, and when they can, do revision; while anyways students have recorded classes and all tools at their disposal for revisions too, 24×7. And this year, the educators feel, experience and results are going to be unlike any year in their careers of 20-30 years, thus far.

D. All that is getting created will stand in good stead for years to come, for every class XII batch hence forth.

STUDENTS

I introduced a feedback survey, on May 29th, just two days before the first leg of the ONLINE CLASSES, of Project Aspiration ended. Though early days but here are the quantitative insights on how good the whole endeavour has been.

A. Students everyday feedbacks on chat boxes, I have been sharing from time to time on whatsapp, so also the Coordinators have been. The everyday appreciation is an elixir for every educator. They are intoxicated, in good sense.

B. Students seek and want that these classes will continue through the year, even after schools reopen. Even in the last report and review meeting with the Deputy CM and Minister of Education, almost all students expressed this aspect.

C. Students are writing emails to me in appreciation of the Project Aspiration Online Classes, and letters to teachers and schools which online educators are sharing in their groups.

D. Students are using recorded classes, class notes, quizzes, test gym, CBSE materials, past papers, chapter tests, board level practice papers, apart from Vocab Ninza, GK ninza – daily news etc..

Here is my camera view of the Report and Review meeting that happened on May 29, 2020, that more than corroborates what I have stated above.

The above video shows the complete interaction of the Project Aspiration – Review and Report meeting. The government has put forth the following video, that is a highly edited one, due to the time constraints that they might have had.

The following are the numbers I had placed in front of the review committee, and also shared in the above review meeting, about the impact of Project Aspiration:

On YouTube alone, where the live classes and their recording that are alive till 24 hours earlier, and now, till the day ends…

Moving 28-day window YOUTUBE analytics (the screen capture in the following page)

1. About 16 Lakh+ views of the Project Aspiration Live Studio classes
2. 2,82,000 hours of class videos viewing
3. Live class attendance of 20 thousand in many a humanity subject and English subject far higher, 4-5K in science subjects is a normal
4. If you look at the todays data – English has had 42K, Pol science 29K, Eco 18K
5. Within the first 24 hours the numbers move to even 60+ thousand in English, 40+ thousand in humanities

Mind you these are moving average of 28 days. So the real numbers across the duration is more than twice of these numbers. These numbers are extra-ordinary by any standards.  Add to these the numbers on the recorded streaming that happens inside Aspiration, once the class recordings move out of YOUTUBE and into streaming servers of Amazon. Amazon keeps saying that they have not seen such numbers in education streaming.

The view of what happened in the last 48 hour, in terms of students activities, and in the last sixty minutes [now the time is 11pm, and still students are active – 191 students are studying English, 209 political science, 93 economics, 40 Biology, of today’s classes]

The DOE, Govt of Delhi, intends to give a month’s break. in the month of June, for the reasons better know to them. But, my feedback on giving a break means –

A. Putting the break and undoing all the efforts we have put in to get into the rhythm in the last six weeks. It has just picked up. The momentum gets lost. Reluctance sets in, on every front, teachers, and students too. Hit when the iron is hot. My advice is not to give any break. Solutions, spoken ahead.

B. A great opportunity may get lost, to build a complete learning support system for Class XII, at the earliest, assisting regular brick and mortar class, that can be invaluable, and can be used for long.

C. Due to COVID, students are there at home, 24 hours. Cannot go out. The students are feeling these classes to be godsend during these times, especially Class XII. I too have a daughter, in class xii, she feels that these classes are empowering her in the board year, when she can do nothing else during the lock down. She is confident that by September she will be ready for the board exams. Her classes are also a savior for everybody at home. She is very involved and very busy.

SOLUTIONS

Can we look at a model, that I used to implement when I was anchoring school level projects during the summers almost two decades ago, especially, in the critical year of class XII, the performance which makes or mars the career of the youth…

A. Look at the 2-month summer break as 1 month + 1 month

B. Give half of the teachers, for every subject, one-month break, the other half, the other month.

C. Let the teachers choose, which month they wish to. They decide among themselves, looking at their domestic exigencies.

D. We will have the classes running through, without any disruption and teachers too get a month break before the school starts.

Looking Ahead

Ever since I have been attending the classes regularly and experiencing the students participation in the regular interactions and engagements with the kind of responses they give in the chat boxes for the questions being raised and concepts being discussed, I was thinking that we need to harness the amazing potential that I get to see –

Since this, class XII, is a year of great significance for every child in the class XII, and one of the major concerns for most of the studious and disciplined one, even for their families, is about their future next year, Can we not do something more than just teaching class XII subjects. Especially CLEF, having every kind of career facilitation resources at its disposal, as part of its CSR, why not it impact the brightest in the lot.

The questions in my head are –

1. Why not we do an aptitude test of basic Maths, Sciences and English, to identify the brightest in each of the streams and groom for the career related entrances – IITJEE, NEET, IPM, CLAT and DU JAT
2. Provide them all the online resources at hand to study and work towards their dream careers
3. Have career-centric sessions to create awareness about career possibilities and facilitate the students and their family to be more focused towards their goals
4. Can do occasional workshops for any of the subjects for Engineering, Medicine, Law, Management and DU JAT

Only our imagination is the limitation !

Let us make the most of this COVID time and create a powerful and transformational learning ecosystem that enables our education system for years to come. It is, now or never.

Sreeni

R. Sreenivasan,

Managing Trustee

Career Launcher Education Foundation (CLEF AP)                            May 27, 2020