Lenovo, the global technology leader, has launched the SmarterEd education platform in collaboration with eVidyaloka, a not-for-profit organisation that focuses on transforming the educational landscape of India. This new, free online platform is designed to encourage Indian youth to participate in digital remodelling of the education system, by matching learners with volunteer educators in one-on-one online learning sessions.
According to government estimates, India faces a shortage of one million teachers, with a decreasing student-to-teacher ratio. Challenges to education have been exacerbated by restrictions due to COVID- 19, especially for those from poorer backgrounds or in remote areas.
The Lenovo SmarterEd platform allows students from classes V to XII to choose their teachers, select the subject they would like to learn, and take out time to learn as per their convenience. It has links to NCERT and State syllabus ebooks for the learners, and also offers a chat engine for seamless student-teacher communication. This platform supports multiple languages, including English, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu. English and Hindi are live now, while the other languages will be available subsequently.
Using smarter technology, teachers and students are matched using an algorithm that takes into account their respective teaching and learning styles. SmarterEd is secure, extremely accessible, enriching, and is a relevant medium of education fit for the present-day scenario, where schools across the country have been forced to suspend classes.
Describing the need for the SmarterEd platform, Amit Doshi – Chief Marketing Officer, Lenovo India states, “The education sector in the country has struggled for a few years, with the scarcity of skilled teachers being its most serious impediment. We at Lenovo, understand this concern and we want to make primary education accessible to everyone in every part of India, through our smart portfolio of products and services. Launch of SmarterEd and our partnership with eVidyaloka is an important step to take us closer to the goal. At Lenovo, we’ve always believed that we aren’t just in the business of creating products, but have the opportunity of using smarter technology to make life a little easier for all by solving real problems.”
Amit Akali, Founder and CCO, What’s Your Problem and Clyde Galbao, Creative Director add, “We were very clear we didn’t want to just speak about ‘Smarter Technology for all’ but actually use smarter technology to solve a problem. And there’s no bigger problem than the ‘lack of teachers’ for our nation. The insight was that even a student could be a teacher for something and each of us could be a teacher. Therefore, we created a platform to connect anybody who could teach needy students. Other than the platform, we have created a complete integrated campaign, starting with an emotional film which shows haunting images of kids across India, taking attendance and calling out for teachers, versus typically teachers taking attendance. Bauddhayan Mukherji, who directed the film, from Little Lamb films, made sure to work with real kids at real locations to increase the authenticity and emotional connect to the film.”
Volunteers and other interested individuals can log on to the site for more details.
