Digital Learning Space Initiative for the Underprivileged Children

In India, 80 percent of all primary schools are run by the government. One of the major reasons of poor quality education system is absence of around 40% of teachers every day. Muskaan Foundation is working towards filling this gap by using digital technology to help these children build their dreams. Digital content of each subject is developed and distributed by Muskaan to the Government schools. In the absence of teachers, kids are provided with plug and play digital content during lectures.

Abhishek Dubey – Founder, Muskaan Dreams Foundation says – ‘We started our journey in 2014 when I was in third year of my college. We spent couple of months with children in nearby village to understand the challenges and problems they face, the teachers face. The lack of infrastructure support, the gap between the children who live in the city and the one who live in the village was quite evident.’

Muskaan was started with an aim to support underprivileged children through different programs. They provide the children with audio-visual learning content in classroom to help them understand their syllabus and curriculum pattern. The pilot was successful with 90% of the children. Now, the 90% of the children are able to use projector and use the digital classroom tools.

The Foundation transformed a girls’ government school in Chinor (30 km from Gwalior District). When the Muskaan team visited the school, they were shocked to the broken windows, dusty classrooms, and lack of furniture in the school. For the betterment of the school, they started the operations in Chinor with Round – 1 survey. The team then headed for the basic civil work with the support of the zilla Panchayat and replicate the digital school model.

Currently, Muskaan Dreams Foundation is working with 15000 children with the help of 200+ young leaders. They are enabling and mobilizing youth from different institutions to solve the challenges with rural education.