NGOs Harnessing the Power of Technology and Providing Education to Rural Kids!

Education is one of the most powerful tools we have for breaking the cycle of poverty and building a better future for ourselves and our communities. However, for many children in India, access to quality education is limited by factors such as poverty, geography, and cultural barriers. Fortunately, there are many NGOs in India that are using technology to overcome these barriers and create a sustainable impact on education.

From mobile apps that improve literacy to digital classrooms that connect students with volunteer teachers, these organizations are harnessing the power of technology to bring quality education to those who need it most.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at some of the NGOs in India that are leading the way in using technology for education and changing lives for the better.

Agastya International Foundation:

Agastya International Foundation is an NGO that aims to transform education in India by bringing hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning to underserved communities. They use technology to create interactive digital learning materials and to deliver their programs remotely. They also have a mobile lab program that brings science experiments and demonstrations directly to schools and communities.

Door Step School (NGO):

Door Step School is an NGO that provides education and support to children living on the streets, in slums, and in areas with limited access to education. They use technology to provide virtual classes, tutoring, and counseling services to their students. They also have a mobile library program that brings books and learning materials directly to communities.

In Mumbai, Door Step School’s mantra is to ‘serve the underserved’ to ‘provide education – where the children are’. Crossing one road may change the literacy scale of the population living there drastically.

The two major focus points are - 1. Access – to direct educational services and quality alternatives to education offered in urban slums and pavements. 2. Retention – Educating is the key, but so is consistency and absorption. Hence we focus on not only providing primary education but ensuring that the child remembers and uses the education in their daily life.

Learning Equality 

Learning Equality is an NGO that provides open-source educational technology tools to increase access to quality education for all. They have developed a platform called Kolibri that allows learners to access interactive and multimedia educational content offline, even in low-resource environments. They also work with educators and organizations to create and adapt educational resources that are free and accessible to all.

Kolibri is an adaptable set of open solutions specially developed to support learning for half of the world without Internet access. Centered around an offline-first learning platform that runs on a variety of low-cost and legacy devices, the Kolibri Product Ecosystem includes a curricular tool, a library of open educational resources, and a toolkit of resources to support training and implementation in formal, informal, and non-formal learning environments.

Kolibri is being used in over 200 countries and territories around the world, and serving millions of learners and educators living in underserved contexts where the internet is costly, unreliable, or simply beyond reach.

eVidyaloka Trust: 

eVidyaloka is an NGO that provides digital classrooms and online education to remote and rural communities in India. They use technology to connect volunteer teachers with students in need of quality education, providing live online classes that can be accessed from anywhere. They also provide training and support for their teachers and work with schools to improve infrastructure and technology access for their students.

eVidyaloka was founded in Jan 2011, with co-founders Satish and Venkat, colleagues at Microsoft India, with the passion to bring volunteerism and technology together, to enable quality education for the most deserving children of remote and rural villages of India. After a pilot of the idea on the field for two years, the journey was set in motion with full-time employees in May 2013.

The Akanksha Foundation:

The Akanksha Foundation is an NGO that aims to provide quality education to children from low-income communities in India. They use technology to enhance their teaching and learning methods, providing access to digital tools and resources for their students and teachers.

They have a "School on Wheels" program that brings education directly to communities that are hard to reach. The program uses a bus that is equipped with learning materials, books, and technology to provide education and support to children in underserved areas.

Today, Akanksha supports 13,000 students through the formal-school education program and 4,000 alumni from low-income backgrounds across Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. Their 26 schools run free of charge from kindergarten to grade 10 in partnership with municipal corporations.