LAST MILE CONNECTIVITY – CASE STUDY ON CHALLENGES AND UNCONVENTIONAL SOLUTIONS TO LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY FOR SUPPLEMENTING CLASSROOM LEARNING IN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS IN ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA

India has nearly 450 million in the age group of 5 to 24, which means there are more children in India than nearly 1.5 times the total population of USA. With a current literacy rate of 74% the number of students is in the range of 333 million. India handles this mammoth education project with a network of 1.04 million schools run by the Government and an estimated 0.26 million schools run by private sector.
Large investments in ICT enablement to supplement traditional learning have been made from as early as 1975. Enabling infrastructure such as Televisions, Computers, Internet connections have been provided in majority of government schools across the country. However, even today, there are significant concerns regarding quantitative and qualitative aspects of school education.
As a not for profit organisation working to improve learning opportunities in government schools, especially in rural areas, we at PRAVINYA identified several issues that posed challenges to leveraging technology for supplementing classroom learning in government schools, in especially in rural areas. This case study first discusses the variety of challenges faced and also delves into the possible reasons for sub-optimal success of some of the initiatives that were clearly technologically advanced at the time that they were launched.
During our work with some schools, we at PRAVINYA, conceived a cost effective method using a freeware Learning Management System (LMS) to increase the rural reach of enriched audio-visual learning material. What started off as on an experimental basis has grown rapidly over the last two years as we began a mission of providing the last mile connectivity i.e achieving the objective of providing ICT based learning opportunity as a supplement to class room learning. This has been possible due to our engagement with local government authority, collaborating with apex curriculum/content institutions for content sharing and involving community. Two key drivers of our rapid expansion in meaningful reach are the non-commercial nature of our engagement with various stakeholders and extremely tight monitoring of implantation.
With the twin objectives of improving learning opportunities through introduction of integrated pedagogy and increasing the utilization of ICT infrastructure already provided in secondary schools, we expect our reach to expand at an even faster pace. As on today, we have made it possible for over 11,000 students in rural areas to access lessons as per their school curriculum in the vernacular medium of learning and before Mar 31, 2012 expect over 20,000 students to benefit. In the year 2013-14, this initiative is expected to benefit a minimum of 50,000 students.
We do believe that our solutions are far from being technologically path breaking but they provide a fast and viable solution in countries like India where population and rural expanse provide unique challenges. The case study provides details of this initiative that uses the existing infrastructure in schools, a LMS platform, learning content reputed Institutions, teacher training and involvement of community to enable the achievement of the end objective.