For 15-year-old Kamdev Kumar Sah, going to school every day was a struggle. His parents wanted him to study but he would skip classes often and play in the fields, wander around and chat with people. “I did not think much about it until my Class 8 final exam results were out. I did not do well, and I felt guilty because I knew how hard my parents had been working to support my education,” he said.
Uncertain and anxious, Kamdev somehow managed to get admission at Damin High School, Rajabhita, in Class 9. Once there, he faced a big challenge – the school, students, and teachers, all were new. “But my teachers were very supportive, and I started feeling better soon. The school had Smart Classes, which helped me a lot. To my surprise, it was for the first time that I was looking forward to going to school,” said the teenager from Sundarpahari block in Lakhipur village.
Gyanodaya Godda, an initiative run by the district administration of Godda and supported by the Adani Foundation, is helping thousands of school students from Classes 6 to 12. The audio-visual curriculum includes regular quizzes, analysis, and practice questions.
The initiative is in line with the government’s vision of taking digital education to all rural areas of India. In Godda, Smart Classes were launched in 2018 and so far, more than 60,000 students have benefited. Currently, 314 government schools in the district are covered under the initiative.
An official associated with the programme said that one of the unique aspects of the curriculum is the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for personalised feedback. The teaching module has PPTs, video presentations and interactive sessions where students can clear their doubts.
The AI tool is embedded in the app. It analyses a student’s performance, maps that against the curriculum and benchmarks it against district and country data. It also generates unique actionable feedback for each student.
The Smart Classes programme runs on some digital platforms as well, and it has reached over 1,30,000 students through YouTube.
According to an official, under the Gyanodaya initiative, they are trying to address key concerns of government schools in Godda – low student count, high dropout rates and lack of subject-specific teachers.
Karishma met the Gyanodaya team in 2022 during a campaign called “Back to School”. She was studying in Class 8 at the Middle School Manikpur. Her father Madhusudan Pandit is a farm worker and the only bread earner for their family of six. Karishma’s parents were struggling with their kids’ education. And Karishma herself was losing interest in studies. Once the Gyanodaya team members came to know about this, they interacted with Karishma and her family.
“There is a staff crunch at the school and because of that, many students did not feel like attending classes,” said Ranu, nodal teacher of Gyanodaya Smart Classes at the Middle School Manikpur. “We kept talking to students who were irregular and tried to convince them. We also interacted with their families. Our team noticed that many students were showing interest in the Smart Classes modules – especially for science. In the absence of dedicated science teachers, the students benefited from the virtual classes,” she added.
Sharing her experience, 15-year-old Karishma said she enjoys the Smart Classes and has a good attendance record now. “Science is my favourite subject, and I want to take it up for higher studies,” she said.