How Smart Classes and ICT Lab with Tablets Have Solved the Long-Pending Problem of the Army Goodwill School in Kashmir?

Know From Principal Rizwi Ji how Smart Classes and an ICT Lab with Tablets solved a long-pending problem. His story reveals how technology can break barriers to education in schools located in remote regions.

Syed Aabid Hussain Rizwi is the principal of Army Goodwill School, Boniyar, in Kashmir. This school is located in a village that is just a stone throw away from the Pakistan border and falls under the Sikh Regiment.

In a project commissioned by Power Grid and the Indian Army in 2021, we set up the Smart Classes and ICT Lab in various Army Goodwill Schools in Kashmir. The project’s objective was to provide uninterrupted learning as the region faces a lot of political unrest and regular internet outage. AGS Boniyar was also one such school covered under the implementation.

The scope of the project included digitizing 128 Classrooms with Smart Classes and ICT Lab and Mobile App based Digital Education in Army Goodwill Schools.

While our teams were visiting the school for the setup and training, we got into a discussion with Rizvi Sir. What he shared next is, unfortunately, are the challenges in the education system faced by most teachers and government schools across Kashmir. Adding to this, Kashmir’s literacy rate is also very low compared to many other states. But with little innovation and a basic understanding of the natural psychology of our teachers. We can fine-tune digital learning solutions to empower teachers to manage work easily and efficiently. Read on to find out how.

One significant issue that teachers of his school were facing:

Not able to use already available hardware due to complex functioning and unavailability of relevant offline content

As per our discussion with teachers, we found it very difficult for them to conduct classes using their existing hardware. Their existing system takes 10 minutes to boot and arrive at the home screen. Further, entering personal details and passwords every time is also a time-consuming process for them. One of the teachers mentioned, 

“When I access learning material, I get stuck on one type of content. And, switching again to different content is restricted with passwords. So, to avoid this hassle,  I  prefer teaching with textbooks in hand”. 

Our discussion with Principal Rizvi Ji, after the implementation of Smart Classes and ICT Lab

“Implementation of Smart Classes and ICT Lab has solved the long-pending problem of the school. Smart classes and educational tablets have made teaching and learning very easy. Like, access to all types of content through a single login feature. Now teachers in the school are well aware of the content they need to teach in every class; thus, they don’t waste time accessing passwords or in the search for relevant content. ” Teachers just plug and play the classroom sessions,” said Principal Rizwi Ji.

Further, he added, 

“High-quality animated video lessons, and books on life stories, poems, and inspirational biographies in Smart Class helps teachers keep students intact and encourage interaction. This has eliminated two main challenges of the school that is decreasing student engagement and increasing absenteeism”.

What enabled this to happen?

• Single login: 

We simplified the usage of the application by setting up one local server. A server where all type of content is uploaded and is accessible to all teachers via a single login. This made teachers more comfortable using the learning application. Not just this, but they can now use different types of content without the need for repeated logins.

• Bilingual Platform: 

Content navigation became easy because of the availability of the option to use the platform in the teacher’s preferred language. When teachers see an interface in their preferred language, they naturally wish to access content and teach through it.

• State Board Aligned Digital Content: 

All the digital content on the tablets and the smart classes is in Hindi and English. Aside from that, teachers can switch between textbooks and digital books easily since the content aligns with the J&K Board. This enables teachers to integrate their lesson plans with the digital content available on the platform, making it easy for them to supplement their teaching with digital.

• Enjoyable teaching/learning Content: 

Multiple digital content categories have been provided on the platform to suit different teaching pedagogies and learning styles. There are videos to build concepts, digital syllabus books to refer to any time, notes for quick revision, DIY project videos for practical and fun learning, stories, poems, and biographies for holistic growth, and MCQ-style Practice questions for an interactive classroom experience and personalized mastery development on different topics.

• Availability of Monthly Reports: 

To ensure regular usage of digital content in smart class, we share monthly usage reports of students and teachers with the principal and implementation partners. This helps them keep track of their teachers’ involvement in teaching through digital content and student’s content usage.

Here’s the video link of Shri Rizvi ji sharing his observations and experiences with us: 

Education in Kashmir faces paralysis because of unpredictable conditions like political instability, regular internet outages, lack of resources and many more such issues. Hence, going forward, we expect this new digital learning setup to change how students learn, and teachers teach collectively to improve overall educational outcomes.

If in case you would like to know more about Smart Classes and ICT Lab, please write to us at share@idreameducation.org. You can also leave your comments below and we will be happy to get back to you. 

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