eVidyaloka TTT programme: mission-aspiration match. Inset: Brinda Poornapragna

Brinda Poornapragna is the CEO of Bengaluru-based not-for-profit eVidyaloka, promoted under the aegis of eVidyaloka Trust and co-founded by former Microsoft India professionals Satish Vaidyanathan and Venkat Sriraman in 2011. Entirely funded by individual and CSR (corporate social responsibility) donations, eVidyaloka connects volunteering and digital technology to reach supplementary English, science and math education to class V-X government school children in rural India in nine vernacular languages. In the span of a year this enterprise has mobilised 6,340 global teacher-volunteers and local community partners.

Digital classrooms apart, under eVidyaloka’s TTT (teach through television) supplementary classroom teaching program which attracted 30 million views last year, video lessons are broadcast through local TV channels in nine languages across 256 districts and ten states.
Newspeg. In August, Poornapragna launched eVidyaloka’s National Student Innovation Challenge (NSIC) Ver 8 in collaboration with the Mumbai-based LTIMindtree Foundation. NSIC is a pan-India competition designed to stimulate class VI-VIII children towards innovation, creative thinking, teamwork and leadership.

History. A computer science engineering postgrad of Bangalore University with nearly three decades of corporate experience in blue-chip companies (JP Morgan, Bank of Nova Scotia, Hewlett Packard, ANZ, Capgemini), Poornapragna took a sabbatical in 2018 to explore her passion for teaching, and invested six months to acquire teacher certification from Bengaluru’s Asian College of Teachers. After a six-month “inspiring” stint as a teacher at the Lok Jeevan Vikas Bharti Residential School in Uttarakhand, she formally resigned as senior director (banking and capital markets) at Capgemini.

In 2019, driven by deep desire to educate rural children, she accepted the role of CEO of eVidyaloka whose mission matched her new aspiration.

Direct talk. “Our model addresses the two major challenges confronting children in rural India — teacher shortage and teaching quality. To address these challenges, eVidyaloka has established 734 digital classrooms equipped with large screen monitors, webcams, mics, speakers, and reliable internet connectivity to reach class V-X children in remote locations and connect our volunteer-teachers with them. Live lessons provided in students’ mother-tongues make learning easier and more engaging for them. Age-appropriate learning is further enriched by co-curricular activities such as the National Student Innovation Challenge, Edge, Joy of Reading, and foundational AI pedagogies. These activities stimulate children’s creative, innovative and problem-solving skills,” says Poornapragna.

According to her, there is a large pool of retired and serving professionals in India and abroad ready, willing and able to teach India’s left-behind children, and their number is growing. “Merely through references and word-of-mouth publicity, our cohort of volunteer-teachers who expect no remuneration has grown to over 6,000 in one year. Their online lessons are supplemented by local community partners who ensure regular attendance of government school children by visiting homes of absconders,” says Poornapragna.

Future plans. Encouraged by improving attendance and learning outcomes of eVidyaloka’s 1.89 lakh students, Poornapragna plans to extend the digital classrooms program and explore skilling initiatives. “Over the next five years, we intend to reach 2,000 government schools, build stronger ties with local communities and onboard more global volunteers to enhance learning outcomes of children in rural India, who constitute a huge under-resourced talent pool,” she says.
Right on, Sis!

Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)