Divanshu Kumar, an IIT-Madras student pursuing final-year Mechanical Engineering, has given up an Rs. 21 LPA job offer to revolutionize the Indian education system.
He is the founder of Involve Learning Solutions Foundation, a non-profit edu-tech start-up based in Chennai that caters to the development of both academic and non-academic skills of a student in an innovative manner.
Divanshu always had a desire to fix things
Hailing from Bihar’s Gaya, Divanshu first got the idea of an innovative education system when he was in a school and wanted to fix things as there were no teachers and acquiring decent education was challenging.
Later, he was inspired to do something when he enrolled with Avanti Fellows where IIT studentsmentor underprivileged school children to help them crack the difficult JEE.
Peer learning
Divanshu understood potential of peer-driven learning at Avanti Fellows
At Avanti Fellows, he understood the potential of peer-driven learning and how well that system worked.
He worked out a model where capable senior students teach under-performing junior students at school, lessening the teachers’ burden.
He then gave this model a try in 2016 at an East Delhi school where he had studied. His friends Samyak and Awnish later joined him in this endeavor.
Seniors and Juniors
We train and mentor senior students to teach juniors: Divanshu
“We train and mentor senior school students (Student Leaders or SLs: 8th grade onward) to teach their juniors (Learners: 3rd-8th grade) in an after-school program,” Divanshu said.
“These sessions happen after school, and we have a manager in each school who oversees the intensive yearlong program with 6+ hours of intervention per student,” he added.
How does Involve Learning Solutions’ system work?
Involve Learning Solutions approaches a school for implementing the program there. During the training program, the start-up trains senior students in three essential areas: understanding what teachers do; pedagogy of teaching (classroom management); and content they would teach. It is a continuous teaching/learning process.
Why?
Divanshu explains why Involve Learning Solutions works
“One reason why our programme is highly regarded because students in India don’t have any programmes where they get to practice and hone the non-academic skills we teach them—responsibility, communication, problem-solving, social and emotional intelligence, adaptability and resilience,” said Divanshu.
“Most students have been constrained in a stale environment,” he said, adding when “someone just two years older is teaching…the entire dynamic changes.”
Education models
Expensive tuition centers are exploiting parents’ fear, claims Divanshu
“Very few of our education models have ensured that a student-driven learning process, which makes them capable of doing something beyond books,” Divanshu said.
“If we can drive peer-learning systems throughout the country, the whole tuition system will go for a toss. Expensive tuition centers are exploiting the parents fear that their wards aren’t getting extra attention at school,” he added.
Article Credit: News Byte