India has one of the largest student populations in the world. We have 290 million students in our schools with more than half the number, enrolled in government schools across the country. Having so many students graduate from the schooling system in India is a matter of great pride for the country. However, we also have one of the most complex public education systems in the world with roughly 7 million students dropping out of school every year to take up low income jobs. 

Before we examine how Class Saathi tackles student attrition, we must first take a look at some of the reasons why the dropout rates are so high.

1)    Poor infrastructure in schools : This is a grave problem since knowledge upgradation becomes a challenge through technological advancements. Visual and Auditory learners do not have avenues to improve their academic performance since poor infrastructure only enables rote learning methods. To make matters worse, now there is a growing need for technological integration in classrooms and at home. Students who cannot afford it are forced to drop-out of school.

2)    Unfavourable teacher student ratio : According to a 2019 report published by India Today, India’s student teacher ratio is 24:1, which is considered very low. These numbers are worrying since this unfavourable ratio adds pressure on teachers to cater to much larger numbers of students than they are prepared to manage. This creates a breeding ground for learning lags as teachers cannot pay individual attention to their students. As the learning lags grow, student motivation dwindles and hence they are forced to drop out of schools.

3)    Low involvement of parents in their child’s academics : Students in the public education system of India are either first time learners or are children of parents who had to drop out of school at a very young age. It becomes difficult for them to keep up with the academic needs of their children since they are not equipped to do so. What makes it worse is that they receive student progress only every quarter and these parents have also only been taught to view results in the pass or fail manner. 

4)    Severe learning lags : Students in the public education system either join school late or have a tough time being regular since they pitch in to take care of their families. Reports have suggested that a large percentage of students are in the wrong class for their learning level in India. With time, these lags only increase, presenting students with the only option to quit school.

These problems are highly complex in nature and it will take a few years before these external factors find neat solutions. However, while that happens, Class Saathi has found its place in the educational universe by helping the public education system overcome all aforementioned problems to keep students in school, learning through our first of its kind technology. 

1)    Class Saathi owns any infrastructure it has to operate from : Students in the public education system can now be beneficiaries of tech driven education models since we do not require additional resources or infrastructure to run our product. This gives students a sense of fulfillment along with a feeling of equity since they are able to tap into tech driven academics much like their more privileged peers. Class Saathi also has visuals and auditory explanations designed to help students of different learning styles.

            Students of a government school in Madhya Pradesh using Class Saathi

1)    Real time reports of hundreds of thousands of students all in real-time : Having one teacher manage the learning outcomes of over hundred students has never been easier than it is now with Class Saathi. Class Saathi encourages the formative assessment model through which teachers can test their students on concepts taught in class that very day. Depending on where the maximum number of concept lag is, teachers can design interventions to tackle the same.

2)    Connects all stakeholders : Class Saathi reports are published real time and all the stakeholders in the educational ecosystem are connected transparently through our reporting system. Gone are the days when parents had to wait for a report card to show them where their child is at school. Our reports are easy to read and it can show daily, weekly and monthly progress of a student, thereby allowing parents and the administrators to keep an eye on their child’s academic progress. In fact, when some authorities in the education department looked at the learning outcomes data presented by Class Saathi, they felt that they finally got a “data lens” they were looking for such a long time. 

3)    Allows for real time interventions to materialise : Class Saathi reports reveal where exactly a student is struggling and allows teachers to curate teaching strategies to help them overcome the same. Reduced learning lags produce more confident students who have the potential to see their education through. Even the education departments can now use learning outcomes data to customize teacher training material and supplemental student materials for students.

We do not make claims we cannot substantiate. Through our partnership with the Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh governments, we have recorded improvements in student performance and attendance. In the long run, this is highly favourable since it has the potential to not just keep students in school, but also ensure that they graduate from school and are prepared for the next educational challenge in their learning lives!