Instead of going the normal route where I just write about us and our vision, I decided to take the route where I am trying to answer Alok Sir’s post on Why is Indian Education STUCK?? I ask 5 Questions.. via Gyan Lab’s vision. The post was too long and so it was divided into two parts. 

You can read the first part:

We are turning boring STUCK Indian education into FUNDUCATION!!- Part 1

Gyan Lab is basically our 2.75 year old startup which we started while still at college, back in January 2011. Back in August 2010, we decided to participate in a B-Plan competition. While we were trying to brainstorm to come up with ideas, we figured that nothing else needs as much of a disruption as does education. So, we came up with Gyan Lab. And I said to my friend and founder, Priyadeep Sinha, “This will not just be a B-Plan, PD. We will make this into an actual business.” AND WE DID!!

In the first part I answered:

1. What ails Indian Education beyond the primary level? What is the ONE single point that you think holds us back and is actually taking us backwards?

2. Do you think the teachers, the principals and the teaching staff really KNOW what is happening to the outside world? Are they CONNECTED to the REAL world?

3. Why are IB Schools proliferating and becoming the preferred choice for parents? This despite the fact that the fees are MASSIVELY higher compared to the old legacy schools in India…

HERE’S THE SECOND PART:

4. How will the future of India perform in a hyper competitive economy when we do not educate our kids with the most current knowledge?

Unless many more people take up the cause of bettering the system and moving kids from the era of listening to the teacher and then quietly looking at some animations on a smartboard by ushering them into an era where they collaborate with their peers, are allowed to be curious, search for answers on their own and do hands-on learning, I think we are headed for disaster, But there’s hope. Here I’d like you to tell about Gyan Lab.

We are living in a world that will need more people with creativity and innovation within the next five years. We need problem-solvers, ones who can think outside the box without any difficulty. In fact, there will be more jobs that need these two skills that those not needing these skills in the next five – six years. This makes me strongly believe that the future workforce must be allowed to retain the gifts of creativity and innovation that every kid is born with. As Picasso rightly said, every child is an artist, the problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up.

Gyan Lab is a unique education pedagogy and curriculum based on the concept of Fun-ducation (Fun + Education). Gyan Lab is focused on democratizing the school system by complementing theoretical lessons with hands-on, practice-based learning with a well structured blend of activities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), Life Skills and Humanities to build an intuitive, creative and innovative future human resource of India. 

Our complete focus is to enhance the application ability of kids in a relaxed, fun environment and take care of skill development during school life. Gyan Lab curriculum has been built to help our kids move ahead in life based on their interests and capabilities rather than in a crammed and forcefully done manner. This will also ensure higher productivity and greater value system and happiness. 

The Gyan Lab programs, built on foundations of research-driven curriculum and facilitated by trained faculty members, help students connect on an everyday basis what they learn in class to the real world. 

Gyan Lab Curriculum is aligned with National Curriculum Framework 2005 (used by CBSE School across India) and four of the World’s best curriculum, standards and benchmarks. This is a proof of the fact that we are extremely committed to give students the best of behavioural, cognitive, constructive and empathy-based pedagogies of learning and growing.

We have committed ourselves to the Education Pedagogy of Constructivism that is built on the foundation of a learning process which allows a student to experience an environment first-hand, thereby, giving the student reliable, trust-worthy knowledge. As a part of this learning theory, the student is required to act upon the environment to both acquire and test new knowledge.

Gyan Lab is currently catering to school students of ages 7 – 15 years (grades 3 – 9) in order to kindle the practice of hands-on, learning by doing among them. The facility also targets to bring together the learning pedagogies of cognition and constructivism under a single structure. 

Gyan Lab aims to cover the following aspects of learning for school students of the above-mentioned group:

• To make independent, self-styled and paced learning possible which is also fun for the kids (Fun-ducation)
• To change the role of a teacher to that of a facilitator, make knowledge flow either way – from teacher to student and from student to teacher (Collaborative Classrooms)
• To make the concept of a ‘Bad Student’ or  ‘Poor Student’ go away; giving a possible road of excellence to every child who goes through the Gyan Lab system (Equal Opportunity)
• To make peer to peer learning a core learning concept where students would help one another in knowledge acquisition without any disturbance (Open and Free Flowing Knowledge Acquisition)
• To build social values in kids by attempting to understand the present social structure and build a value system based on empathy, compassion and happiness (Social and Moral Sciences)

5. Most Indian parents (like myself) are shuddering sending our kids abroad due to costs and the discomfort of having your kids so far away.

But when my 17 year old daughter shows me the Times of India with the article snapped above, what do I tell her??

I am no expert. But this is based on 3 years of experience of Gyan Lab educators, founders and team memebers on having worked with 3000 school students across 8 cities and 20 schools.

Don’t tell her a thing. Every kid is 10 times smarter than any adult. She will take that decision on her own. Just let her know that she is smart and you trust her intuition. Stop trying to dictate terms (not that you might be doing this). Let her be. 🙂

AND NOW FOR THE ASK OF SUPPORT FROM THE RODINHOODERS COMMUNITY

Please help us out at Gyan Lab. We’ve launched Gyan Lab Kidovators Challenge — https://kidovators.gyanlab.com/ a competition which is going to be held across 30 cities in India with over 2500 schools participating. 

We need your help and support.

Kidovators Challenge has been designed for and dedicated to the future champions of India. This is why the tagline runs as ‘The Challenge for Innovators of Tomorrow’. Kidovators Challenge is the most unique and interesting challenge for school kids till date. We have a written test based on topics such as Communication Skills, Quantitative Aptitude, Current Affairs and General Knowledge, and Mental Ability and Scientific Aptitude. So, we are not testing how well they learn their subjects but how creative, innovative and imaginative are they in their thought process. In the second round, it gets even better where kids have to participate in a tech race involving optimization of resources, time and credits (that will be initially given to them). This is so exciting! It is almost like they are solving real life problems. 

This competition is going to be held across 30 cities in India with over 2500 schools participating. In case, a child’s school is not participating, he/she can register directly at our website! At present, we are only taking payment by cheque and DD but within a few days online payment would very much be possible as well.  

The key responsibilities of a City Ambassador include:

a) Co-ordinate a few marketing outreach activities (Details to be sent later as and when required)

b) Promote Kidovators Challenge at schools in your city 

c) Talk to parents you know and tell them about the challenge. If possible, get them to talk to the Principal of their kids’ schools or have them introduce you to them.

d) Promote Kidovators challenge, generally, through your facebook page and other social media presence.

e) We’d love to have your views about anything under the umbrella of education. We can publish you on our blog and have your writing reach an audience of 1500.

If you can help us out in any way, please reach out to me- abhash.kumar(at)addongyan(dot)com 

Please SHARE.

And feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

PS: Here’s PeeDee, the Gyan Lab Kidovators Challenge mascot, giving you a thumbs up and some love and TIA 😉