Animation can influence and bring about change. Who would’ve known that it can also empower? One man’s idea of using this medium as a tool to make someone self-reliant did the magic. This is the story of Astad Parakh, a number of other people and how they are utilising animation to bring about an educational revolution in Maharashtra; a revolution that is still silent, a revolution that needs to make noise to reach maximum number of people.
Parents of poorer families can afford only vernacular medium schools if they want their children to study, as these schools provide free primary education. English language is made a compulsory subject in these schools by the Maharashtra board. Teachers of these schools are perfectly capable of teaching other subjects but are not comfortable with the English language. Children in these schools therefore, however clever and bright, cannot dream of good jobs or higher studies due to their lack of English language skills. Astad Parakh, a social entrepreneur, observed this social injustice and came up with an idea of making animation DVDs that can make learning English extremely easy for teachers as well as students of these vernacular medium schools. It is called the English E.Teach (EET) Project.
How to get EET executed? Parakh approached Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) who are experts in the field of educational animation and e-learning, “and they put their heart into it,” he said. He worked closely with Manisha Mohan, who was heading the animation team at TIS. They took the English language syllabus of Maharashtra Board (which is same throughout the state for all schools) from first to fourth grades, and page by page, converted it into animated content. “The DVDs comprise of interactive content – stories, songs, puzzles and activities – that are meant to engage children,” Mohan said. As the DVDs are played in loop, initially, children do not understand. Gradually, they start speaking along. “The whole idea is that they must enjoy,” explained Parakh. After the teacher turns off the sound, only children speak. Then she calls them to act it out. “As the class ends, they have understood, started speaking, gotten over their fear and enjoyed the whole process.” And teachers get full credit. “Running teachers down all the time is not the answer. They only need tools.”
How to make English learning enjoyable and not fearful? The answer to this came as “animation”. “The moment a child sees animation, he is hooked and wants to interact,” Parakh said. He believes that animation is the key to child’s enthusiasm as it immediately grabs his attention. “Animation has an advantage. You see, hear, understand, and in the process, learn to read.” The students enjoy the animated audio-visuals, simultaneously grasping the meaning of words and phrases. “Animation can make a big difference in improving communication skills,” Mohan added.
The DVDs are provided to vernacular medium schools (Zilla Parishad, government and municipal schools) for free so that no child is deprived of the advantage of this powerful learning method. Work on the content for fifth grade has already begun. With a spending of less than five and a half crore from 2010 till now, the EET Project has received donations from Tech-Mahindra Foundation, CITI and H T Parekh Foundation. Their budget for this year is close to two crore. “But in the field of education, this is small money,” Parakh feels. “We did not want movie quality animation as we had to keep the costs in control,” Mohan stated. She said that they reduced the cost of production and worked at a much cheaper rate than they would normally work at, “as this is for a great cause.”
Parakh was helped by BCPT (Bombay Community Public Trust) in distributing the DVDs to the schools in Mumbai. The facilitators of BCPT not only distributed the DVDs to the schools but also demonstrated and explained to the teachers the way in which it was supposed to be used. Parakh also approached NGOs in various areas of Maharashtra to help them reach out to the schools in those areas. This way, they covered 22 districts, 92 talukas and have reached a total of 2,85,832 children in Maharashtra, from 2010 till now.
“Children in rural areas are afraid of English. The EET Project has helped them overcome this fear. It has been equally helpful for the teachers,” said Harsha Parekh from BCPT. Challenges have been equal however. As Parakh said, “Any change automatically meets resistance, and takes time to adapt. Acceptability, willingness to embrace this, desire to use it, recognition of this powerful tool, have all been the major challenges.”
The existence and advantages of EET are being acknowledged by the Maharashtra Education Department and municipalities. Discussions are in progress for faster and wider dissemination of the EET content throughout Maharashtra. India’s human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar is looking to introduce one curriculum for the whole of India. If that happens, the DVDs for teaching English are already available.
Just thinking of the change that can be brought about by this initiative swells our hearts with pride. Though, Parakh feels that “we are still scratching the surface. We want to take it on a massive scale.” If they are successful in getting this idea approved for the whole of India, it will indeed change the landscape of education in vernacular medium schools. And we, look forward to this revamp. Hats off to Astad Parakh, a truly humble, passionate and an inspiring individual!
