NGO Go Dharmic & Ed Tech Specialist Klik2learn Collaborate to Change Lives Through English Language Course
Education is the apprentice of life. Schools need to provide value based education with new innovations and ideas so that students grow into aesthetically rich, intellectually aware and integrated young people- capable of fulfilling their dreams and aspirations. Education is fundamental to any society but the gaps in educational provision across the world are devastating. A study by UNESCO estimates that 773 million young adults and children cannot read or write.
Understanding the fact that a good grasp of English is a passport to better employment opportunities, global charity organization, Go Dharmic has collaborated with digital education partner, Klik2learn, with a compassionate vision to change student’s lives with high quality English language courses that puts teachers at the heart of the solution. Klik2learn’s focus is on creating digital English language courses for self-study, combined with teacher tools and reports, to improve collaboration and learning outcomes for each student. It endeavours to help bridge the global literacy gap and provide a pathway to vocational study and employment for all learners regardless of their background or resources.
At a time when hundreds of children are being compelled to confront an uncertain future, Go Dharmic has come forward to provide them free education. Under the initiative, Klik2learn is providing the school teachers and children with licences for the Digital Learning Hub. The Hub provides collaboration tools and a full English language course, Journey 2 Basic Skills, under which students can learn English as well as basic literacy and numeracy skills using smartphones. Journey 2 Basic Skills, specifically launched to meet the needs of beginners, has also won the coveted British Council ELTon award for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in 2020.
Go Dharmic’s goal is to bring people together to create positive change in their lives and their communities. The charity is now directly working with the school teachers in aiding the Digital English language and literacy learning program, for 50 children, at Ratanpur Middle School, Gandhinagar. Founder & Chairman Hanuman Dass envisions the project will impact the lives of a stratum of society that have long been left behind in terms of opportunities and progress. He states: “Central to our philosophy is the commitment to enhance the quality of life of people from marginalized and vulnerable communities, by empowering them and catalyzing change through compassionate and sustainable solutions. Our steadfast endeavor is to create replicable and scalable models of development through an integrated approach in the true spirit of maximizing societal value for all, and making it a movement.”
Klik2learn also shares their experience of the initiative and how the partnership with GoDharmic is a fantastic opportunity in seeing its products reach learners who need them most and have fun while learning.
1.What made you come together with Go Dharmic for this project? What value did you see (in the project) as a company and educator?
Klik2learn’s mission is to help bridge the global literacy gap and provide a pathway to vocational study and employment for all learners regardless of their background or resources. Both Klik2learn and Go Dharmic share a compassionate vision to change people’s lives and once we were made aware of the impact that the school closures in India have had on the children’s education we wanted to join forces with Go Dharmic to provide our high-quality English language programme to get the children’s learning back on track. Being able to connect with their Principal and teachers was a huge advantage.
2.Why did you choose a monkey over another animal? Can you tell us more about the monkey and how the children are reacting to it, and what results they’ve achieved so far?
The purpose of the monkey is to take the children on a tour of the course so they can learn about how it works in a fun and interactive way. Monkeys are historically associated with joyfulness, knowledge and intelligence and we wanted the children to view our character as just that – a friendly guide who will lead them on their journey to learn English. The children are really engaged with the course with some children already completing over 50%. We have recently set the children the fun task of giving the monkey a name which will be announced in the coming weeks.
3.What social messaging are you hoping to reach through this particular project in this particular geographical part of the world?
When it comes to language learning however, it remains a huge challenge. What we’ve done is take a whole syllabus – the kind of learning you would get in a classroom with a teacher and present that in a structured way. Obviously it needs to be fun and engaging but it also needs to deepen your understanding of how the language works – not just teach you words and phrases. That’s why we’ve built in tools for teachers to use. They can use their expertise to guide the students just as they would in class. The students can learn at their own pace and race ahead as some of them are clearly doing in Gandhinagar, India. That’s what makes Klik2learn’s courses unique. Our Tech for good aspect comes from being able to reach learners anywhere with just a mobile phone.
4.Are you expanding this project to other areas of the world, or other parts of India?
Our current project with Go Dharmic and Rapantur Middle School has proved extremely successful and we’re looking for other opportunities to scale this initiative to much larger numbers of learners – initially in India but obviously to other countries where similar situations exist.
