Companies including Larsen & Toubro, P&G India, Dell Technologies, Mphasis, Infosys and HUL are, through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, rolling out smart classrooms and learning centres for the underprivileged; fixing learning gaps to enable improved outcomes; enhancing educational infrastructure; training teachers in techno-pedagogy; and driving digital inclusion.
L&T’s STEM Education programme ‘Engineering Futures’, running in government and resource-poor trust-run schools, equips students with knowledge and skills in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The programme has reached 38,545 students from 6th-8th grades across 205 schools and 713 teachers were trained in techno-pedagogy.
Mabel Abraham, Head – CSR, L&T, says they plan to scale up by introducing the programme to schools around L&T campuses pan-India and by integrating teachers’ training through government training institutes.
P&G’s flagship community initiative Shiksha, which has impacted over 3.5 million children so far, aims to remedy learning gaps in children by enhancing educational infra and empowering marginalised and underserved communities through education.
“We are strengthening impact by forging newer and deeper partnerships” said Enakshee Deva, Head – CSR, P&G India.
Replicating successful models
“We are also leveraging innovative technology and solidifying the core programmes. We continue to collaborate with NGOs, government authorities, and communities to impact more and more children – building programmes with a long-term vision,” said P&G India’s Deva.
Mphasis CHRO Ayaskant Sarangi said they are scaling up education and skilling initiatives by identifying successful models and supporting their implementation in different states/aspirational districts. By collaborating with organisations with proven expertise in pedagogy, Mphasis wants to replicate successful models, expand partnerships, and reach a larger number of school students.
Edtech company Educational Initiatives (Ei) says it is seeing rising interest from corporates who have been engaged in education and now are keen to evaluate impactful and effective projects and improve learning outcomes.
Ei’s personalised learning platform, Mindspark, is being offered to over 450,000 children in 500 government schools and 7,500 after-school centres across 17 states in English and nine other Indian languages. Mindspark is being implemented with the support of 20+ partners including 6+ CSR/ Corporate Foundations – among them P&G, Amazon, Cognizant, and Kotak Education Foundation, said Pranav Kothari, CEO, Ei.
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