This was the first year that the awards, now in their fifth year, were extended to seven South Asian countries. For a complete list of the Manthan awards, which were also supported by Mint and the government of India’s Centre for e-Governance this year, visit manthanaward.org.
Math becomes fun via satellite
Category: e-Content for Learning & Education
Winner: Centre for Child Development & Disabilities, Bangalore
Every morning, Sumana Sumuk walks into a room in Bangalore to teach mathematics to 420 children, none of whom are actually in the room. They’re in 14 schools across rural Karnataka, beamed into Sumuk’s classroom daily via satellite for 60 minutes, so that she can show them that math doesn’t have to be difficult, and that it’s no reason to leave school.
Two years ago, when Nandini Mundkur participated in a survey of Karnataka schools, she discovered that the dropout rate in rural areas was abnormally high: between 40% and 50%.
Empowerment: Screen grabs of some of the winning entries—from advice on cancer to medical training.
“The reason, we discovered, was that the students were just not able to deal with the maths lessons,” says Mundkur, the director of the Centre for Child Development and Disabilities.
When she mentioned her concerns at a dinner, she was taken aback when someone offered the satellite time. It was to be the start of a programme titled: Learning is Fun. Mundkur emphasizes that Sumuk’s lessons complement the school curriculum. “We want to make the learning process enjoyable, so that the kids aren’t daunted by the subject,” she says.
Sumuk recently conducted a World Cup of Book Cricket for her wards.
Sumuk’s classroom consists of a video camera and a large screen with a view of one of her 14 classrooms. There is a “hand-raise” facility, so she can switch to that particular classroom.
“Just to start my day looking at these kids, all eager to learn something, is completely worth it,” says Sumuk.
Medical training from a box
Category: e-Content for Learning & Education
Winner: MEdRC EduTech, Hyderabad
On a television screen at the MEdRC stall at the Manthan conclave, a man is intently studying a bone, a femur, judging by its appearance. He rotates it meditatively this way and that, and then he turns to a detailed, three-dimensional schematic of the bone on his computer. That schematic is one minuscule element of MEdRC’s hugely ambitious project—to digitise and virtually deliver the theory component of the entire Indian undergraduate medical curriculum.
“We found that medical lecturers spend 70% of their time just delivering the same didactic facts over and over,” says Neeraj Raj. “By digitising these lectures, we can reverse the figures; students can now use that same 70% of their time to practise their skills.”