Asmita Maurya
Kiran Meena, Co-founder & Head of Content, SchoolMyKids.com says India is ready to adopt educational technologies and there is no longer a hesitancy
Tell us how the SchoolMyKids.com platform works and what is the engagement ratio of children and parents?
We are a leading Parenting, Kids Engagement, and School Discovery Platform. More than 1.2 million parents visit our platform every month to seek information on schools, ratings & reviews, and parenting tips. The aim of the platform is to enable parents to provide the best education to their children with comprehensive information sharing.
Our engagement ratio is rather good with high pages/session visits and a low bounce rate. The number of new visitors is continually increasing. It is a global phenomenon that parents take the lead in providing the best education and upbringing to their children. Therefore, most visits to the platform are initiated by parents.
Ms KIRAN MEENA
Co-founder &
Head of Content
SchoolMyKids.com
Significantly, we are finding increasing number of children taking the initiative with respect to using the practice worksheets on our platform.
How is the response for ‘Worksheets’ for preprimary wards so far?
We received excellent traction on worksheets and are witnessing more than 5,000 downloads every day. The worksheets cover learnings for preschool, kindergarten, and Grade 1 to 3 and help them learn and practice concepts related to Math, Science, English, Hindi, and Art & Craft. The website allows 10 free download of different worksheets per day and 100 per month. These worksheets act as a one-stop platform, to provide personalised and engaging learning experiences. Students across regions are accessing enriched content with specific focus on areas of improvement. The most popular worksheets on our platform are:
- Hindi Letter Tracing
- English Letter Tracing both lowercase and uppercase
- Colouring Pages – Fruits and cartoon characters
- Matching objects
- Identifying different objects
What made you navigate to the education sector when you could have been a successful artist? Education and helping parents raise their kids to the best that they can gives me the same artistic anchor along with life purpose. Analogous to my artistic process, bringing up children is also a creative process, and SchoolMyKids.com platform is enabling me to help shape thousands of children globally. Thus, the artistic endeavour continues – where one is about shaping live bundles of joy, the other is about bringing joy to live audiences.
The platform has ‘Arts & Crafts ideas’ under activities section, how has been the experience of kids in using the platform?
The ‘Arts & Crafts ideas’ section has been tremendously popular; with parents often writing in with their feedback. Parents have shared pictures of their child’s efforts along with suggestions / ideas for topics that can be taken up in the future. We have also made a conscious effort to use a diverse set of easily available materials in the activities to cater to different parenting needs. Some of the most popular ‘Arts & Crafts ideas’ activities have been:
- DIY Animals using materials available at home
- Coloring animals or cartoon characters, especially kids upto age 5
- Beads
- Multi Colour Dot Painting
What core values do you think parents and school community should instil in early years of kids? Academic and experiential education are two equally important aspects of a child’s upbringing. Schools, parents and society have different and significant roles in imparting these. While academic education can enhance the possibility of a successful career, it is experiential education that perhaps is a better barometer of leading a fulfilling life. Honesty, Accountability, Respect, Empathy, and Curiosity form the five pillars of experiential education for a fulfilling life. Parents and school are the institution that set the parameters for these in a child’s life. However, it is the society that tempers these parameters in to the child’s value system by testing the resolve and teaching valuable life lessons.
What is your take on the budget 2022?
The budget 2022 has a clear and welcome focus on digital delivery of education. This is entirely in line with our own education model. With NEP implementation fast approaching and schools now about to physically restart classes, the digital delivery of education will play an addendum and not the main role in child’s education – as it should be. The plan to implement one class, one TV channel system will go a long way in ensuring that children in the furthest reaches of the country are not deprived of quality teaching despite future impediments.
Do you think the system falls short in accommodating women teachers at the higher positions?
Last year the number of women teachers in Indian schooling system finally exceeded that of men. In rural India however, the representation of women teachers still remains low. Currently, more women teachers teach the primary grades (~20.6 lakh) compared to men (~16 lakh). In the secondary and higher secondary grades men teachers outnumber women teachers. There is a stereotypical belief that women teachers are not able to manage senior grades as these students are more mischievous and difficult to discipline. It is also believed that women are not as proficient in STEM subjects. The nurturing capability of women also goes against professional advancement of women teachers to senior grades, as they are persisted with for the primary section compared to men.
What strategies do you think are required to integrate educational technology with the mainstream schooling system in India?
India is no longer averse to educational technologies. The virtual classrooms during the pandemic have also reduced the technological hesitancy. Restart of physical classes will now be a test of integration of these virtual and physical methodologies. Nevertheless, the ‘have’ and ‘have-nots’ divide will remain and take time to cross. Significantly for most private schools, technological advancement of schooling methodologies allows them to move up the premium ladder. This raised platform at higher fee also forces them to stay abreast of advancing technology. Fortunately, we can expect a rising tide impact on other schools and the governments digital push will surely accelerate the process.
Parents are still reluctant to send their kids to school amidst the third wave of pandemic, what parenting skills should they adopt to make children learning effective at home holistically?
While parents have been reluctant to send their kids to school, the two years of psychological trauma on kids have also given a pause to their thinking. The relatively lesser impact of the latest COVID virus variant has already prompted many private schools to issue dates of restart. So, while parents may wait for schools to re-start their focus should be on being patient with their children who are increasingly becoming easily irritable and non-compromising in their behaviour.
