Gyan (Knowledge) Labs
A venture to improve human resource value in India by empowering school students through hands-on exposure & practical experimentation.
About You
About You
First Name
Priyadeep
Last Name
Sinha
Twitter URL
https://twitter.com/#!/PriyadeepSinha
Facebook URL
About Your Organization
Organization Name
ADD-on-GYAN Educational Services Pvt. Ltd
Organization Website
Organization Country
India
Country where this project is creating social impact
India
Is your organization a
Business
Your role in Education
Administrator, Coach, Resource Officer, Social Worker.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Private (tuition-based)
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Established (past the previous stages and has demonstrated success)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
The Education System in India is currently a 40 billion US$ industry, 50% of which is constituted by K-12 segment. There are more than 2.3 million schools in India. Yet in 2004 out of 23 million school eligible children, 13 million drop out between Grades 1 - 10. Only 25% of graduates in India are employable. There is acute shortage of 83million skilled workforce in a country having the largest pool of young people. Even after 16 years of rigorous studies, graduates need to be trained from the very basic in a company before adding to the HR.
The education system in India is dominated by ‘rote learning’. Examination is valued more than education. Practical learning begins in grades 9 and 10, whereas the actual concept building classes from 3rd to 8th are devoid of practical training.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
We are a business venture to improve human resource value in India by empowering school students through hands-on exposure,practical experimenting and career education via an indigenous kinesthetic concept lab - Gyan Labs. There are more than 500 experiments for grades 3 - 10. Every kit is fully equipped to conduct the experiment along with a Practical Gyan manual.
Gyan Meter, our Learning Measurement System at Gyan Labs, is India’s first unique indigenously built assessment and evaluation system for labs. The evaluation is based on four different parameters.
The Practical Gyan manual is designed in an interactive manner that talks to students as if it is a story and intrigues them beyond measure which helps connect to the exercise.
Moreover, we are setting up free Community Gyan Labs for the underprivileged students in low resource schools which will be run with portion of the revenue generated at regular Gyan Labs. We also provide fee waivers to economically backward students.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
I think I would be able to explain the model best through a real example. We started our 1st Gyan Lab in Madhava Kripa School in Manipal in June, 2011. Here, we gave students a 15 experiment curriculum in Science (our 1st unit) for the entire academic year dealing with the most difficult science topics such as electricity, magnetism and optics for grades 6 - 9. We had monthly sessions where the students came to the Lab, answered Pre-experiment Test, conducted their experiment/s and finally answered Post-experiment Test. Giving an instance, a Grade 9 student was unable to completely understand how does a DC Motor work even though the school has ICT enabled classrooms but after he did the experiment at Gyan Labs, not only did he understand the concept to the core he also helped a few of his friends understand the same. Coming to our manual, students love reading them as they have a story component to the same. Now what we charge these students for 15 such sessions is a mere Rs 250. Th point of keeping 20% experiments beyond syllabus helps a child learn about advanced and innovative things happening around them. The rest 80% curriculum based experiments are designed to help them understand their course topics. Along with this students get talks on Career Guidance, sessions on Modern Day Innovation and Booklets on exercises that they can do at their homes. We charged an annual fee from these students of Rs 300 for these 15 sessions. For the academic year, we have signed up 2 more schools so far and are talking to 3 more which would bring our student base to 1500+.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
The current market that we serve is a considerably new one. Direct competitors include Zee's Braincafe and NextLabs by Next education. Other indirect competitors include iDiscoveri and Butterfly Fields. The practice based learning sector is a growing sector with massive potential. What separates us from the competition is mainly the Pricing Factor, our Evaluation System and Customized products. Our prices are less than half of what is charged by any competitor. Gyan Meter, our indigenous Evaluation System is the 1st of its kind in India and not competed by any other organization. Our product range is extremely extensive and even then we make customized experiments on our customers' requests. We also let them choose the experiments that they wish to purchase/lease and charge accordingly.
Now that you have thought out your entry, help us pitch it.
Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
A venture to improve human resource value in India by empowering school students through hands-on exposure & practical experimentation.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
Gyan Labs helps students visualize tough concepts with genuine ease and evaluate their performance using Gyan Meter for optimized output
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
Our solution has been used by around 300 students at Madhava Kripa School in Manipal. In one statement, students love our sessions. We have conducted 15 experiments per grade in the previous academic year 2011-12 which have helped students gain immense confidence in the way they think, decide and perform. They have been able to overcome their most feared topics in sciences just because of the fact that we have been encouraging them to perform. At Gyan Labs, a broken beaker means a hard working, innovative kid. Students are given full freedom to try out their experiments in new ways - ways they feel might work and in the process, make them little scientists. It is due to our program that students at Madhava Kripa have stopped fearing and started enjoying science. Plus, our additional sessions on higher education, entrepreneurship and technology have helped them realize the potential the world, especially India, has.
In all, it was a platform where those students could think for 'real'
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
This upcoming academic year, 2012-13, we are slated to start Gyan (Knowledge) Labs in atleast 4 - 5 different schools (4 schools are confirmed) with a total combined strength of 2500 students. The program has grown from a mere 60 practical exercises to having over 300 experiments and practicals in Science and Math. We are also currently working on our Social Science Lab.
So it is our firm belief that over the next 3 years, we would be able to develop over 1000 intuitive exercises in hands-on activities. We also believe that we would be able to start Gyan Lab program in atleast 50 schools by 2015-16 with a student strength of over 10000. We have also started a R&D Facility with the aim to develop our own experiments with IP which would make our program unique and most useful for students.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Start Gyan Lab successfully in 5 schools and run them smoothly for 2012-13 and get 25 more schools for 2013-14
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Complete assembly, delivery and testing of over 1000 kits to be delivered to atleast 4 existing clients by May, 2012
Task 2
Run the Lab Sessions successfully through our Lab Coaches with positive results i.e. intuitively growing students
Task 3
Market Gyan Lab with added strength and sign contracts with atleast 25 schools to start the program in those schools in 2013-14
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Start Gyan Labs in 25 schools successfully with 25% of experiments being IPRs creating the most unique educational program
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Complete assembly, delivery and testing of over 10000 kits and hire a teaching staff of over 30 exceptional educators
Task 2
Create over 200 unique educational experiments and practicals - creating a strong presence being one its kind in India
Task 3
Deliver the most holistic and complete study content to complement the experiments so as to initiate 'real' learning
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]
Having done my schooling from some of the best schools in India, I had the opportunity to great education. However, I always felt a need to be able to visualize what I was reading. I could not understand convex, concave lenses, DC motors, magnetism and electricity at all by reading the course content and the school laboratory was simply a wastage of time with inadequate resources. Even my grade 12 project submission was bought from the market as I was unable to make a burglar alarm! College was not much different
So, inadequacy in education system in India gave me the idea of supplementing school education with correct dosage of practical learning. I took this idea to 2 of my friends and Gyan Lab was born while I was still in college making me the 1st student entrepreneur of Manipal University. When I told my parents about the same, they supported me outright. Sonali and Abhash have been the best co-founders and now that I am a graduate I am able to work full time here living my dream
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
So far, we do not have any partnerships. Although we are looking to be able to get the Pearson Group of schools to agree to put Gyan Labs in their schools as we are already in 2 of their schools (from 2012-13). We also have a good relationship with our vendors who would continue to provide us with world class materials and even help us develop our own IP experiments and practical exercises.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
While we are slowing achieving a good team, the real areas which we need to address is the top level management team at ADD-on-GYAN. We would be looking to hire a COO and Marketing Head with a good experience in the field which is one of our primary priorities. We also wish to hire 1 Analyst and 2 - 3 Geeks (for R&D work) which would complete our team which presently has a staff of three - CEO, Resource Management Head and a Junior Manager.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
A real help which we could do with is the help of a resourceful person (with a good deal of contact in educational world) to help us better our product and educate us to take the same to prospective clients. An area where we are a little weak is Marketing and Sales and any help there would definitely be useful.
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