Schools must seize this opportunity to not just cope, but improve effective teaching-learning best practices: Divya Lal

ASMA ‘India’s Top 20 Women Leaders in Education 2020’, powered by UniApply was held on 27th November 2020 under the theme ‘The Trailblazing Women Leaders in Indian Education’.

The virtual event and award ceremony celebrated the success stories, contributions and achievements of women leaders in the field of education. The event also saw engaging panel discussions on various topics pertaining to women’s leadership in education.

We spoke to Divya Lal, Founder & MD, Fliplearn, who was named the ‘Visionary Leader in Education 2020’ as she shared her thoughts on winning the award.

She also spoke about how EdTech tools can be leveraged to provide personalised learning experiences, using technology in the face of challenges of the pandemic and the impact of NEP 2020 on school education.

Edited excerpts:

Congratulations on winning ASMA ‘India’s Top 20 Women Leaders in Education 2020- Visionary Leader in Education 2020’ award. Could you share your thoughts on winning the award?

It is indeed encouraging and deeply motivating to be recognized for one’s work. And if that work also happened to one’s life-long passion as technology-led education has been for me personally, it is doubly satisfying.

Winning the ASMA ‘India’s Top 20 Women Leaders in Education 2020- Visionary Leader in Education 2020’ award fills me with the hope that this win may motivate many young budding, especially women entrepreneurs, who will be encouraged to work in the all-important education sector – the backbone of every country.

How do you think schools can utilise technology to face the challenges of the pandemic?

The pandemic has indeed accelerated the adoption of technology in school education space enabling them to provide uninterrupted learning to students during lockdown times! Schools, while mostly being cognizant of its benefits, were slow in EdTech adoption.

Now they are seeing it as an imperative. Schools must seize this opportunity to not just cope, but improve and accelerate effective teaching-learning best practices in their institutions. Digital learning, after all, allows for easier learning from a subject expert, independent of location, students can get access to the right content in the right form, the students can getting personalized individual attention from the mentor/teachers or experts while teachers can choose from a host of exciting digital tools and high-quality content that allow them to teach and assess and intervene effectively leading to improved outcomes.

How can educational institutions leverage EdTech tools to create more personalised learning experiences?

Technology, effectively leveraged can allow for personalised learning in ways that would be challenging in traditional systems. Fliplearn for example is an extremely user-friendly e-learning platform and students get a personalized learning experience as it allows the student to learn at their own individual pace. Individualised attention is also ensured since Fliplearn automates the student performance monitoring for teachers, making it easier and less complex for both teachers and the school management to understand every student better and plan for their continuous improvement respectively.

Teachers can leverage a host of intuitive tools to create personalized experiences for students, since digital tools can give them live feedback on student learning, allowing the teachers timely intervention, leading to enhanced learning outcomes. Also, it makes learning easy as it has an integrated home-classroom learning experience, where students can continue to learn at their own pace.

How do you think NEP 2020 will impact the early childhood and school education sector?

While the NEP focuses on multiple aspects with potential to impact/improve the early and school education space, including the need for early childhood care, inclusive education and revamping of the current curriculum, a common thread that runs through the policy is the interplay of education and technology. This is indeed heartening for an EdTech organization like Fliplearn which is focused on its mission to provide affordable and personalized online learning solutions to schools and students across the country.

It is a no-brainer that the NEP and its many progressive provisions and guidance will have a positive and lasting impact on school education. The pandemic times have already demonstrated how virtual learning can come in handy when brick and mortar learning experiences are not possible. It can also help schools not just to cope but improve teaching-learning processes. For example, it can help with a key provision of NEP 2020 – shift focus from “rote learning” to “active learning” and help with ‘personalised’ learning for each student etc.

Introduction of the policy at this critical juncture is prescient, as it details the vision of education for future generations and will be a quintessential tool towards building an ‘Aatma Nirbhar’ India.

What new initiatives does Fliplearn have planned for the coming year?

Fliplearn is one of the fastest-growing learning platforms in India and currently, has over 3 lakh students, 15 thousand teachers, and 300 schools on- board using it. We aim to expand our user base to 5 Lakh students, and 500 schools by March 2021. We are committed to providing affordable and personalized online learning solutions to schools and students across the country.

Our mission is to reach out to every student across the country regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds and to make e-learning more affordable. We would like to work closely with policymakers in fulfilling this mission.