How virtual schools are engaging 100,000 students at EuroKids International
Prajodh Rajan, Cofounder & Group CEO, EuroKids International shares that significant investments in creating digital assets has enabled continuous engagement with 100,000 students across the chain of schools, during the nationwide lockdown
EuroKids International, India’s leading early childhood education company, has a portfolio of six brands – EuroKids Pre-School, Kangaroo Kids Pre-School, EuroKids DayCare, EuroSchool and Billabong High International. Major investments in technology, has enabled the company to continue engagement with its 100,000 students across the chain of schools, during the lockdowns. “As a responsible educational organisation, we are mindful of our duties towards the next generation at all times, and particularly during times like these. We use technology and digital platforms to enable and enhance the learning experience for our students. Even during the lockdown, our virtual schools are engaging with students,” says Prajodh Rajan, Cofounder & Group CEO, EuroKids International, further stating that in addition to academic and non-academic learning engagements, they have rolled out programmes to help children stay positive during the lockdown phase.
Interestingly, EuroKids has also devised tools to help the parents. “For instance, we have rolled out age-appropriate, fun-based tutorials for our pre-school parents to help them engage with their children at home,” shares Rajan.
Given the need to reduce screen time for children, EuroKids has introduced modules that parents can take their children through while staying at home. The teachers have created concept-based videos as additional resources that parents can use with their children.
Video conference classes have begun for the K-12 children and the new academic year has started. “We have used our proprietary Learning Management System (LMS) Argus and Billabox to share digital textbooks, Q&A sessions and home assignments with the students. These apps also provide students with a platform for constructive project-based discussion and collaboration online,” informs Rajan. The apps –Bilabox and Argus have been fortified to ensure that they are able to take the virtual classes and the new academic year ahead. At the K-12 schools – EuroSchool & Billabong High, live online classes are being supplemented with digital textbooks, Q&A sessions and home assignments over to the app.
“At EuroKids Group, the safety and wellbeing of our students is always our top-most priority. As we already were offering blended learning, we have been geared for virtual learning. Once the lockdown was announced, we were able to quickly strengthen our technology to take up classes online with all our students nationally,” points out Rajan.
He acknowledges that while a lot of schools across the country have embraced digital learning in some form or other, the large-scale adoption has been hastened by Covid-19. According to Rajan, regardless of the circumstances, the larger objective of the new digitally-enabled learning programs is to create a seamless experience and enable students to keep pace with their academic and non-academic milestones. “With the start of the new academic season, these programs are bringing great relief to parents, anxious and concerned about their child’s educational progress as schools remain shut across the country due to the pandemic,” he says.
Rajan believes that in the future, augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) will be the next big enablers for education. He explains that the use of AR in classrooms will greatly change the way that children engage and interact since they can see and experience what they are learning. While the use of AI in education will enable personalised learning for each student, in addition to helping educators keep track of a learner’s progress.
EuroKids is working on new tech-enabled learning methodologies like AR and gamification. “Our efforts are ongoing in this direction, as we intend to integrate simulation based learning in the near future for some of the higher classes,” says Rajan, adding that this will enable and improve seamless exchange of knowledge. “Engagement and collaboration would be key to creating an education ecosystem of the future,” he affirms.
