Free app to teach underprivileged children

Aashna Doshi, a 17-year-old student at Aditya Birla World Academy in Mumbai created a free app called 'Learning English through Hindi' to teach underprivileged children. This project is a result of her passion for science and technology and she feels deeply towards the lack of English education in India.

This project will be reaching out to Hindi-based audiences in the entire world and she has collaborated with the Kavach NGO in order to spread awareness and start an educative movement.

"We are extremely happy to use this app and to see such young, intelligent students come up with such creative ideas to make a difference", says Bharati Trivedi, Trustee of the Kavach NGO.

What made you to create this app?

I noticed how everyone owns a phone, yet how people don't utilise it in an efficient manner. As a science and technology student, I thought the best way to learn and teach would be to combine technology and learning in one field. As a student I'm aware of the ways people like to learn and my aim is to get in reach out to as many people and underprivileged children as possible in rural areas, urban areas and via NGOs.

Who is eligible to use this app?

Anybody with a Hindi background is eligible to use this app as it entails everything right for basic conversation to job interviews, restaurant manners, etc. Everyday users can continue as a guest, however and a special log-in is available for NGOs. The log-in will target school children and will be different from simply a video as every child will have a personal log-in where they will be able to track their progress. Moreover, this progress can be monitored via a special login for teachers. The app will have inbuilt video modules which are interactive and will engage the user.

There are many sources to learn English, so why should students use this app ?

While there are various textbooks available, YouTube videos online etc. there is no guarantee of understanding. There is also direct communication with professionals through this app as users can send in their questions and get quick responses in case they have questions. Also, the log in feature makes it so easy for NGOs to track their children and to check their level of comprehension through the tracking system.

This would be impossible simply on paper or through a YouTube video. The creators of the videos are professionals in the field who have been working with 10-20 years of experience and so the content is of top quality. Moreover, Indians are often marked for their inability to comprehend English and therefore it is often embarrassing for someone to enroll in classes. With an app you can do it at the comfort of your own home and have the teacher come to you.

It's a non-commercial app, something extremely rare nowadays. This gives free accessibility to each and everyone who owns an android. Moreover, there are millions of apps across the world but close to none that teach English through the language of Hindi. It takes an Indian heart and Indian mindset to develop something like this and thus this is personalized for the benefit of our nation.