Brinda Poornapragna is the articulate Bengaluru-based CEO of a not for profit organisation called eVidyaloka (estb. 2011. headcount: 75) which leverages technology to provide supplementary education in eight vernacular languages to class V-X government school children in rural and remote corners of India supported by a network of 6,340 global teacher-volunteers and an ecosystem of local community partners.

Over the past 13 years, eVidyaloka’s TTT (teach through television) program in multiple languages (Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Oriya, Kannada, Marathi) has impacted 1.89 lakh students enrolled in 734 government schools across 17 states. 

Newspeg. In April, Brinda launched the EmpowerEd program in three states — Assam, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh — designed to promote holistic development and foster digital literacy among class VI-IX girl students in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas.

History. A postgrad in computer science engineering from Bangalore University with close to three decades of corporate experience in blue-chip companies (JP Morgan, Bank of Nova Scotia, Hewlett Packard, ANZ, Capgemini), Brinda took a sabbatical in 2018 to explore her teaching passion and invested substantial time in teacher certification. Her transformative journey as a teacher began at an ashram residential school near Uttarkashi. Inspired by her “gadgets-free” six-month stint at the school far away from civilisation, she returned to Bengaluru and formally resigned from Capgemini in 2019 driven by a deep desire to educate rural children. The same year, she accepted the role of CEO of eVidyaloka whose mission matched her true calling. 

Direct talk. “Our model addresses the top two challenges confronting education in rural India – teacher shortage and teaching quality. Our digital classrooms enabled by large screen monitors, webcams, mics, speakers, and reliable internet connectivity are revolutionizing education in remote locations by connecting passionate volunteer-teachers with rural students. Our passionate volunteers incorporate real-world applications into their lessons, making learning far more meaningful. Live sessions conducted in students’ vernacular boost engagement in the classroom and help build stronger relationships. Age-appropriate learning is further enriched by co-scholastic activities such as the National Student Innovation Challenge, Edge, Joy of Reading, and foundation of AI — that nurture students’ creative, innovative and problem-solving skills,” says Brinda.

“Our highly dependable local community partners ensure regular attendance of government school children by making physical visits to the homes of absconders. Our teacher-volunteers also chip in with periodic parent teacher meetings, and awareness programs of opportunities and challenges faced by their communities. Moreover, we have designed a system through which we measure learning outcomes of children on a monthly basis,” she adds.  

Future plans. Encouraged by improving attendance and learning outcomes of rural children, Brinda plans to extend the digital classrooms program countrywide. “Over the next five years, we aim to support over 2,000 government schools with digital classrooms, build stronger ties with local communities and onboard more global volunteers while leveraging cutting-edge technology to enhance learning outcomes of rural learners,” says Brinda.

Wind beneath your wings!

Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)