The pandemic left the entire Education sector exacerbated and widened the gaps in access to quality education. With schools being closed the entire learning process took a pause. As an immediate action, the concept of education changed overnight and digital learning emerged as an indispensable resource for education.

Schools were making a shift from the conventional chalk-talk teaching model to digital learning and adapting several changes to combat the new normal. Moreover, teachers and School Leaders had to unlearn and learn a lot during this pandemic. School leaders play a vital role in initiating and sustaining and addressing these changes, system-wide. They are the key to encouraging various kinds of educational reforms and help in mobilising the energy and capacities of teachers.

To support these leaders, ShikshaLokam has been catalysing and helping in combating these changes and continuing the process of learning in children.

In Andhra Pradesh, the School Education Department came up with an initiative towards converting all the government schools to English medium instructions. With this purpose, the Department collaborated with ShikshaLokam to launch a self-learning program for teachers called the Comprehensive Learning Enhancement Programme (CLEP).

This program was designed for the capacity building of all teachers of government school, municipal and aided schools across the 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh. The training program included live webinar series, self-assessment tests, relevant learning materials (both online and offline) through the Abhyasa application, offline videos and online tests. The program witnessed an involvement of over 1,84,000 teachers out of which around 1,03,000 were using the Abhyasa app.

One of the largest districts of Karnataka, Tumkur also saw a massive change. ShikshaLokam along with a collective of CSOs- Mantra, Caring with colour and Indian literacy Project facilitated training and capacity building of different stakeholders (CRPs, teachers, school leaders and other officials). Supporting the District Institute for Education and Training (DIET) in this endeavour and using the platform for over 5000 stakeholders, this program is moving towards a long term district transformation program now. Apart from that, ShikshaLokam also facilitated Micro Innovation awards that recognised the best practices within school leaders of Andhra Pradesh’s social welfare through our platform during COVID.

ShikshaLokam has also been working hand in hand with the Punjab’s Department of Education towards the systemic transformation of the education system. With children being confined to their homes, the role of parents in their education reverberated more than ever. To support learning for their children, these parents were engaged in regular Virtual PTMs. In Punjab, more than 25 lakh parents were reached where the objective was for teachers to understand their challenges and plan for productive learning practices at home. The data was recorded on ShikshaLokam’s Samiksha (Darpan) application.

Moreover, to bring the state leaders’ focus back on developing the capacity of the instructional leaders so that they can strengthen the teacher – child interactions, the Energized Professional Development Program in Punjab was conceptualised. Aiming at continuous improvement in teaching-learning, these instructional leaders are experiencing and learning about facilitation and creating participatory spaces. From co-creating learning courses for teachers to conceptualising the Teachers Orientation Program (TOP), our instructional leaders are feeling confident to reach out to teachers over the next 3 months leveraging DIKSHA.

Thus, ShikshaLokam has continuously been enabling educational leaders to lead improvements, create and shape their own professional development journey amid all the ongoing crisis.