Class Saathi aims to provide affordable classroom solutions

By Md. Waquar Haider

Seoul, July 6 (IANS) Class Saathi, a teaching-learning platform owned by South Korean firm TagHive has introduced new technology to schools across India to build a generation of 21st century digital learners.

It serves as an affordable classroom solution that engages every student even in remote schools that have no infrastructure such as the Internet, computers and electricity.

Unlike most education tech-solutions like Byju's, it is a complete solution that connects in-classroom learning and at-home learning. With this new teaching-learning platform teachers can know which students are weak and can recommend them specific questions to solve at home on the parents' app, Pankaj Agarwal Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Class Saathi told IANS.

TagHive, the parent company, launched the desktop version of the programme in South Korea in partnership with Sigong, one of the known tech players in Korean primary schools last month. The team is also working with partners in India to bring the mobile version of the same to Indian schools in the later half of this year.

"TagHive completed the pilot test of the mobile version of Class Saathi in schools with 1,000 plus students in Uttar Pradesh and the response has been awesome. We showed Class Saathi when PM Narendra Modi was in Korea earlier this year and showed the same to the first lady of Korea during her maiden solo visit to India last year," Agarwal said.

According to the company, the solution allows for a one-click, hassle-free attendance to be recorded for each student and for parents to be notified of the child's absence. Using Class Saathi, teachers can conduct quizzes at any time and get real-time feedback on the learning levels of the class. The data available allows them to personalise their teaching.

The pilot in Varanasi with 20 schools showed a 10 per cent increase in student attendance; a 4.9 per cent and 9.5 per cent increase in learning outcomes for Math and Science.

"The mobile version of our solution requires no Internet and can be accessed using a basic smartphone. This means that adaptive assessments can be implemented in schools across the country right away without the need for any major technological and infrastructural interventions. Some other recommendations like Parental Participation, Remediation, Tech in Education and CPD for Teachers can also be addressed through the Class Saathi clicker solution," Agarwal concluded.

(Md. Waquar Haider can be contacted at waquar.h@ians.in)