Wearing a blue shirt and tunic, with neatly parted hair styled into two pleats, the humanoid robotic named ‘Shiksha’ bears a putting resemblance to the remainder of the scholars of Sirsa village. As she begins delivering the day’s classes — from rhymers to the times of the weeks, names of various shapes, and extra — there’s a way of marvel within the eyes of every pupil as they take on this outstanding instructing expertise.
Shiksha is the brainchild of 30-year-old Akshay Mashelkar, and goals to make studying enjoyable and interactive “Rising up in a village I used to be very conscious of the restrictions of colleges in rural areas. We nonetheless use printed charts and blocks as a method of studying. There are not any scientific strategies obtainable. I wish to change that,” Akshay tells The Higher India.
A brand new strategy to study
Born and raised within the village of Sirsi in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district, Akshay grew up in a instructing family. “My mom was a instructor and from a really younger age, I knew I needed to change into an educator too. Whereas finding out, I realised that I needed to work in direction of enhancing the training system,” he says.
Following within the footsteps of his mom, Akshay grew to become a professor at a university in Sirsi after finishing his diploma in Physics. “Whereas I loved my job as a professor, I had many concepts to implement within the training system. With the work, there was no time for me to begin engaged on it although,” he says.
When the COVID pandemic hit and the training sector moved on-line, Akshay discovered himself comparatively free.
“I discovered the right alternative to work on my concepts. Probably the most vital issues that I’ve seen within the training sector, particularly in Tier-2 and -3 cities and rural areas, is the dearth of contemporary and scientific strategies of instructing. On one in all my a number of visits to colleges within the village, I noticed that lecturers had been nonetheless utilizing charts and blocks to show,” he says.
“These strategies had been used once I was at school. It’s unhappy that the world has superior a lot with good boards and whatnot, however faculties in rural areas are nonetheless caught with handmade charts. This pushed me additional to present all my consideration to bringing a neater and cheaper answer,” he provides.
It took Akshay an excellent one and half years to do the analysis. In 2022, ‘Shikha’ — a humanoid robotic able to instructing in regional languages as much as Class 4 — was prepared.
In India, the training sector has been incorporating know-how for instructing functions for a number of years. However, its implementation has primarily been noticed in city areas and costly faculties. Quite the opposite, rural faculties proceed to depend on typical instruments like charts and drawings to facilitate studying.
Furthermore, lecturers of presidency faculties are overburdened with college students. A latest Quint report states, “The variety of lecturers in authorities faculties in Karnataka has dropped from 2.08 lakh to 1.99 lakh, forcing 6,529 faculties within the state to have just one instructor. The scholar-teacher ratio is now 23:1 when in comparison with 21:1 in 2020-21.” The inclusion of such a tool may assist repair this downside.
A mixture of know-how and good ol’ jugaad
The robotic took practically Rs 2 lakh to construct, which he took out of his personal financial savings. “Some huge cash was concerned within the analysis and improvement. On common, making solely a robotic arm prices practically Rs 50,000. ‘Shiksha’ is a complete robotic with a number of options. The rationale why I used to be capable of lower prices was I used jugaad. For example, I didn’t use a mould for the physique of the robotic, as an alternative for the arms I used plastic cricket stumps that you simply discover in toy outlets,” he says.
Siksha can educate varied topics together with rhymes in Kannada and English rhymes; the times of the week; names of shapes; English alphabets, and maths subjects akin to multiplication, addition and tables.
Explaining how the robotic works, Akshay says, “The robotic has two most important playing cards — the grasp card that unlocks it, and the conventional card to begin the specified programme. The instructor has to place the grasp card on Shiksha’s hand to begin it after which they’ll use the programme playing cards to begin completely different programmes. She strikes her arms to take the cardboard and returns it as soon as scanned. She asks questions, recites poems, and even has trivia choices,” he says.
The robotic has visited over 25 faculties within the Uttar Kannada district, together with KHB College and Urdu College in Sirsi. Up to now, Shiksha can educate as much as Class 4 and has syllabus lodging throughout boards.
Sunaina Hegde, who teaches Science and Maths at Mannequin Increased Main College in Sirsi, says, “Akshay got here with Shiksha to our faculty in April. The youngsters had been so pleased to see her they usually took a better curiosity within the class. For them, Shiksha was not a robotic, however extra like a good friend because it was dressed like them too.”
“Whereas it’s nice for college kids to study, it is usually an important device to be included in faculties for lecturers. It reduces our burden, as there are fewer lecturers in authorities faculties. One thing so interactive helps kids to achieve extra curiosity in science and know-how,” she provides.
Akshay notes, “The significance of involving village kids in know-how is as a result of they’re additionally the way forward for the nation. A mean little one dwelling in an city setting, from a really younger age, is aware of find out how to function laptops and computer systems. Sadly, this isn’t true for teenagers in rural areas. When the children noticed Shiksha for the primary time, I may see the flicker of their eyes. They had been intrigued, amazed and excited.”
“My motive behind making Siksha was not solely to introduce know-how within the classroom but additionally to encourage kids to make their robots,” he says. Taking the thought ahead, Akshay additionally opened a analysis centre the place younger robotics fanatics can come and study free of charge.
“As a way to hold the price of the operations of the centre low, we hold our centre cellular. Each time we get low-cost locations to lease in Sirsi, we transfer to that place. Over 200 kids have visited the centre and plenty of are regulars now. They’ve the area to study from me and use the device obtainable within the analysis centre,” he says.
Though the primary Shiksha price him lakhs, Akshay says that he can scale back the price much more. “There have been loads of errors and loads of funding in R&D initially, however now there gained’t be. With the assistance of grants and assist from the federal government and NGOs, I can presumably scale back the price to Rs 35,000. This fashion will probably be cheaper to afford rural faculties. My solely want is to take Shiksha to each rural college in Karnataka and make studying enjoyable,” he provides.
In the event you want to know extra about his analysis centre and be part of his initiative, you may attain him at 74832 76508.
(Edited by Divya Sethu)
