After launching a successful pilot project 'Hello Seekho', which provides free audio lessons over mobile phones to supplement the education of government school students in the country, two city-based youngsters are now seeking to expand their campaign.
Started in 2014 by Vaasvi Goyal and Kasturi Shah, then sophomore students at Princeton University, the project is now being run in 10 slum colonies in central and West Delhi besides the largest slum colony of Asia, Dharavi in Mumbai.
"Students can call a toll free number and listen to a wide variety of audio lessons that make learning fun through songs, stories and poems.
"When someone calls the toll-free number, they can navigate through various options to select the lesson they want to hear. All the lessons developed according to NCERT books are pre-recorded," says Vaasvi Goyal, co-founder, Hello, Seekho.
The duo says concern over the alarming rate of dropouts in the country and students from the financially weaker section, made the duo come up with the "out-of-the box idea."
"More than 20 per cent of students in India, drop out before class 8. Most of these students are first generation learners and lack someone at home to help them with their homework and read them storybooks.
"We want 'Hello, Seekho' to be a resource for such types of learners. Our aim is to cut across distance and socio-economic barriers and be a resource for every child who needs a support network," says Kasturi Shah.
The founders claims to have received over 40,000 phone calls since the inception in 2014.
