About Us

Wings of School is an after-school learning support and vocational training program in rural Sundarban areas of West Bengal. The project is a collaborative effort by a group of academics from several institutions across the world (IIM Bangalore, University of New South Wales, Cardiff University, George Washington University, Virginia Tech and Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability), piloted in Kanaknagar SD high school in the Hingalganj area of Sundarbans in 2022 March.

In this project, we have two main goals: (1) to assess learning loss due to school closure and develop blended learning program to support recovery of core skills for rural students and (2) to develop a long term support system with after-school study programs, vocational training, and career guidance in a region where a majority of the students are first-generation learners, with parents employed as migrant workers further limiting after-school adult supervision and support.

To implement this program in this remote area, we are building a customized toto equipped with digital devices that can extend the experience (reach) of digital classrooms to remote regions. The primary mode of learning will be offline recorded material and in-person teaching by local teachers along with tutorial support from ex-students of the school. This will be supported by online virtual classes whenever possible.

Downstream Social Impact

The program is targeted towards underdeveloped blocks of the country where local population largely comprises of underprivileged children, many from SC/ ST/ minority communities, and the education system suffers from a number of longer term developmental issues such as poor teacher-to-student ratio particularly in core science subjects, very limited digital access (both in terms of devices and network as well as affordability of internet) and lack of awareness and information gap regarding career opportunities. These longer-term developmental issues have deteriorated further during past two years due to prolonged school closures due to the pandemic. The Road Scholarz Report on School Education, September 2021 finds that “In rural areas only 8% of sample children are studying online regularly, 37% are not studying at all, and about half are unable to read more than a few words.” In this program, we plan to build a blended learning program in collaboration with local teachers to address the short-term issue of learning loss due to the pandemic with a longer term vision of incorporating engaging learning tools and assessment activities in a comprehensive after-school study program. We’re launching the program in December 2021 for students in class V-VIII in Sandel Bill gram panchayat of Hingalganj area and plan to run the program for at least three years till December 2024 adding one more class of students every year. Our first graduating (from class X) cohort will be in 2024. We are developing a structured and comprehensive core-skills assessment/evaluation program throughout the time period to monitor progress of students during this trial run of the project.

The project has a number of innovations to respond to various challenges: 1. The idea of a customized toto is to enable digital classrooms to reach remote regions where roads are often not suitable for larger vehicles and where schools for students in class V-VIII are still closed. 2. In order to respond to limited digital access issue, we plan to use portable digital devices with offline recorded material while also employing local teachers and ex-students to support interactive activity for students. This also allows us to provide some employment opportunities to local educated youth, and is a sustainable in the long run.

The project is easily scalable and multi-purpose. The digital material that we are developing for the project will be open source and can be replicated in multiple locations. Also, the vehicles that we are designing are multi-purpose, for example, they will be equipped with oxygen cylinders and first-aid kits to act as ambulances in case of emergencies, and also can be used as mobile exhibition stall for local handicraft designed by self-help groups comprising ex-students.

With active involvement of scholars, thinkers and social workers all across the country and the world in rural education via mobile digital classrooms, we strongly believe that Wings Of School can help students spread their wings of imagination to build better lives for themselves and a better India for all of us.