According to the ASER 2018 report, although over 95% of children in India are enrolled in school, many students face significant learning gaps. Only a quarter of Indian schoolchildren ages 8-9 can read and do math at grade level. Pehla Apps is a suite of three educational apps (Pehla School, Pehla Class, and Simple Class) based on award-winning Global Learning XPRIZE technology. Through Pehla Apps, we seek to reach the 250 million underserved schoolchildren in India, offering fun, interactive lessons in English, Hindi, Urdu, and Bangla.
Pehla Apps are available for free on Google Play and GitHub.
In 2014, the Global Learning XPRIZE launched a $15 million education technology prize. Funded by Elon Musk, the Global Learning XPRIZE challenged participants to develop solutions that enable children to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic within 15 months. Out of the initial pool of nearly 200 applicants, XPRIZE selected five finalists (Kitkit School, onecourse, Chimple, CCI, RoboTutor) to receive $1 million in development funding.
We worked with Global Learning XPRIZE to validate the finalists’ software, ensuring that it is truly open source. To promote use of the applications, we partnered with leading education nonprofits in India. We also provide technical expertise and support to the nonprofits, advancing their missions.
Rajeev Agarwal