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Discover and Empower Student Innovators - DESI in public schools

place India + 3 more

Nurture problem-solving capacity in the next generation of students in India’s underserved schools

Future-readiness (i.e creativity, innovation & problem solving) is currently not prioritized but is essential for students’ success as thriving individuals and meaningful contributors to their surroundings. Over the course of our intervention, we build these skills that are core to inculcating problem solving capacity. We work with government institutions for foundational and advanced programs.

Shortlisted

Overview

HundrED shortlisted this innovation

HundrED has shortlisted this innovation to one of its innovation collections. The information on this page has been checked by HundrED.

Web presence

2017

Established

600K

Children

3

Countries
Target group
Students upper
Updated
May 2024
At a systemic level, we want Problem Solving and Innovation to be a part of the school curriculum and being taught actively in all the schools. This would nurture the Problem Solving abilities in students and contribute to a more engaged workforce in the future.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

Problem-solving, creativity and innovation are crucial skills and abilities which our students need to develop to thrive in this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. The OECD Report, the pandemic and India’s own National Education Policy recognize that while these skills are important, they are not prioritized by our schools. We developed a scalable model to address this crucial need.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

Through our foundational programs based on Human Centred Design (Design Thinking), we enable the students to work on ideas of their choice, by practising important Problem Solving skills and mindsets. Over the course of our intervention (25 hours spread across the year), we build these skills that are core to inculcating problem solving capacity. Through bootcamps and mentorship, they turn these solutions into prototypes that are showcased to their peers and members from their community. To realise this, we run programs that are developed for in-person and online deployment.
Since our inception 6 years ago, we have reached more than 400,000 students, generating over 100,000 ideas

The advanced programs encourage select students to further develop their prototypes into products that can bring about a change in the lives of people around them. We focus on advanced skills and mindsets and connect the students with experts from the field to mentor them further.

How has it been spreading?

Our model has an in person and a hybrid model of intervention. The in-person model started with a pilot in 2 schools in 2017 and is presently active in 74 schools in Telangana, India. This has been in partnership with the Dept of Social and Tribal Welfare, Government of Telangana. The hybrid model was piloted in 4000 schools in 2020 and has currently been implemented in over 41,000 schools, reaching more than 500,000 students in three countries. This program is in partnership with YuWaah, state governments and the Central Government’s Atal Innovation Mission in India and with UNICEF and the Ministries of Education in Maldives and Bhutan.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Our innovation is a curriculum that works with schools and has a system level model. We can make it available on request to explore.

Implementation steps

Orientation (of stakeholders) on the program
Orientation of Teachers and students on the importance of the program and the desired outcomes
Implementation of foundational learning sessions for students
Facilitators implement foundational learning sessions through in person classes or a hybrid (digital + in person) model and students learn through solving problems in teams
Showcase of student ideas & projects to advocate for potential to be changemakers
Showcase student ideas and projects in their school and invite community members for the event
Shortlisting of x% of student teams for further support
Shortlist student teams for advanced programs and specialized mentoring
Mentorship & Advanced prototyping & user testing of ideas
Provide mentorship from domain experts and advanced prototyping support for student teams
Final opportunity for idea or student teams
Provide opportunities for students to take the idea to market and support with Patenting, distribution of products, scholarship for students

Spread of the innovation

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