India’s “Education for All” initiative seeks to expand access to quality primary education for all of India’s children. Considerable progress has been made, and only a small percentage of children are now out of school according to government and NGO surveys. However, the quality of education still needs improvement as is reflected in both high drop out and low mastery of grade appropriate competencies. Uninteresting and irrelevant lessons and low teacher proficiency discourage many children from attending school. Communications technology has the potential to overcome these obstacles by improving children’s learning experience through higher-quality, interactive materials, and strengthening teachers’ capabilities.

USAID’s Technology and Tools for Teaching and Training (T4) program employs communications technology to educate children from relatively impoverished backgrounds studying in public schools in the states of Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar. The schools in these states usually have high dropout rates. Using various technology tools combined with capacity building for effective teaching, monitoring and community involvement, USAID and its partners:

• Develop and deliver high-quality, interactive radio, video and computer programs that simplify the teaching of difficult concepts in various subjects such as language including English, math, science and social studies – thus enhancing children’s learning experience, increasing attendance and improving learning outcomes
• Train teachers to use interactive radio, video and computer based lessons to teach students effectively and provide documents such as teacher guides as reference materials
• Create an accessible digital library that makes digital learning materials in several Indian languages more widely available to teachers throughout the country
• Leverage resources and ownership from state governments and build their capacity to implement and monitor such programs effectively