Varun Kumar, co-founder & Ceo of Classklap recently joined NewsX for an insightful discussion as part of NewsX India A-List. In the exclusive conversation, Varun spoke about the journey of his company and how Classklap works in schools.
Speaking about the journey of his company Classklap, Varun said, ‘We started much before the pandemic hit us and we’ve been trying to bring technology to the classrooms in India. I and my co-founder Navin started in the year 2009 with the focus to improve learning outcomes in our schools. The whole idea was to build a company that is based on research and data because my background is in engineering and Navin’s is in doctoral fellowship in education economy tricks. As you would imagine back in the day, the hardest part of building a data-driven education technology company was to gather data itself because all our assessments and books were offline. This was the problem that we tried to solve by latching onto the current behaviors of a school exam. So, we kind of automated the school exam process itself which gave us the data, using which we created the personalized remedial solution which is also our USP. Right now we are the only company who provides this solution. The pandemic has enabled us to scale further and reach a larger number of schools.’
Explaining further about what Classklap provides to its audience and how it works, Varun said, ‘The current challenges in the system at the end of assessments and exam is that it labels a child as ‘good’, ‘average’, or ‘bad’. But it doesn’t provide any feedback on how to improve, or what the child can do to improve. So, when we analyze that data using our data analytics, our software recommends specific targeted content for each child. It is not important to label the child, instead they can be asked to improve in certain areas. Also, we were able to do this print like telephone bills. Similarly, we use that technology to print these worksheets for individual child. The teachers can support the children to work upon these specific issues.’
Sharing his views on the impact of National Education Policy (NEP) in education system, Mr. Kumar said, ‘ We really welcomed NEP and it was overdue as a policy change. We focus more on the lower grade, so I’ll talk specifically about how it impacts the lower grade because these are the grades which build the foundation for our kids. Three main changes which NEP has bought in is, first time there is a curriculum framework for pre-primaries. The government has called out the importance of literacy and numerousy. All other subjects are important, but unless you build the foundation in language and math, you’ll find it difficult to go to next classes. The third is competency based assessments and addressing the learning gap which we actually work on. We are really excited about these changes proposed by the govt.’
When asked about how Classklap works in school, the CEO revealed, ‘The way school adopts a curriculum which includes all type of leaning content. So, the schools sign ups our program and in the beginning of the year we provide all the books, digital content, apps which teachers can use to deliver it to students. What we do differently is that we set a learning outcomes and goals. We administer the assessment. Instead of providing just the content and forgetting it, we kind of close the loop by taking the data and providing our printed personalized solution. It’s a modern education curriculum provider which not only provides books and CDs, but is owning the learning outcome so that we ensure that the child improves by the end of the term.’
Talking about their latest merger with Eupheus learning, Varun said, ‘Euphus had the correct portfolio approach and we had the right curriculum approach. When the market was increasing rapidly, we both were looking for opportunities to find a natural partner which can give us a pan India presence. With this merger we are serving more than 20,000 schools and we are already the market leaders.’