Using AI to transform learning outcomes in government schools

Vineet Nayar, former CEO and vice-chairman of HCL Technologies, is known for transforming the IT company from a fledgling $700 million to a $5 billion company through an employee-first strategy. He put the employees first and the customers second. The belief was that empowering employees would result in greater accountability to the organisation, and they would, in return, be able to build a more valuable proposition for customers. Although Nayar faced multiple challenges during his journey, he successfully managed to make HCLT one of the fastest-growing and most profitable IT services companies.

Nayar used the same principle of ‘employees first, consumer second’ when he scaled up his not-for-profit venture, Sampark Foundation, which works in the field of primary education. This time, he decided to empower the teachers of state-run primary schools in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP and Uttarakhand.

“We have 17-18 crore children in primary schools, and most Grade V students can’t read Grade III text. The challenge of learning is high. Despite government spending increasing each year, learning outcomes have not improved. The idea was that if we could enthuse, encourage, and enable teachers at scale, we should be able to transform learning. But it would need implementation at scale. By working with 10 or 100 schools, it’s not going to work,” says Nayar, who is currently founder and chairman of Sampark Foundation.