Optimized Education For Underprivileged Children

A platformed fine-tuned to help underprivileged children receive optimized education either online or by proving required devices

There is an imbalance between children living in different classes of society. Though each child is born with very similar potential, this inequality is created by their education. If every child could be given better learning opportunity, we could see how the world around us would change.

Frankly speaking, the education that is provided to children varies because of their social position. This often is the difference of better teachers and study material. These children who get poor quality education in the primary stages of lives, will have to struggle with the continuation of their studies. In Bangladesh, 33 million children live under poverty line. Not only those kids, but also the kids living in the lower-middle-class of the society also lack good study materials due to the shortage of money.

As this children grow up and enter the job market, the lack necessary skills compared to their privileged peers. Though we might say that education was provided to them, we have to be honest about the fact that we could not provide them with the same quality of education as the small percentage of children from the upper-class.

So is it their primary education that is faulty? Of course they need to be given that but if we take a look at the children from the upper-class we would notice that their environment is crafted for their learning. Provided this scope, they can constantly improve their capabilities that would allow them to strive in the future. On the contrary, as under privileged children do not get such support, their education can be regarded as poor quality. Meaning that they would have less capabilities and gained very little from their education.

Therefore, a predictable progression takes places. As time passes by, their education massively differs from privileged children and this divide keeps widening. Majority of the children who received poor quality education, will not be able to meet the demands of the future job market. Thus they most probably would end up working in least paying jobs. If we were to go back to the point of every children having similar potential, this consequence should make us rethink our education system.

First thing to consider is, how better education can be offered to those children. Though we might think that we need to put quality education material together, however that is an inefficient path. Because those children still might not be capable of handling the information or navigating through it. As an example, around 600 million children  and adolescents worldwide are unable to attain minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics. Even when two-thirds of them have attended school.

For this reason, we need to start from the very beginning of their education. And this needs to be done in their first languages so they have a firm grasp of it. Besides this, their cultural preferences have to be kept in mind to able to make the material easier to learn. Then it has to build from there to higher level.

The solution, in its essence, is to create a platform that can optimize under privileged children's education. Though this platform would be made suitable of all the requirements, we come across another problem which is access to internet. Around two-thirds of world's school-age children have no internet access at home. We can benefit a huge number of children by creating the platform mentioned above, but to be able to reach children who cannot afford it— is the main goal.

To meet this concern, accessible devices with the pre-installed education materials would be crucial. Nevertheless, if it can be made as a non-profit project, it would be able to serve the children living below poverty line. This device aspect is also important because it can be solely focused on education of the child.

The solution would serve any child who does not have access to proper education. The pre-requisite of a better life is quality education. Every child can become a better human and skilled for life, if they are provided with this necessity. Currently this necessity is not provided to all because of their financial positioning. But it makes the importance even more dramatic. If these children could be given optimal education, their life would radically change for the better. Above all it would contribute to the elimination of education inequality.

This solution, first and foremost, would be accessible for them. Though many quality education material is on the internet, majority of the children do not have access to it. Secondly, it would be tailored to suit their needs. Meaning, it would be made in such a way so that they can start where their current education level might be. As it would be done keeping their language, geographic and cultural aspects in mind, they would be able to benefit from the most of it.

Currently, I am a student without necessary education/resources to accomplish this solution and I do not have any team. This solution is still on a concept stage, however it is definitely one project that I plan to work upon in the future.

I come from Bangladesh and as a Third World War country, we are still lagging behind from the world in different fields. But the most prominent issue is  poverty. A significant portion of the population lives under the poverty line, and this is well observed in cities. As I was growing up, I came to see a lot of children working as day labors and thinking how the only difference between me and them was the social class I was born in.

From then on, I wondered if there was something that could change this scenario. The most viable option was to provide these children with better education. Because that is how a sustainable ripple of change would start. For this purpose, better education system is surely needed but when I think of actualizing this in a short time with multiple times the scope, this solution stands out. Moreover, being a student myself, I do think that education can be regarded as good only when the receiver gets the maximum possible benefit, namely in terms of comprehension and usability.

I have research many a things to come to this solution. First of all the agenda was to provide necessary education material to under privileged children. If we think in terms of teachers, then the problem of not having such great number of them appears, also they would have be trained as well.

Then if we are able to create an online platform with suitable feature, it would be able to sever a huge number of children although only those who have access to internet. Hence the mentioned solution is what came out of this process.

Sadly, I do not have any volunteer experience in this regard. Though I have always had a strong affinity for this cause, I have lacked opportunities to act upon and averse circumstances. But for that same reason I have tried to come up with solutions that could offer help to this problem.

This solution focuses on a point that is often missed: we do not consider how much the under privileged children are lagging behind. They need a system that starts from the very begging instead of assuming that they have learned thing that would serve as a basis for further learning.

Other than that, it creates a way to sustain those learning opportunities that would be crucial for every child to receive. The act of providing them with a much needed device also would prepare them for the world and extend their scopes to match that of the other children.

As there is no organization yet, I would like to start with building a community around it where everyone would be welcomed to contribute. Here they will try to come up with an education model and how different study materials could be taught given the needs. We would focus on building the data-base, software and designing the devices.

In the next few year, when we have the software is ready, we might launch it as an application or online platform. And if we receive the required grants, then we would be able to make the devices and get started with the bigger project.

For this solution, one of the core elements is to establish a platform that makes learning accessible regardless of a child's background. A vast data-base of knowledge would be needed and then a student friendly application/interface. There might be many others key features that would have to be added like being able to assess the learn's progress. An A.I. system would be able to increase the efficiency as well.

At the same time, to be able to reach children who do not have access to technology and internet, we would need to manufacture devices with the pre-installed software.

The goal, to achieve by the next year, is to establish an organization where the software/necessary interface would be created. Though in the initial years there might not be as much development, I believe in the years that would come after that first phase, it could be growing exponentially. For that, there should not be any major financial issue, as we would want to have people who want to be a part of this vision and we might be able to construct a stable income source by acting upon a business plan. 

I am currently in my senior year of high school and would like to start off whenever there is a good opportunity to acquire knowledge and make this possible.

I truly believe in this cause, but at the same time I recognize that there is a lot for me to learn in this sector as well. Though I plan to study my Bachelors in related fields that would serve this cause, the possibilities of expanding my capabilities and growing the organization during that time is constricted in my country. Things might get delayed, but I am willing to serve this purpose regardless of that.

As the solution is to— primarily create a platform for education, the social impact cannot be speculated in numbers. It would lead to prosperity of individual lives and contribute to the progress of society. Hence, it would work towards achieving educational equality and help fulfill this basic human right.

The solution has two aspects. One where an educational platform is created that anyone with access to internet can use and the other one is to provide this to underprivileged children who cannot afford it. This way, this solution would be able to reach as many children as possible, helping them have better learning opportunities.

The solution relies on a platform that fulfills the criteria of being optimal for learning. In the beginning of this solution, an organization working towards achieving that would have to be formed. It could be simply to start with easy study materials and then trying to do so in different languages. As the platform would build up, there would also be the need to make accessible devices for under-privileged children.

The key goal is to able to become a non-profit organization. However, if the organization is to be able to do that, there has to be an income source. That could be sustained donations or grants or similar approaches. In the best possible scenario, the organization would have service contracts to governments.