ZatchUp

At ZatchUp, We are creating Age-appropriate and expert-backed “plug-and-play” health, safety and civic education courses for schools.

Mission Statement: 

"At ZatchUp, our mission is to provide comprehensive health, safety, and civic literacy to every child in the world, starting with 400 million children in India. We are dedicated to equipping young minds with the knowledge and skills they need to lead safe, healthy, and informed lives. Through our plug-and-play video courses, we are committed to ensuring that quality education is accessible to every school, fostering a generation of empowered and responsible individuals."

Vision Statement:

"Our vision is to create a transformative impact on the future by building a society where every child has universal access to holistic health, safety, and civic education. We envision a society where every child has access to comprehensive health, safety and civic education, enabling them to make informed decisions and contribute to the well-being of themselves and their communities. By leveraging technology and innovation, we aim to revolutionize the way health, safety and civic education is delivered, making it engaging, interactive, and impactful.

Together, with passionate educators and dedicated partners we aspire to be a leading force in shaping a generation that embraces the values of health, safety, and active citizenship."

Rohin Gupta serves as the Co-founder of ZatchUp, playing a pivotal role in several key areas:

1. Facilitating Global Educator Alignment: Rohin's primary responsibility involves identifying and collaborating with top educators worldwide, ensuring their participation and integration into the company's educational initiatives.

2. Gathering Comprehensive Course Requirements: Rohin engages closely with schools to gain a profound understanding of their specific course needs. This entails conducting thorough research and analysis to ensure the development of relevant and impactful educational content.

3. Establishing School Engagement and Feedback: Rohin oversees the process of engaging schools, guiding them through the courses offered, and actively seeking their valuable feedback. This collaborative approach allows ZatchUp to continuously enhance the quality and effectiveness of its educational programs.

4. App and Web development: Rohin collaborates closely with the tech team, consisting of seven members, to ensure the development and maintenance of a world-class platform for schools and teachers to access and utilize. By closely coordinating with the tech team, Rohin ensures that the platform is user-friendly, efficient, and equipped with the necessary features and functionalities to meet the evolving needs of the education community. This collaborative effort ensures that ZatchUp provides a seamless and exceptional digital experience to schools and students.

ZatchUp is actively engaged in providing health, safety, and civic education courses for schools. 

Recognizing the prevailing gap in such educational offerings within the Indian schooling system, ZatchUp places significant importance on adopting an evidence-based learning approach. 

This commitment stems from the realization that evidence-based practices 

• not only facilitate the development of high-quality courses 
• but also contribute to the expansion of our school network. 

By leveraging evidence-based learning, ZatchUp aims to deliver the most effective and impactful educational experiences. Furthermore, these endeavours align seamlessly with our core team's KRAs, serving as crucial drivers for our business growth. Given the strategic value it offers, the LEAP program emerges as a top priority for our core team, as it expedites the achievement of our goals and aspirations.

At ZatchUp, We are creating Age-appropriate and expert-backed “plug-and-play” health, safety and civic education courses for schools.

India currently ranks 135 out of 163 countries on the 2022 Global Peace Index and ranks 135 among a total of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index 2022. As the largest democracy in the world, India recognizes the significance of civic education.

However, schools face two significant challenges in imparting this education.

1. Firstly, hiring multiple trained teachers for civic education can be expensive.
2. Alternatively, schools may expect their current teachers to self-train and teach civic education, leading to an additional workload on teachers and potentially resulting in incomplete or inaccurate information being conveyed to students

Another problem statement that we came across is the lack of involvement of parents/family in teaching their children about civic education which is often due to the parents' own limited knowledge of the subject. In addition to the challenge of imparting civic education,  there is also a concern regarding health and safety education in schools. 

The Ministry of Women and Child Development's study found that 

• 53.22% of children reported experiencing one or more forms of sexual abuse, 
• with only 5.69% reporting sexual assault. 
• Furthermore, 50% of the abuses were committed by individuals known to the child or in a position of trust and responsibility.

To address this issue, schools recognize the need for health and safety education but face similar challenges as with civic education. Hiring additional teachers trained in these areas can be expensive, and expecting existing teachers to self-train may be inefficient or ineffective.

ZatchUp is a provider of age-appropriate, expert-backed, and "plug-and-play" Health, Safety and Civic education courses that are accessible to schools at an affordable cost. Our video-based content features a well-designed curriculum that can assist and guide students for years to come. These courses are created with the assistance of global experts.

Our "plug-and-play" classes encourage collective learning and can be easily integrated into existing curricula, providing a seamless and comprehensive solution for schools.

Our approach addresses the three major problems in civic education, as 

1. schools are not required to hire trained teachers, 
2. and our courses do not add any extra burden to current teachers.
3. Additionally, we provide videos for parents and teachers to encourage all-around civic literacy. 

Once schools have subscribed to our course,  students can access and re-watch the courses on the ZatchUp app at home, without any additional subscription charges.

Furthermore, we are building a community within the ZatchUp app to keep students up-to-date on current affairs, which will be age-appropriate and effective, instead of overwhelming students with an excessive number of random news pieces. 

ZatchUp Website

ZatchUp's Insta Page

Multiple research consistently highlights the significance of health, safety, and civic education for school children. 

In order to gather more insights into the adoption rates of these programs, we conducted interviews with 10 schools. The feedback received from these schools will help us refine our offerings and ensure their effectiveness in meeting the educational needs of students.

As we progress in our pilot phase and successfully implement the initial 10 courses, reaching a milestone of 100,000 students, we will shift our focus towards quantifying the impact of ZatchUp's courses. By leveraging data analysis and evaluation techniques, we aim to assess the outcomes and benefits experienced by students who have engaged with our educational content. This approach will enable us to measure the effectiveness of our programs and further enhance their quality, ensuring they continue to deliver tangible value to the students we serve.

By combining research-backed principles with real-world feedback and rigorous evaluation, ZatchUp is committed to providing evidence-based educational solutions that empower students and contribute to their overall development and well-being.

Through our consultations with experts and schools both within and outside of India, we have identified two major challenges that schools encounter when it comes to imparting health, safety, and civic education.

The first challenge revolves around the financial implications of hiring multiple trained teachers to deliver these programs. It can be a costly endeavour for schools to recruit and maintain a dedicated team of educators specifically trained in these subjects.

The second challenge is the expectation for current teachers to self-train and incorporate these programs into their existing workload. This places a significant burden on teachers, potentially resulting in incomplete or inaccurate information being conveyed to students.

In response to these challenges, we have developed a video-based platform that eliminates the need for direct involvement from school teachers. By leveraging technology and expertly curated content, we provide schools with a comprehensive solution that delivers high-quality health, safety, and civic education to students.

Our video-based platform ensures that students receive accurate and engaging information from experienced professionals, alleviating the burden on teachers and ensuring consistent and effective delivery of the curriculum.

By addressing these challenges, we aim to make health, safety, and civic education accessible to all schools, empowering students with the knowledge and skills they need to lead safe, healthy, and informed lives.

Evidence base approach will allow us to validate the effectiveness and impact of our courses. By gathering robust evidence, we can demonstrate the positive outcomes and benefits that students derive from our health, safety, and civic education program. 

We are a new startup and this will build credibility and trust among schools, parents, and stakeholders it will also help us make data-driven improvements to our courses.

Moreover, in the current stage of our business, strengthening the evidence base becomes even more important. As a pilot phase, it is crucial for us to gather empirical evidence to showcase the value and impact of our program. 

This evidence serves as a powerful tool for attracting more schools and state governments to adopt our program.

1. Impact on Students, 2. Impact on School Culture, 3. Way to Quanitfy the benifits of heath safety and civic education courses

And if it is possible to device a way to determine long-term impact of ZatchUp's health, safety and civic programs. 

After one year of enrolling over 250,000 students in our programs, a critical question we aim to answer is how to effectively quantify the impact of our courses. We have identified specific approaches for certain courses such as consent and prevention of sexual harassment, where we can track the number of reported incidents as an indicator of increased awareness. Similarly, for courses like Prevention of Alcohol and drug abuse, we plan to utilize surveys to assess changes in students' willingness to experiment with these substances. However, quantifying the impact of courses like mental and emotional health, personal health and wellness, physical activity, personal safety, violence prevention, and civic education poses a challenge, as relying solely on surveys may not provide sufficient evidence.

Through the LEAP program, our objective is to develop a comprehensive methodology that enables us to effectively quantify the impact of these courses. We seek to design robust evaluation frameworks that encompass a range of data collection methods, including surveys, interviews, behavioural observations, and possibly long-term tracking studies. By exploring innovative approaches and collaborating with research experts and social entrepreneurs, we aim to establish a strong evidence base that highlights the significant need for health, safety, and civic education. This will help us showcase the value and impact of our programs, contributing to the broader understanding of the importance of these subjects in the lives of students.

Once we understand how to quantify the impact of its health, safety, and civic education courses, ZatchUp will take proactive steps to put these findings into action. We will use the output for Curriculum Enhancement, Scaling and Program Expansion, Partnership Development, Advocacy and Awareness.

For Instance : we will prepare comprehensive reports and presentations that highlight the outcomes, benefits, and evidence of the program's effectiveness. Share these findings with schools, educators, parents, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders to create awareness and drive engagement.

Short Answer

Short term: Networking Opportunities, Better Course Content and Better Research recommendations.

Long Term: Better Program effectiveness, Will help in getting better adoption, Will give ZatchUp more recognition and credibility and another important impact will be faster scalability 

Long Answer

Short-term outcomes would be valuable networking opportunities, improved course content, and research recommendations. Through the LEAP Project, ZatchUp can establish connections with experts and professionals, fostering collaborations and knowledge sharing. The project enables ZatchUp to refine and optimize its course content, aligning it with evidence-based practices for enhanced effectiveness. Additionally, the research recommendations provided by the LEAP Project offer valuable guidance, strategies, and resources to strengthen the evidence base of ZatchUp's courses.

Long-term outcomes of the LEAP Project for ZatchUp encompass increased program effectiveness, improved adoption rates, enhanced recognition and credibility, and accelerated scalability. By implementing evidence-based practices and research recommendations, ZatchUp can enhance the effectiveness of its courses, leading to positive impacts on students' health, safety, and civic literacy. The strengthened evidence base will contribute to greater adoption of ZatchUp's courses, as schools and educational institutions recognize their value and impact. This increased recognition and credibility will position ZatchUp as a trusted provider of high-quality education. Moreover, the LEAP Project's outcomes will facilitate the scalability of ZatchUp's courses, allowing them to reach a larger audience and make a more significant impact on children's lives.