Pratham Creativity Club- Equitable Creative Learning Opportunities for All

As we hurtle toward an AI-driven future, creativity emerges as a non-negotiable skill. Unlike algorithms, creativity is innately human, defying replication by machines. It fuels innovation, problem-solving, and adaptability. The World Economic Forum (WEF), in a 2022 survey, mentioned creativity as one of the five skills that children will need to become successful and well-rounded adults to prosper in work and life. India’s New Education Policy (2020) has also placed a strong emphasis on reforming all stages of the education system, making way for experiential learning and holistic development of children and young adults.

Despite global emphasis on innovation and creativity, educational systems often lag in providing adequate creative learning opportunities. A UNESCO report in 2022 found that less than 40% of education systems worldwide incorporated creative subjects like arts and music into their core curriculum. This deficiency hampers the development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and adaptability among students. In India, the problem is particularly acute. Most schools in India limit academic success to only performing well on examinations bound by strict and limited curriculum. The consequence is a 'one-size fit all' learning environment that is rigid and restrictive, promotes rote learning, lacks avenue for individual learners to pursue their interests and practice innovative thinking. 

Furthermore, there is a severe lack of awareness and appreciation regarding the need for experiential design in learning processes. This is further accentuated by the insufficient opportunities and future pathways, young learners have to experiment with their ideas and showcase their innovations freely. These conditions make it inconducive for the creation of open learning spaces for children - spaces that promote individual learning pathways by exposing young minds to creative ideas and provide an environment for them to explore new and unchartered interests.

Out of the 1.5 million schools in India, only 16.5% are in urban areas and 1.2 million are in rural communities. The split is an indicator of the extent of divide, in terms of opportunities and possibilities. A few affluent private schools in urban areas have started advocating on metacognitive skills such as creativity, collaboration and communication. However, these opportunities are unavailable to the majority of learners in India. In rural India, creating avenues for children to build ideas, innovate, and spark creativity has emerged as the need of the hour. However, the rural school systems are extremely unprepared to support these new learning goals. Evidently the community has to play a larger role in creating open learning spaces for children to grow, learn and become well-rounded adults. Enabling the communities with tools needed to engage and create opportunities for young learners, is therefore an exigency that requires immediate attention.

'Pratham Creativity Club' is designed to address the gaps in current educational practices by creating inclusive opportunities for creative learning among children aged 10-14 years and youth aged 14-25 years in rural, remote, and under-resourced locations. Utilizing an innovative model, these clubs establish layers of opportunities for children to participate in at group, community and cluster level. Community-level activities ensure accessibility for all children to participate and discover their interests, while cluster-level workshops and camps provide curated learning experiences and mentorship, guiding children towards their creative learning goals based on their preferences, interests, and projects.

The Pratham Creativity Club is committed to inclusivity and accessibility and by blending on-tech and off-tech learning through activities and projects involving physical materials and multilingual digital content, the program promotes experiential learning, encouraging children to not only think 'outside the box' but also to take action on their ideas.

The programs design involves the communities and community stakeholders to create an open learning environment for children and youth to engage in. The community members work with us as partners in designing, building and contextualizing the programs as per their needs. We start by initiating a dialogue around creativity in the communities with key stakeholders and encourage the children and youth to participate in creating projects in groups. Following a cascading structure of 'All, Some and Few', the program promotes exposure and exploration of new avenues and the pursuit of learning opportunities beyond the traditional curriculum. Through the program, we:

• Expose a large number of children (all) to learning opportunities through contextualized content and online competitions making creative learning equitable and accessible
• Support (some) children to explore and experiment with their creative interests across diverse disciplines through interaction with domain experts and immersive immersion experiences.
• Provide opportunities to children (few) to express themselves through creative mediums within and beyond their communities.

The program's content is tailored for two distinct age groups: children aged 10-14 years and youth aged 14-18+. To engage learners effectively, the program offers diverse learning opportunities across six domains of creativity: Arts (Performative and Visual Arts), Science and Technology, Environment, Health (Sports), Code Clubs, and Design Thinking. These domains offer unique and exciting activities aimed at nurturing creativity and fostering holistic development among participants.

In its first year, the program engaged more than 19,000 youth who were able to support over 50,000 children in exploring their creative interests and build projects, artefacts and creatives under the Creativity Club domains.

The 2023 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) underscored a concerning lack of arts and music programs in 75% of rural schools, while urban public schools faced similar challenges, with 60% primarily focusing on rote learning, neglecting creativity.

These disparities in education have far-reaching effects, particularly impacting the cognitive and socio-emotional development of children and youth. Factors such as limited experiential learning opportunities, rigid curricula, and a digital divide exacerbate these issues, especially in rural areas of India.

The Pratham Creativity Club aims to address these challenges by raising awareness of the growing importance of socio-emotional competencies, including creative thinking, critical thinking, and interpersonal communication, for holistic child development.

The program directly engages marginalized children aged 10-14 and youth aged 14-18 through various activities:

• Creativity Festival - Open to all, online creativity competition are organized that gives children and youth the chance to explore their interests and present their creations. The children organize themselves into groups, create projects and artefacts and submit their creations online. The program received over 51,846 children submitted their creations across the domains of Art, Music, Science and Code Clubs
• Creativity Workshops - Specially curated workshops are organized to expose children to different aspects of creative learning under Art, Music, and Science through diverse resources, creative, collaborative exercises and interactions with one another and their mentors. So far, over 100 workshops have been organized with more than 5,000 children
• Creativity Camps - Residential camps are organized for learners who exhibit a keen interest and high potential and are provided with extensive
  hands-on learning opportunities to promote a deeper learning experience of the chosen domain.
• Creativity Kits - A selection of material that can be used to create projects on different domains of creativity are also provided in each community.

We believe in the potential “role-model” effect the workshops and camps will have for the learners and their communities. Their exposure to experts in their interest domain, access to advanced equipment and engagement with a life-long community of similar interests will be valuable for their future
pathways. We hope this will have a positive ripple effect on other young learners in the communities.

The Creativity Club approach creates opportunities for children and communities to take charge of their learning. Through the initiative, we hope to reduce the inequalities in learning by increasing access to quality education, creating open learning communities, increasing community engagement, building creative confidence of learners, instilling 21st century skills in children and youth, encouraging learners to pursue individual interests beyond traditional curriculum, and creating pathways for future opportunities.

The program is being implemented in 4,000 communities in India. The overall design and structure of the program are guided by three pillars - Social structure, Technology, and Content. Through an interplay of these three, we have been able to establish strong relationships with different stakeholders in the communities:

Social Structure: We work with the village/urban community to create an open learning environment for young adults. This is done by a) initiating a dialogue with the youth and mobilizing them, b) Engaging with other community stakeholders such as Sarpanch, AASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, and teachers, and c) generating awareness around the status of Education, Health, Environment and Creativity outcomes in the community to create a sense of ownership amongst the stakeholders. The social structure also comprises of a cadre of mentors and mentor leaders who communicate and engage with youth and other stakeholders. These mentors and mentor leaders are mostly hired from within the communities to ensure representation. They collect feedback from the community members and share their own suggestions and recommendations on all processes of the program. This ensures that the needs of the target population are correctly identified and well-represented and addressed in the program design.

Technology: Simple, contextualized, and familiar technology tools have been embedded into the program to make sure that the youth and other members of the community are able to leverage them these to their full potential. The program uses SMS, WhatsApp, and a WhatsApp Bot to implement various facets of the program.

Content: The learning resources shared with the youth are contextualized, hybrid (on-tech and off-tech), and made available in 11 regional languages.

• Age 10-14: The content for this age group primarily concentrates on introducing young learners to different creative fields and encouraging them to explore and strengthen their creative confidence across any or all of the six domains - Art, Science & Technology, Environment, Health, Design Thinking, and Code Clubs. The content exposes intricate ideas to children in a simplified, activity-driven manner.
• Age 14-18+: While the overarching themes align, the content differs significantly. The content for this group focuses on building high-order cognitive skills enabling the youth to prepare for work and life. Along with the six domains mentioned earlier, the youth are also offered digital courses, close mentorship, and training from experts, career awareness workshops to help them strengthen their creative confidence and prepare them for work and life. These enthusiastic young volunteers, while pursuing their own learning goals through remote mentorship, digital learning courses, and workshops/camps, play an integral role in conducting Creativity Club activities with children and other community members

The Pratham Creativity Club program is running in 4,000 communities in India. The program has impacted over 50,000 children and 19,000 youth. The program is growing and is being expanded to more number of communities. 

Apart from the monetary support, being part of the Solve program will be instrumental in strengthening the Pratham's connections that can support us in monitoring and evaluation as well as public relations and advocacy.

Pratham Creativity Club provides a tech-driven, light-touch, inclusive learning solution to engage children and youth in an effective manner and get them to lead educational activities within their communities. By leveraging simple yet effective technology systems, digital content and social structure, the program is able to personalize the education journeys of the learners in line with their interests and aspirations. The learners, therefore, are not just passive receivers of the program but are active participants who define the program and its success.

While technology has traditionally been implemented from the perspective of being a knowledge repository, our program for 10-18+ aims to utilize technology in a different manner. Digital content acts as a trigger for learners to ‘do’ things away from their devices and explore the world around them, helping them learn to gather knowledge and work with the resources surrounding them.

The program design also gives weightage to including the community in the creation of inclusive and accessible learning spaces. The process of program implementation, includes community mobilization with a special focus on youth. Youth play a pivotal role in the program, taking on responsibilities such as mentoring, guiding children, coordinating events, and leading workshops. With the program's expansion into 4,000 villages, youth have become even more critical, particularly in reaching and inspiring diverse communities, especially younger children. Youth volunteers serve as active facilitators, receiving comprehensive training to develop the skills necessary for creating tailored learning experiences for children. This training enables them to deliver customized content, conduct assessments, and instill a genuine passion for learning in the children they interact with. Dedicated youth volunteers play a crucial role in facilitating meaningful interactions and hands-on activities, all aligned with the program's domains and learning stages.

Another aspect that makes the program unique is its offerings for different age groups. For children there are hundreds of activities spanning across six domains that they can pursue, for youth, there are more than 25 courses vocational and life-skills-based courses that they can choose from. These courses are available in 6 regional languages. They also participate in community missions across the Health, Education, Environment, Creativity, and Livelihood sectors. The youth also get the opportunity to engage with each other in the program and engage with experts from different fields. Overall, ready access to mentorship opportunities and expert interactions, technology tools, resources, training, and toolkits makes it fairly easy for the learners to build their technical, cognitive and social abilities.

The program is able to support learners from low-income, marginalized communities, and through a low-touch, high-impact, and contextualized learning design, we are able to reach a large number of youth, children, and communities in a short span of time.

Scale 

In the next two years, we plan to scale the Pratham Creativity Club to 10,000 communities across new geographies. This will be achieved by:

• Strengthening existing communities to self-sustain the program
• Leveraging existing resources to establish connections in new communities.
• Build Learning Analytics to measure creativity
• Building partnerships with governments and other organizations to establish the program in new geographies and reach more learners

Technology

We have already starting working on leveraging AI tools to analyze children's creative submissions at scale. By recognizing and evaluating the knowledge and/or creative elements within these artifacts, the system can provide insightful feedback and recommendations for further exploration of the knowledge domain.

Measurement

The scale of the program is measured by using basic indicators such as:

• number of children and youth participating at the all, some and few levels, 
• communities mobilized and engaged
• creativity kits distributed, etc.

As part of the program, learners delve into a variety of topics across different knowledge domains. This active engagement is key to nurturing their creativity. Our measurement framework transitions from simply recording project outputs to a deeper understanding of what and how students learn during their project activities. This shift allows us to link specific traits or behaviors demonstrated or developed by students to practical, life-long skills. This also offers insights into their creative potential across various contexts. The metrics are inspired by the PISA Creativity Thinking Assessment (2022) prepared by OECD, Scratch Learning Philosophy & UNICEF Comprehensive LifeSkills Framework.

How does participant creativity vary across multiple themes within the context of Creativity Clubs?

A. Engagement : Registration & theme-based participation monitored through the Creativity Club Portal which is a centralized platform for membership and uploading projects in digital form. This also enables us to gauge variations in participation across STEAM activities by gender.

B. Creativity Assessment: The assessment tools are used to measure (a) creativity across multiple themes and (b) progression of creative skills among participants of Creativity Club

• Assessing Product Creativity through Artifact Analysis: The projects are evaluated against a theme-specific rubric comprising of a proficiency scale for the following dimensions of creativity:
  • Theme Clarity and Alignment
  • Creative Originality
  • Depth of Understanding
  • Detail-oriented Execution
  • Effective Communication and Storytelling Elements
  • Deploying innovative Techniques and Methods
  • Resourcefulness
  • Effective Integration of Technology
• Assessing Process Creativity through In-depth Interviews (can include FGDs) : Self-reported information from participants will be gathered through the use of questionnaire instruments to understand the various enablers and drivers of creative thinking that are not directly assessed from the product such as:
  • Problem Solving: Assessing proficiency in identifying problems, generating multiple solutions and subsequently evaluating and executing the most effective one.
  • Collaboration: Evaluating how participants function in teams, including their approach to conflict resolution, task delegation, and mutual support
  • Communication: Gauging the participants' capability to express ideas clearly, lead activities in the community and communicate effectively with diverse groups of people.
  • Reflection as learners: Allowing participants to define their learning
  • Adapting & extending learning to peers in the community
  • Foundations for leadership: Civic engagement, initiative, organizing

The program makes use of a digital tools that enables learners and community members to access technology tools and impact measurement in one place. 

The youth and other members of the community are brought together through simple communication tools such as WhatsApp, Social Media and customized platforms.

Technology innovations such as Creativity Club Portal, contextualized digital content for personalized learner journeys, data dashboards and remote skilling training mechanisms have also been embedded into the program.

Understanding that more than 90% of the target audience resides in rural areas of India where internet connectivity is a challenge and internet speeds are very low, the technology used within the program is simple and easy to use. Also, since most of the users are not fluent in reading and writing in the English Language, efforts have been made to provide these tools in regional languages. The other aspects kept in mind while developing the technology for the program are:

• Multi-Lingual Resources: The Creativity Club resources are offered in 11 Indian languages
• Creativity WhatsApp Bot: One-stop platform for learners to access resources and do creative activities
• Accessibility: The submission platform, content repository and the WhatsApp bot can be accessed on all smartphones, computers, and tablets.

The Creativity Club Portal

To effectively manage our Creativity Club program on a large scale, we've also developed the Creativity Club Portal. This platform consists of two main sections:

1. The Creativity Club Membership page and
2. The Creativity Club Activity Submission page

The Membership page provides three types of memberships - School, Community, and Organization - enabling respective entities to participate in our program. Here, we collect basic details of the entity and designate a Creativity Champion, whether a Teacher (for school or organization entities) or a Youth (for community entities). Upon submission of the membership form, a unique code is generated, facilitating login to the activity submission page. On the Activity Submission page, Champions are responsible for uploading assignments from all-level challenges submitted by the children. This streamlined approach ensures the efficient and accurate collection of children's assignments, enabling seamless program management and driving impactful outcomes.

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Diversity: Pratham works in communities spread across 15 states with diverse cultures, languages, dialects, contexts, religions, and geographies. Amidst this, there are special measures taken to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusivity within the program. Contextualization of the digital resources, availability of resources in regional languages, multi-lingual digital tools, and technologies have been built so that children, youth, and communities can truly access and partake in the program. The teams are created keeping in mind the diverse needs, thereby leading to completely diverse teams.

Inclusivity: The largest team within the Pratham Creativity Club program is the field implementation team. The hiring processes of these teams ensure that mentors and mentor leaders that work on the ground are from the communities themselves. Their feedback along with the feedback from the communities on different processes of the program is taken and is instrumental in defining the final program design and delivery. This ensures that the different needs of the communities are well-represented. Additionally, the program design incorporates the challenges faced by different sections in the communities and tries to address them to the best of its ability. For instance, recognizing the mobility restrictions on girls and women, workshops and training are held closer to their villages and during day-times. Similarly, girls are encouraged to participate in traditionally male-dominated courses, take up community projects and partake in camps. This is made possible by having discussions and consultations with their families. The success of these efforts was observed when during the residential camps camps there was higher participation from female youths as compared to male youths.

Equity: Working specifically in low-income communities, the programs are designed to provide learning opportunities and access to resources to marginalized groups, thereby creating equity. Additionally, our applications, digital platforms, digital content, and resources are open-source and can be accessed by anyone. The belief is to provide learning opportunities to people from all backgrounds with a genuine opportunity to thrive.

The program is able to leverage technology to engage children, youth and community members. Through online competitions, which require minimal resources, Pratham Creativity Club is able to mobilize learners across many communities at once. Once mobilized, community involvement at regular interval is encouraged to create community ownership towards children's learning outcomes. Additionally, social media platform like Instagram also enables easy mobilization.

In terms of human capital, Pratham has been able to increase the number of village mapped to one mentor. Initially, one mentor was mapped to five villages. Over time, we were able to develop technology tools and implementation methodologies that allowed the mentors to look after more villages at a time. In 2017, the mentor ratio increased to 10 villages per mentor. In 2020, through continuous advancements and modifications in technology, content, and social structure, a low-touch, low-cost model was established that allowed 50 communities to be mapped to a single mentor.

Over the past few years, our experiments of working with the community and creating ownership opportunities for youth volunteers have led to the creation of a 'youth-centric' model. Through capacity-building exercises, we are in the process of creating a cadre of youth leaders that can sustain community-focused activities on their own.

While we will utilize existing funds and continue to raise funds for the time-being, the long-term plan is to exit from these communities and let the community take complete ownership of their growth and development.