Project Summary of RTCs supported by BNY Mellon

Asha Rural Technology Centers (RTCs) empower rural youth in Tamil Nadu with free, high-quality computer science education, bridging the digital divide and fostering future tech talent. Established in 2022, RTCs offer basic and advanced courses to class 6 to 12 students, focusing on hands-on learning and practical skills. The initiative began in 2022 with the inauguration of the first center in Thiruvallur. Since then, the program has expanded rapidly to 13 centers across four districts of Tamil Nadu.

Our existing RTCs are located in Kanagammachathram, Seethanjeri, Thomur, Kannigaiper, Periyapalayam, Uthukottai, Thirutani and Thirupachur in Thiruvallur District, Kayathar, Kalugumalai and Nalattinputhur in Thoothukudi District, Kilpennathur in Thiruvannamalai District and Kottur in Thiruvarur District. We hope to add three more RTCs in these districts in the coming year.

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, commonly known as BNY or by its prior brand name BNY Mellon, is an American international financial services company headquartered in New York City with major offices also in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Asha receives funding from BNY Mellon through IITM Pravartak.

BNY Mellon has played a vital role in this growth by supporting four of these centers—RTC Kannigaiper, RTC Thomur, and RTC Periyapalayam in Thiruvallur, as well as RTC Kayathar in Thoothukudi.

Course Structure

The RTCs offer both basic and advanced coursed-

Enrollment

Most students in government high and higher secondary schools across rural Tamil Nadu lack even the most basic digital skills—not because of a lack of ability, but simply due to lack of exposure. With the establishment of Rural Technology Centers (RTCs), supported by BNY Mellon, this reality has been changing.

• The RTCs typically accommodate about 60 students in single-teacher centers and up to 100 students in two-teacher centers, organized into 4–5 batches. RTC Kannigaiper and RTC Periyapalayam are one teacher RTCs, RTC Kayathar and RTC Thomur are two teacher RTCs.

• RTC teachers visit local high schools for three-hour sessions, either in the morning or afternoon, to introduce students to basic digital literacy and programming. Those who show deeper interest continue their learning at the RTCs after school, from 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

• Each academic year is divided into two terms (August–February and February–August), with students working on a final course project for two months reinforcing our “Learn by Doing” philosophy.

Student Enrollment in 2024

Student Enrollment in 2025

In 2025, we introduced new courses like Web Development 2.0 and Robotics.

Assessments and Project Work

Students are evaluated on the basis of attendance, term end assessments and projects submitted.

1. Regular assessments – At the end of every term, students are tested by asking them to write a program or create a presentation, depending on the course. These assessments are conducted primarily on a computer. The assessments have been done at the end of each term in all four RTCs in 2024 and 2025.

   

   Here are the results-

   Assessments 2024-25	Feb-24					Aug-24
   RTC Name	Enrolled		Completed		Enrolled				Completed
   Kannigaipair	53		35		51				40
   Periyapalayam	68		47		75				58
   Kayathar	120		79		154				97
   Thomur	69		45		82				54
   Total	310		206		362				249
   Assessments 2025-26		Feb-25						Aug-25
   RTC Name		Enrolled		Completed			Enrolled			Completed
   Kannigaipair		40		41			57			52
   Periyapalayam		85		63			71			64
   Kayathar		110		83			149			120
   Thomur		82		48			93			73
   Total		317		235			370			309

   There has been a steady, marginal growth in enrollment at the centers for both the terms. The overall completion rate rose from 68.8% in August 2024 to a much higher 83.5% in August 2025.

   The Kayathar RTC is located in a larger town and hence gets most number of enrollments. While its enrollment volume dipped slightly in 2025, the course completion rate jumped significantly from 63% to 80.5%.

   Thomur showed the most consistent growth in enrollment and completion rates also improved from 65% to 78% by the end 2025. The Periyapalayma RTC displayed strong performance with a 90% completion rate in the most recent August batch. While enrollment is growing slowly, the operational efficiency has improved drastically, particularly in the August 2025 cycle, where nearly 83% of all enrolled candidates successfully completed their assessments.

2. All students are required to submit projects. These are done individually or in groups of 2 or 3. The projects are evaluated by computer science professionals and a few projects get selected for a competition called Asha RTC Impressions. These are judged by professors from IIT Madras and stalwarts in the computer industry. This provides the students an opportunity to showcase their talents as well as gain experience being on stage and public speaking.

You may read the detailed reports here – RTC Impressions – August 2025     RTC Impressions – Feb 2025  RTC Impressions -July2024

Projects 2024-25	Feb-24		Aug-24
RTC Name	Project Submitted	Projects Selected	Project Submitted	Projects Selected
Kannigaipair	18	5	18	6
Periyapalayam	20	4	24	4
Kayathar	34	3	43	4
Thomur	27	8	40	8
Total	99	20	125	22

Projects 2025-26	Feb-25		Aug-25
RTC Name	Project Submitted	Projects Selected	Project Submitted	Projects Selected
Kannigaipair	17	7	19	5
Periyapalayam	27	7	30	4
Kayathar	40	3	60	4
Thomur	42	5	65	6
Total	126	22	174	19

Over the years, the team sizes submitting projects has steadily decreased from 5 to 2 or 1 at times. This shift is largely due to the wider availability of laptops and the growing preference among students to work independently. With nearly 400–500 projects submitted across all RTCs, the projects selected for RTC Impressions must be kept deliberately lower. This in no way reflects a lack of quality. On the contrary, it highlights the intensity of competition and the immense dedication and hard work demonstrated by the students. Students from RTCs supported by BNY Mellon have gone on to win several prizes at the RTC Impressions event.

Key Highlights & Impact

• Reaching Underserved Communities: Over 350 students are now coding, designing, and building projects thanks to the RTCs. There has been a steady growth in enrollment of students.

• Quality Education: Curriculum designed by experienced Asha teachers in collaboration with IIT Madras has provided students with new and advanced courses like AI and Robotics.

• Hands-on Learning: Students have been gaining confidence through practical workshops and project-based learning.

• Confidence building: With opportunity of participate in events like RTC Impressions, students have been able to build confidence and improve public speaking.

• Empowering Rural Youth: Students are able to now envision careers in technology.

Sustainability & Continuity

• Building on the success of 13 centers, we aim to add 3 more RTCs in 2026, extending reach into underserved districts. Our long term vision is to position RTCs as a statewide model for rural digital empowerment, potentially replicable in other states.

• We are exploring recruitment of local librarians to strengthen RTCs as community hubs and support teachers during evening hours.

• Commitment to scaling the model to ensure long-term impact beyond donor funding.

Acknowledgements

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to BNY Mellon for their unwavering support. Thier investment has transformed lives, enabling rural children to step confidently into the digital age. Together, we are building not just skills, but futures.

Testimonials

RTC Periyapalayam – “My name is R. Deepana . I first started coming to the RTC Periyapalayam computer center when I was in the eighth standard. At that time, I didn’t know anything about computers. However, I have now successfully completed courses in Digital Literacy, Scratch, Physical Computing, and Media. My achievements include:

Digital Literacy: Won the second prize at IIT.

Physical Computing: Won the first prize.

Scratch: I was selected to go to IIT for my work.

I am currently studying in the tenth standard and am doing a course called Web development 1.0. Now, I am proficient in using computers.

RTC Thomur– “My name is Kanimozhi. I studied at PUPS Thomur for 3.5 years and learnt DL. When I was studying in 7th standard, I joined Thomur RTC. There, I learned Scratch, Physical Computing, Web Development 1.0, and Web Development 2.0.

I am confident in writing programs using the Scratch programming language, which I learned at RTC. In Web Development 1.0, I learned how to design simple websites. When I learned Web Development 2.0, I felt happy creating dynamic web pages. Now, when I see a webpage on the internet, I am able to recognize the different parts used in it.

I did my project on a Library Management System using Web Development 2.0. I was selected to present my project at RTC Impression-8 at IIT Madras. When I entered the campus, I felt excited and happy. Seeing the IIT students there inspired me to study at IIT.

When I presented my project to the judges, I felt grateful for the opportunity. I was inspired by them. I received a gold medal for my project, and I felt overjoyed. I also got an opportunity to learn about other projects and ideas from different courses.”

RTC Kannigaiper – “My name is Anish. I am studying in class 8. I have been studying at Kannikaipair RTC for three years. 52 students were studying at Kannikaiper RTC. Six courses were taught here. Now I am learning Robotics course. I am very interested. Initially, my computer knowledge was limited. Now I have completed a total of 5 courses. I have completed Digital literacy, Programming, Web development, Media Editing and Physical computing. Rajaram sir will come to RTC and give valuable comments in our project. That will be useful for me. In the web development course, my friend Yokesh and I won second place. It was very happy. When I first went to IIT Research Park and presented my project, I was scared at first, but after seeing all my friends presenting, I gained new confidence.”

RTC Kayathar – “My name is Kishore.M. I have a little and basic knowledge about computer before joining RTC. After join in RTC I have experience many things about computer. I learnt typing laptop, creating folder, and many things on computer after join RTC. While learning Scratch programming I have learnt some basic knowledge on programming. Also animation courses teach me how to animate using the code knowledge. I was selected for Chennai impression for two times. The course web development and animation, it was so nice, the Impression motivated to me to learn more.”

RightStart CS Training – Dec 2025

You may view the album here.

Asha holds two major teacher training sessions every year-
1. Right start in May
2. Computer Science Training in December

During these training sessions, all Asha teachers from our project locations in Tamilnadu and Uttar Pradesh attend the events. You may read about RightStart 2025 here.

The 3-day CS training was held at Thiruvallur at the Sairam Mahal, Siruvanur Kandigai between 17-19 December, 2025 this year. 133 teachers from Thiruvallur, Thoothukudi, Thiruvanamalai, Chennai, and Uttar Pradesh attended the event. We also had attendees from Gandhiji school Pondicherry, Asha Mumbai, Kabir Foundation – Khajuraho, Little Stars School – Varanasi, and Parmarth Samaj Sevi Sansthan – Jhansi, who joined the sessions to participate in the training.
Teachers from various locations were accommodated at different places in Thiruvallur. Our teachers statyed at KP Guest house, Sangamam office and Thirupatchur RTC. The volunteers stayed at the KP Palace in Thiruvallur.

Day 1 – 17 December, 2025, Wednesday

The session began with Mr. Rajaraman welcoming everyone present to the event. He spoke about the importance of the training program and outlined the sessions planned over the 3 days.

After the introduction, the first session was conducted by Ms. Seetha. Her team distributed chocolates to all the teachers and grouped them as per the chocolate received. It was a fun start to the day!

Asha Kanini App, Online packages by Mr. Hemnath

Once all the teams had settled, the first session was conducted by Mr. Hemnath from Asha’s software development team to introduce the teachers to the features of the new version of Asha Kanini. Asha Kanini is developed by Asha Chennai and it helps teachers find the right content for the lesson they are teaching and use it effectively to improve student learning.
The development team has worked on several updates to the Kanini app during the year. The team gave the teachers demonstration of the new updates done. New content which has been added can be mapped within the app, and the teachers were taught how to navigate to these content. The team also gave a general recap of the new and existing features.

Computer Science curriculum by Ms. Seetha and Team

In this session, the teachers explained the updates in the curriculum and showed how to use the new version of the CS lesson plans in the Asha app. Ms. Priya explained the changes in Digital Literacy, Ms.Satya Bharathi introduced the new features in the Scratch program, and Ms. Meenakshi conducted hands-on training using physical computers.

AI Samarth – Vision for AI in Schools by Prof Karthik Raman from IITM
Amongst the sessions planned for the event, we had an interesting session by Prof Karthik Raman of IIT Madras, the Chairman of the drafting committee for CBSE for the new AI and Computational Thinking curriculum. His session on ‘Vision for AI in Schools’ was well received by the teachers. They enthusiastically clarified their doubts and concerns about AI. Prof Raman threw light on the future of AI in education and how AI will be adapted into school curriculum.

Digital Safety by Ms. Priyanka

Amazon Future Engineer team had conducted a workshop on Digital Safety for children which was attended by Ms. Priyanka. She conducted the same session for all our teachers during the training. The session touched upon topics like digital footprint online, online safety in games such as Roblox, the repercussions of misinformation on society. The session was conducted using activities and guidelines suggested in the Digital Safety handbook curated by Amazon.

Day 2 – 18 December 2025, Thursday
(Parallel Sessions for Tamilnadu participants and the rest)

Teachers from Asha’s SPRINT program teach students for 40 hours a year. Out of this, 20 hours are dedicated to Computer science and the other 20 hours are used to teach Math, English and Science. These sessions usually were unstructured and taken without clear guidelines.
This year, Asha’s software development team worked on bringing a structured approach to these lessons which lead to the creation of MESL activities. MESL stands for Math, English, Science and Logical Reasoning. The team created lessons and set of activities under each topic in Asha Kanini for the teachers to use. The lessons taken by teachers are also tracked under our Teacher trackers. Since these are new activities, teachers were given training for the same during Day 2.
Maths MESL Activities by Ms. Nathiya
In this activity, teachers were divided into small groups of six, and each group was given 20 color-coded tokens—green for positive values and red for negative values—to help make abstract math concepts more visual and easy to understand. The team first explained how addition, subtraction, and multiplication could be shown using these tokens, after which teachers practiced solving problems by combining and exchanging them. This hands-on learning was then linked to a worksheet so teachers could connect the activity to written exercises, and finally extended to a computer-based activity.
The purpose was to demonstrate how manipulatives (tokens) make math concepts clear, how hands-on, worksheet, and computer activities can be integrated for deeper understanding, and how teachers can adapt this complete teaching approach for their own classrooms. For computer teachers, this activity was adapted for upper primary level, helping them understand how children grasp mathematical concepts through interactive methods.

English MESL Activity by Ms. Radhika

Three English activities from the MESL module were conducted. Computer teachers from Sangamam, Thulasi, Pearl, Cauvery, and Poorna Vidya participated in this training. The activities included-
1. Alphabet Hunt for Class 1, where students can identify capital and small letters through a fun ball-throwing and balancing activity;
2. Look and Say for Class 4, in which students are required to create and ask questions based on pictures exchanged between teams; and
3. Searching for the Goal, a treasure-hunt–based activity where students follow clues placed around the classroom and answer grammar-related questions to reach the final goal.
Worksheets and relevant Asha content, including Asha Kanini, were used to reinforce learning, and teachers actively practiced using these resources. Chocolates were given to the winners to encourage participation and make the session engaging and enjoyable.

Science MESL Activities by Ms. Sasirekha

The Science Team conducted training sessions on three topics: friction on different surfaces, elements and compounds, and the Jaltarang sound activity. For the friction topic, three ramps with different surfaces were used, and one teacher performed the experiment in front of the group. A freehand worksheet method was followed, where the teacher drew the experiment setup, read the questions, and discussed the answers with the group. The topic of elements and compounds was then explained using a PhET digital simulation, which helped teachers understand the concept more clearly. For the Jaltarang activity, the idea of sound was introduced, and a Jaltarang mobile app was briefly shown as a fun learning tool. After each activity, a worksheet related to the topic was given to all participants to check their understanding.

Logical MESL Activities by Ms. Sathya

The session focused on four logical thinking activities: Fill and Pour from the NLVM package, Sum Blocks from Math Playground, Fifteen Puzzle from GCompris, and Hot Java from Hooda Math. Teachers engaged in both classroom-based activities and online games related to these topics, helping them understand how logical thinking can be strengthened through hands-on practice and interactive digital tools.

Separate session for all Hindi speaking teams by Mr. Rohit

Since our sessions are a mix of Tamil and English, the Hindi speaking participants found it hard to follow. On the second day, a separate session was conducted for the Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai and participants from Jhansi and Khajuraho. During this session, Rohit and Kumari explained several unplugged activities such as- Odd and Even using cards, If–Else conditions with cards, the Cup Activity, and the Grid Activity. This was followed by another session on advanced features of OpenOffice, including interactions and motion paths, and advanced Scratch features such as using clones. Ms. Komalavalli and Ms. Jayalakshmi supported the teachers by helping them complete these tasks.

Day 3 – 19 December, 2025, Friday

Unplugged activity for searching and sorting by Ms. Kumari and Ms. Gomathy

Unplugged activities were conducted to help teachers understand sorting and searching algorithms using real-life examples. Teachers stood in random order and were arranged from shortest to tallest to demonstrate different sorting methods like selection sort, bubble sort, merge sort and quick sort.
Searching algorithms were explained by finding a specific teacher by height: linear search by checking one teacher at a time and binary search by first arranging teachers in order and then searching by repeatedly checking the middle position. These simple, hands-on activities helped teachers clearly understand sorting and searching concepts. They learned the differences between each algorithm and the activity improved logical thinking through practical demonstration.

Algorithms – Writing efficient code by Ms. Gomathy and Ms. Kumari

In this session, an unplugged and Scratch-based session was conducted to explain the Binary Search algorithm. The session helped teachers understand the concept of Binary Search and showed how Scratch can be used to teach searching algorithms visually. Using a Scratch project with a sorted list, variables like start, end, mid, and target, and simple loops and conditions, the steps of the algorithm were clearly demonstrated. Teachers were able to see how the search range is reduced step by step until the value is found. By the end of the session, teachers clearly understood how Binary Search works, felt more confident teaching it, and appreciated how Scratch makes complex ideas easy and engaging for classroom learning.

Synchronous and Asynchronous in Physical computing by Ms. Gomathy

In this session, teachers learned the difference between synchronous and asynchronous execution using Scratch blocks such as broadcast, broadcast and wait, and wait. Through these blocks, they observed how some actions run in sequence while others run independently without waiting, helping them clearly distinguish between synchronous and asynchronous behavior.
Teachers explored asynchronous event handling using App Lab and a physical computing board. A sample program with two buttons – one to play sound and another to blink LEDs – demonstrated how event handlers continue to trigger even after switching contexts. This behavior was explained as a result of asynchronous events, and teachers learned to manage it effectively using state variables to control callback execution.

Innovation Awards

At Asha Chennai, innovation has always been at the heart of our mission; whether it’s designing the right curriculum, refining processes, or building better ways to monitor and evaluate our solutions. In December 2024, this commitment received a huge boost when Amazon recognized our work and awarded us with the $100K Innovation Grant. This support has empowered us to push ourselves over the past year. We are happy to note that with these efforts we once again received another $100K grant from Amazon in Dec 2025!
With this milestone, we’re more energized than ever to keep experimenting, innovating, and scaling solutions that make education equitable and impactful. You may read the detailed report on Asha’s innovation here – Innovation @ Asha Chennai – 2025.
Asha’s software development team, Lead teachers and Volunteers have come together to work on improving processes and helped drive this change. It was important to recognize them for their contributions at Asha. During the Rightstart CS event, we felicitated the employees who have contributed the most towards the various Innovative activities of Asha Chennai.

]]> https://chennai.ashanet.org/news/2026/06/rightstart-cs-training-dec-2025/feed/ 0 https://chennai.ashanet.org/news/2026/06/12-2/ https://chennai.ashanet.org/news/2026/06/12-2/#respond Fri, 12 Jun 2026 02:12:40 +0000 https://chennai.ashanet.org/?p=7897 Read More]]> In partnership with IITM Pravartak, Asha Chennai hosted its 8th biannual RTC Impressions event at IIT Madras to showcase projects created by government school students. From over 500 entries, 56 finalist teams presented projects in Robotics, Web development, Digital Literacy, Programming and Media Editing.

RTC Impressions – February 2026

A report on the RTC Impressions held at IITM Terrace Hall in February ’26.

You may view the album here.

Since 2022, Asha Chennai has been operating Rural Technology Centres (RTCs) in Tamil Nadu in partnership with IITM Pravartak. What began as two centres in Thiruvallur has expanded to 13 centres across Thiruvallur, Thoothukudi, Thiruvannamalai, and Thiruvarur. In 2025, additional centers were inaugurated in Uttukoati, Thirupatchur, Tiruttani, and Kottur.

The RTCs were established to provide government school students with free access to computer education, ranging from foundational skills to advanced courses. Each center is staffed by one or two teachers, who also conduct introductory classes at nearby government schools. Students with a deeper interest in computers are encouraged to join the RTCs, where they can pursue structured courses.

RTCs follow a biannual academic calendar, with terms running from February to July and August to January. Each course spans six months, comprising approximately 3.5 months of instruction followed by 1.5 months of project work. At the conclusion of each term, students submit projects that are evaluated by RTC teachers, leads, and Asha volunteers.

Outstanding projects are showcased at RTC Impressions, a biannual event held in August and February. This platform highlights student innovation and excellence, with selected projects presented before an external panel.

Project Submission

The 8^th batch of RTC students submitted their projects in January 2026, which were then evaluated by Asha volunteers, RTC Teachers, and Asha staff. The largest submissions are made for the Digital Literacy and Scratch Programming category which are our basic courses on offer.

The Event

IITM Pravartak to support us in hosting the event. They organized to host the event at the Terrace Hall in IIT Madras campus. The air-conditioned venue, with a seating capacity of 300, is equipped with facilities such as an LCD projector, amplifier, and both hand-held and collar microphones. Once the venue was confirmed, we proceeded to design and print invitations for the event. These were sent to government officials, judges, IIT representatives, and Asha staff, inviting them to attend and witness our students in action.

Since we had eight competitions, we decided to group the smaller ones under a common set of judges. However, Digital Literacy and Scratch Programming each had over 15 projects, requiring at least 15 minutes per project, so they were judged as independent competitions. Media Editing, Physical Computing and Robotics were clubbed together in one competition and, Web Development 1 & 2, and Animation were clubbed

together in another competition. These 4 competitions were happening in parallel. We planned to allocate 3–4 judges per competition, which brought our overall requirement to approximately 12–15 judges. Once the judges were intimated, we received positive confirmation from most.

The competitions were scheduled to run from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with breaks for tea and lunch in between. The prize distribution ceremony was planned from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. As a thoughtful gesture, Asha teachers prepared handmade gifts for all the judges who volunteered for the event.

The Competition

Since all our RTCs are located outside Chennai, students either traveled overnight or started early in the morning to reach the venue. Teams from Thiruvallur, Thoothukudi,

Thiruvarur, and Thiruvanamalai arrived at IIT between 8:00 and  8:30 a.m
Upon arrival, the students, teachers, and coordinators proceeded to have breakfast at the venue.

As the event was scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m., the judges had to be briefed on the grading parameters and provided with their respective competition scorecards. Once all the judges had assembled, Mr. Rajaraman, Volunteer and Coordinator for Asha Chennai, welcomed them and expressed gratitude for taking time out of their schedules to evaluate the children’s projects.

The grading framework typically follows a 30-30-40 pattern: 30% weightage for the project itself, 30% for its presentation, and 40% for the Q&A session. Judges were then handed their scorecards and assigned specific spots to evaluate the competitions.

The largest space was provided for the Digital Literacy competition. For this competition, students create presentations using Open Office of topics of their choosing.

This year, we witnessed a wide variety of projects. With AI being the buzzword, we had made that the theme for this RTC Impressions and they got extra 5 marks if their project was in the theme or if they used AI in some manner in their project. Several students chose topics related to it, including AI in Agriculture, AI Project, Applications of AI, and The IoT. Other innovative themes such as Malaineer Segarippu, Biometric Attendance System, Navarasangal, and Space Tourism showcased the creativity and range of the students.

Presentations were brought to life through song, dance, and skits, adding a vibrant dimension to the event. In a humorous twist of “UNO reverse,” instead of dreading questions from the judges, the students actively encouraged them to ask about their projects and technical knowledge. This playful confidence sparked laughter from the audience and left the judges both impressed and amused.

Scratch Programming was conducted at one end of the hall, where students presented their projects to the judges. Using Scratch, they created engaging games such as Shooting Game, Ninja Fruit Game, Match Me Game, Multi Games, Cricket, and Sound Party. When judges requested small modifications, the students took some time to implement the changes, demonstrating their adaptability and technical skills. Throughout the process, the judges offered constructive feedback and encouragement, making the session both interactive and supportive.

Students showcased a diverse range of projects under Web Development, creating websites on topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Evolution of Technology, History of Satellites, and Medical Shop Management Systems. In Physical Computing, students created projects on topics like FM Station, Four seasons App and Smart Boy.

Media Editing and Animation also featured creative presentations. One team highlighted how RTCs had helped the student gain computer literacy, boosting their confidence and success at school. Another group presented a magic show, recording themselves performing tricks and editing the footage for added effect. Students even captured photos and videos using drones, weaving them into their storytelling, which made for an engaging and memorable experience.

Robotics was the new course introduced this year and was one of the highlights of this RTC Impressions. Asha’s team has been working on developing the Robotics course in discussions with the RTC teachers. Since it has been recently introduced, we received submission from three RTCs – Seethanjeri, Kannigaiper and Periyapalayam. Out of 6 projects submitted, 3 were selected for the final presentation. The three projects were- Miniature wonderland, Safe and safety school and Smart Home. The students worked hard on their projects, creating physical models to showcase their understanding. They had used a variety of sensors (IR sensor, proximity sensor, light sensor etc.) and a variety of motors and other actuators (stepper motor, DC motors, LED lights etc.). Finally, they had also built models to show their project including sometimes 3D printed components!

Prize Distribution

The prize distribution ceremony began at 4:00 p.m., following the tea break. During the ceremony, the judges shared their experiences from the event and commended the children for their hard work, creativity, and innovative ideas. The winners were then announced, and the students received their prizes with immense joy and pride, marking a memorable conclusion to the day’s competitions. The winners of RTC Impressions Batch 8 are as follows-

Testimonials

Ms. Mala Ragnathan, RTC Impressions Judge – On Saturday, February 21st, I spent five fulfilling hours serving as a judge for the top four winners in the “Digital Literacy” category at the RTC (Rural Technology Centers) Impressions event, hosted at IIT Madras by “Asha for Education.” The competition featured outstanding projects developed by RTC students after completing their six-month courses. I had the privilege of listening to and evaluating presentations from 16 teams, each lasting 15 minutes. Students arrived by bus from distant locations, highlighting their dedication and enthusiasm. Overall, it was a truly rewarding experience indeed!

Ms. Dharini Srini, RTC Impressions Judge– Judging at RTC Impressions was a truly inspiring experience. Seeing government school students step out of their comfort zones and put in dedicated effort to learn and build web development projects was remarkable. Their commitment, curiosity, and drive to grow speak volumes about their potential.

Mr. Vinoth V, RTC Impression Judge– This was my second event with Asha as a judge for Digital Literacy, and once again, the kids truly amazed me with the level of hard work and dedication they poured into their presentations. Every participant brought forward innovative topics and demonstrated remarkable confidence in the features they used. What impressed me even more was how well-prepared they were to handle out-of-content questions, keeping the sessi

on interactive, engaging, and insightful throughout.

Testimonials

Ms. Mala Ragnathan, RTC Impressions Judge – On Saturday, February 21st, I spent five fulfilling hours serving as a judge for the top four winners in the “Digital Literacy” category at the RTC (Rural Technology Centers) Impressions event, hosted at IIT Madras by “Asha for Education.” The competition featured outstanding projects developed by RTC students after completing their six-month courses. I had the privilege of listening to and evaluating presentations from 16 teams, each lasting 15 minutes. Students arrived by bus from distant locations, highlighting their dedication and enthusiasm. Overall, it was a truly rewarding experience indeed!

Ms. Dharini Srini, RTC Impressions Judge– Judging at RTC Impressions was a truly inspiring experience. Seeing government school students step out of their comfort zones and put in dedicated effort to learn and build web development projects was remarkable. Their commitment, curiosity, and drive to grow speak volumes about their potential.

Mr. Vinoth V, RTC Impression Judge– This was my second event with Asha as a judge for Digital Literacy, and once again, the kids truly amazed me with the level of hard work and dedication they poured into their presentations. Every participant brought forward innovative topics and demonstrated remarkable confidence in the features they used. What impressed me even more was how well-prepared they were to handle out-of-content ques

tions, keeping the session interactive, engaging, and insightful throughout.

One key takeaway for me from the day is that learning is truly a never-ending process. The teachers who mentor and guide these students are living examples of that philosophy. Asha is doing a tremendous job by introducing forward-thinking courses such as web development, robotics, HTML, and more, equipping young minds with skills that truly matter.

It was a lovely experience to co-judge the event alongside experienced professionals and spend such an inspiring day with these bright young talents. Thank you, Asha, for this wonderful opportunity. Asha is truly making an impact in every child’s life!

Code.Org Partner Meeting at Mexico

By Mr. Venkat Ramasamy- Volunteer, Asha Chennai

Code.org organized a Global Partner Meeting (AIEDU Global Meeting) held in Mexico from October 27–29, 2025.

The summit served as a pivotal moment for international partners to align on the “AI + CS” (Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science) transition, ensuring that the shift toward AI education remains inclusive and human-centered.

1. Executive Summary

The meeting focused on the “AI for Education” (AIEDU) framework, emphasizing that Computer Science education must now evolve to include AI literacy as a fundamental right. Partners from India, Chile, Spain, Uruguay, and Mexico shared localized strategies for integrating Generative AI into classrooms while maintai

ning a focus on foundational literacy and equity.

• India: Asha for Education (Asha Chennai), Central Square Foundation (CSF), Leadership for Equity (LFE).
• Mexico: Fundación Televisa (Cuantrix, Tecnolochicas).
• Chile: Fundación Kodea.
• Spain: Generación Code.
• Uruguay: Ceibal.

2. Agenda

Oct 26 – Pre-meeting Dinner

Oct 27 – Welcome presentations by Hadi Partovi, Forest Key and Alejandro Villanueva

Oct 27 – Code.Org presentation about Shaping AI Education

Oct 27 – Art Museum (not open to the public) – Opportunity to view artifacts preserved by Fundación Televisa

Oct 27 – Partner Presentations – what each partner is doing in their domain

Oct 27 – Optional event to go into town

Oct 28 – 2 School visits in the Mazahua Region

Oct 28 – Visit a Tecnolochica school in Toluca

Oct 28 – Lucha Libre – Fun evening at a wrestling event

Oct 29 – Code.Org presentations on Impact of CS Education, AI Framework, etc.

Oct 29 – Split Spanish speaking groups and Indian groups for partner presentations

3. School Visits

On October 28th all the partners were transported by bus to the Mazahua region. It took about two hours by bus. We first went to a middle/high school. The students welcomed all the visitors with garlands. They must’ve run out of flowers, so some of the garlands were made of cookies and bread.

The first school we visited was a combination middle school and high school. All of the students were bilingual, speaking Spanish and Mazahuan. They had a large playground, basketball backboards, very rural almost like Asha supported schools. There was a trainer who was training the teacher in the school who was helping these students. The school had a computer lab with about 20 computers much like our hi-tech labs in our high schools. They were learning to program in scratch and all of the students completed their exercise which was impressive. They all had access to a computer, so they worked independently.

The next school was an elementary school. They also had a large playground and basketball backboards. It was interesting that the whole area was free of garbage unlike these locations in India. Most of the children at both schools were dressed in traditional Mazahuan clothes and apparently they come to school everyday in those clothes. They only had one computer and everyone who spoke including the teachers and students were pitching for additional funds for more computers. The children were really eloquent and had no stage fright when speaking. It was interesting to see that they didn’t have running water in the school and the children had to carry a bucket with water when going to the restroom.

We traveled from there to a city called Toluca where the high school was well funded and associated with the local University. The school was supported by Tecnolochicas (another arm of Fundación Televisa. This was a far more advanced school. The teacher and students were performing at a pretty advanced level compared to our high school students. They were learning to simulate a breadboard and insert resistors and LEDs appropriately. The school itself had a very small playground and was overflowing with students.

4. Key Themes

A. The “AI + CS” Curriculum Shift

A major consensus was reached on evolving the standard coding curriculum. The group discussed how tools like “AI Buddy” and the “Hour of AI” are being used to move beyond syntax-heavy coding toward prompt engineering, algorithmic bias awareness, and ethical AI usage.

B. Teacher Empowerment and Capacity Building

• Scaling Training: The challenge of training millions of teachers was a central theme.
• Co-Pilot Models: Partners explored “AI-assisted teaching,” where teachers use AI to generate lesson plans and provide personalized feedback to students, reducing administrative burdens.

C. Digital Governance and Public Policy

Ceibal (Uruguay) and Kodea (Chile) and other partners discussed how to work with ministries of education to create national frameworks. Almost all the institutions represented were closely working with the government in some way including CSF and LFE from India. The goal seems to be to move from “pilot projects” to “systemic policy” that mandates AI literacy in the public school system.

5. Regional Contributions and Insights

6. Learnings

1. All the partners at the meeting were deeply connected with their respective governments and were formulating and proposing policies. Code.org themselves are looking to impact policies around the world to make CS and AI education more accessible to children in all walks of life.
2. None of the other partners seem to employ their own teachers. They are either creating curriculum or working with government teachers. As such their knowledge of ground realities with the exception of Cuantrix in Mexico, is slightly less than us at Asha Chennai.
3. Everyone has made a fundamental shift from Coding to Artificial Intelligence. Their presentations seemed to suggest that they have figured how to teach AI, but individual conversations threw light on their struggles as well, although they have thought about this a lot longer than Asha and are ahead in terms of AI literacy.
4. I also learnt from these organizations that their funding was becoming more and more tied to AI education rather than CS education much like Asha Chennai’s experience with Amazon.
5. Code.org has close to 130 activities available for their partners to use. The collection includes submissions from many different organizations including universities, corporations and organizations like Khan Academy.

7. Asha for Education Chennai – AI Integration

There are potentially things that Asha can do in steps as we move forward to integrate AI into our curriculum.

Phase I: Curriculum Localization & Adaptation

• AI-Enhanced Kanini Platform: Update the Kanini software to include “Offline AI” modules. These modules will use lightweight, locally hosted Large Language Models (LLMs) that do not require high-speed internet.
• Bilingual Content: Translate Code.org’s “Hour of AI” resources into Tamil and Hindi, ensuring the vocabulary is culturally relevant for rural students.

Phase II: Teacher Capacity Building

• AI Teacher Support Agents: Inspired by the Mexican Cuantrix model, Asha can pilot AI-powered chatbots to assist both Asha teachers and government teachers in troubleshooting coding errors and create efficient code especially when we move to text based coding.
• RTC Training: We could ask motivated Asha teachers to take classes at our RTCs as well.

Phase III: Policy Alignment & Scaling

SCERT Partnership: Work with SCERT to address issues with TN Spark

• Data-Driven Advocacy: Use the assessment data from Kanini to provide evidence to the Ministry of Education on the effectiveness of AI-assisted learning in rural contexts.
• Modify TN Spark curriculum to include Projects at the end of each year.
• Provide a model for training government teachers effectively
• Make working with the government and NSNOP a priority

AIEDU Global Meeting 2025

This video provides a visual overview of the discussions and key attendees from the AIEDU meeting in Mexico, including the organizations mentioned in this report.

Oral Assessment 2024-25

Since 2015-16, we at Asha have been actively conducting assessments at schools supported by us. The oral assessments are conducted using the toolkit developed by Pratham as part of their ASER survey. These are gross tools which are useful to understand the level of learning among the children in the school. Our written assessments are more detailed and provide a clearer picture of the gaps in the learning.

In addition to conducting the assessments we also gather sociological data which helps in understanding the causes of poor performance by a school or group.

With this goal in mind, we started out Oral assessments at all our projects in October. We covered 188 schools, evaluating 14,733 students in both Tamilnadu and Uttar Pradesh.

You may view the album here.

Every year, teachers are trained in the process of conducting these assessments. The trainings were done both online by Mr. Rajaraman and offline by teachers at their locations. There are a number of aspects of Pratham’s ASER that are subjective and can influence the results from a school and therefore it is important that the teachers conduct the assessment the same way.

Oral assessments are conducted in English, Tamil/Hindi and Math. The question papers are printed at each of our projects by Project Coordinators who them distribute them amongst the teachers.

Oral Assessments 2024-25

Project Sangamam

Oral assessments were conducted in 86 schools at Thiruvallur. 43 teachers were involved out of which 5 of the teachers were participating for the first time. The training was done on 1^st and 2^nd November, 2024. Assessments were conducted between 5 Nov to 12 Nov, 2024. Since 5 new teachers had joined, they did not conduct the assessment but observed the process with the others.

Project Pearl

In Thoothukudi district, we conducted oral assessments in all 28 schools of the Pearl Project in November 2024. A total of 17 teachers helped with the assessments. Mr. Rajaram held a meeting on Google Meet on November 2, 2024, to explain the process. Out of the 17 teachers, 7 were new to the process. The assessments started on November 5, 2024, and ended on November 11, 2024.

Project Thulasi

At our schools in Villupuram and Thiruvanamalai, we conducted oral assessement at 25 schools and 13 teachers, including 4 new teachers were involved. Online training was provided for all the teachers. The training was conducted between online on November 2^nd. The assessments were conducted between November 4-12, 2024.

Project PoornaVidhya and Manigal

Assessments were conducted at 12 schools in Chennai and vicinity. 11 teachers were involved in the assessment and one teacher was assigned to 25 students depending on the strength of the class. The teachers attended online training session and this year 3 new teachers were involved. The assessments went on from November 6-11, 2024. At some of the schools, we faced problem of finding adequate space to sit and conduct the assessments. However, we were able to complete them successfully and the teachers observed an improvement in the children this year.

Project Cauvery

In Thriuvarur, assessments were conducted at 18 schools supported by Asha. 7 teachers were involved out of which, 4 are conducting it for the first time. The training for assessments was done on 4 Nov,2024. Assessments were conducted between 05 Nov to 14 Nov,2024.

Project Sangamam Rajatalab

Rajatalab in Varanasi was one of the first projects to begin oral assessments. We covered 12 schools and 8 teachers were involved. Two teachers conducted the assessment where one of them was observer. Training for the teachers was conducted on 19 October, 2024. Assessments were conducted between 21-30 October, 2024.

Project Mirzapur

Mirzapur is a smaller project. We conducted assessments in 7 schools this year covering 470 students.

Data Gathering and Upload

After conducting the assessments, all the teachers continued the exercise of gathering the sociological data for the students. These included,

• Height and weight.

• Parents education.

• What kind of preschool education did the student have?

• Is the student regular with homework?

• Does the student come from the same hamlet as the school, neighboring hamlet or a little farther away?

• Attendance of the student.

They then submit the assessment data which went on till Dec 2024. See a separate report for the analysis of the results from the assessment- Asha Chennai Assessment Analysis

Innovation @ Asha Chennai – 2025

Dec 2025 by Rajaraman Krishnan, volunteer Asha Chennai

Asha Chennai has always focused on research and innovation in terms of understanding the problems that confront education for the underprivileged and experimenting to find the right solution for the problem whether it be in identifying the right processes, developing the right curriculum or even finding the right way to monitor and evaluate our solution. This aspect of Asha Chennai received a big boost in Dec 2024 as we were recognized by Amazon for the innovative work that we were doing and we award the Amazon Innovation Grant of $100K. This helped us take these kinds of innovations we do even further during the last year. In this report we capture some of the innovations we have brought in during the last year.

Please find the details of these innovations in the sections below.

Asha Kanini Software and Contents

Asha has developed the Asha Kanini software to provide an easy way for teachers to access digital contents relevant for their lessons. The software and the contents already had several innovations in their (like being network independent, digital lesson plans we have curated to provide a simple collection of all contents they will need to teach a lesson, etc. We are continuing to improve both the software and the contents. Here are couple of these innovations.

New method for mapping contents

Asha Kanini Version 4, launched in late 2024, introduced a significant enhancement in the form of a Mapping Dashboard. This feature is primarily designed to support teachers who regularly align digital learning content with the various government textbooks for different subjects. Whenever textbooks or lesson structures are revised by the authorities, a substantial amount of manual effort is typically required to re-map content to the updated framework. The Mapping Dashboard addresses this challenge by integrating Asha Kanini’s robust search capabilities with a streamlined mapping workflow, enabling teachers to efficiently transfer existing mappings to newly introduced textbooks and lessons. The system generates a ready-to-upload mapping file, thereby simplifying the adaptation process. Through this innovation, Asha Kanini ensures that its digital content remains continually relevant and aligned with evolving curricular standards, while significantly reducing teachers’ workload and supporting smoother transitions during periods of educational reform.

MESL activities

Over the last 2 or 3 years Asha Chennai’s teachers have developed lesson plans to teach every lesson in English, Maths and Science. These lesson plan provide pre-test and post-tests, contents for teaching the concepts, contents for children to practice, etc. However, these are designed for teachers who use Asha Kanini most of the time. What if a teacher occasionally gets a class with computers and would like to do some activity associated with a lesson in the curriculum but not use Asha Kanini to teach the whole lesson?

To address this need, we create these MESL (Maths, English, Science and Logical Reasoning) activities package of contents. The idea with each of these activities is to clarify a concept and build competence. We set about to create 8 activities per year for each of the subjects. Our own computer teachers will use these activities in addition to teaching CS lessons in the curriculum.

Each of these MESL activity comprises of 3 parts:

• Offline activity like a story or a classroom game.
• Online activity which reinforces the concept.
• A pen-and-paper activity which ensures the concept learned is also transferred to the standard verbal mode.

The teachers executing it will need to take with them some manipulatives (like dice or a deck of cards) or a set of worksheets to execute some of the activities. We have equipped all our computer teachers with the same.

These MESL activities were created during 2023-24. These got completed and made available through Asha Kanini in 2024-25. In addition, the output reporting tool for the Sprint-CS teachers, provides option for them to report teaching an activity from these MESL activities.

Computer Science Curriculum

Asha Chennai has been teaching Computer Science through various programs.

Sprint A 8-year CS curriculum for classes 1 to 8. Te 40 hours per year is also shared with the MESL activities mentioned above.

Explore A set of discrete activities largely independent of each other to be delivered to class 6 to 9 students.

ACE A 2 year curriculum covering Digital Literacy in the first year and Programming in the second year for class 6 to 9 students. This is taught by government teachers who are trained by Asha trainers.

RTC A series of 6-month long courses which assume about 60 hours per course taking the students beyond basic digital literacy and programming.

The first section below talks about the process by which the courses are being created. The second section talks about our broad approach to Artificial Intelligence which impacts the curriculum in all our programs. The rest of the sections talk about specific new courses and curriculum changes.

Course Designing and Development

See the “Courses Offered” section below for more details about the courses. The first two courses in basic digital literacy and basic programming (Scratch) were compressed versions of our old Eight-year curriculum. The first 3 Advanced Courses that came after that were courses from Code.org’s CS Discoveries (Web Development, Javascript Animations and Physical Computing). Then we started designing our own advanced courses.

Volunteers work with our own software development team in Chennai to first give the basic structure of the course. Then the developer team works with a teacher team from the RTCs to specify the details of the course and to create a 30-hour lesson plans for the same. The lesson plans are typically done by the teacher teams. This way we have been able to create a set of technically sound courses which are also at a level that is suitable for the students. The new courses designed in this manner include,

• Media Editing – One of our most successful and popular courses offered now by most RTCs.
• Web Development 2.0 – The first version of it was too long. We have created another version that is more suitable for the 6-month terms at our RTCs. It is being implemented in 2 RTCs.
• Robotics 1.0 – This has been designed and is being rolled out in 3 RTCs. It is one of the most anticipated courses and by next term expected to be offered in most of our RTCs.
• Artificial Intelligence – We expect to have this ready by the Feb 2026 term.
• Robotics 2.0 – This will be ready by the Aug 2026 term.

Artificial Intelligence

We have been looking at introducing Artificial Intelligence in all the programs that we are doing. While teaching AI, we keep in mind the following aspects.

• AI Literacy – How to use AI in real life? Various aspects in terms of text, images, music, coding etc. Incorporating it into what they are learning. Understanding bias, and safety procedures.
• How does AI work? How does machine learning and LLMs work?
• Incorporate AI into a broader solution of theirs. Prompt engineering, Customising LLMs, etc.

We are in the process of incorporating AI into our various programs.

AI Activities for Explore

In addition to the existing digital literacy activities, we have now introduced a new set of One-Hour AI Activities under the Explore programme. These are standalone, flexible lessons that teachers can select and deliver independently. Each of these lessons are designed to provide students with hands-on exposure to Artificial Intelligence concepts and tools. Rather than focusing solely on procedural use of AI applications, the activities adopt a black-box pedagogical approach, emphasizing intuitive understanding of how AI works and how it can be applied meaningfully in real-world contexts. Many of the featured tools are aligned with the latest AI-integrated Spark curriculum introduced by the Tamil Nadu Government. Additional activities adapted from Code.org’s Hour of AI initiative are in the pipeline. The objective is to enable students to explore diverse aspects of AI, develop responsible and effective usage skills and cultivate curiosity about emerging technologies in a manner that is engaging, age-appropriate, and future-ready.

The AI activities are structured in such a way that it encourages students to learn through creation and exploration. For instance, learners generate a short story using an AI writing tool and then illustrate it using an AI-based drawing application such as AutoDraw, which predicts possible images from their sketch strokes. This naturally opens up opportunities to discuss how AI recognises patterns and offers suggestions based on partial information. Students also work with familiar tools like Google Translate and Google Lens to observe how AI interprets language and identifies objects in real time. Through such simple, hands-on experiences, children gain an intuitive understanding of how AI functions in the technology they encounter every day, helping them build curiosity and confidence in engaging with emerging digital tools.

AI extensions to our 8-year CS Curriculum

Our Sprint program has been implementing an 8 year CS curriculum in the 190+ schools that we support. Classes 6 to 8 were covering programming through unplugged activities, Blockly Games and Scratch. This was finishing in the 8^th standard with an assessment and project work on Scratch. This is being compressed so that programming will be completed by the 7^th std and then 8^th std will implement Physical Computing. The broad curriculum for the 8 years will be as follows.

1^st/2^nd Stds – Build familiarity with computers using educational games.

3^rd std – Develop ideas of persistence and computers capabilities through TuxPaint.

4^th and 5^th Stds – Basics of Windows UI and Office software (Text document, Spreadsheet and Presentation). Culminate in a Presentation project in 5^th std. Assessment in DL also in 5^th std.

6^th and 7^th stds – Programmming through unplugged activities, Blockly games and then Scratch. Culminate in Programming project in 7^th std. Assessment in Programming also in 7^th Std.

8^th std – Physical computing with a CPX board using Code.org’s physical computing course. Culminate in Physical Computing project as well as assessment in Physical Computing.

We are planning to add AI activities starting from class 3. From class 6 onwards, these will also align with the activities already in their Spark curriculum.

AI course for the RTC

An AI course is being developed for students at the RTC to strengthen their understanding of modern AI technologies.

The course is structured in three progressive parts. The first phase focuses on familiarizing learners with a range of AI tools and their practical use in everyday contexts. The second phase introduces foundational concepts behind AI systems, including how generative AI and large language models function, how they are trained and how their behaviour can be tuned to meet specific needs. The final phase will focus on application, guiding students to integrate AI capabilities into simple web pages by developing basic code, embedding models and designing meaningful prompts for interaction.

The course will also emphasize responsible AI practices, addressing key topics such as ethics, data safety and appropriate usage. It is an essential dimension as students begin interacting more closely with AI systems. With only knowledge of HTML and CSS required at the start, the course aims to empower students to confidently build AI-powered web experiences while using these technologies thoughtfully and safely.

Web Development 2.0

This course is designed to give students a strong introduction to full-stack application development. It builds on the foundational skills from Web Development 1.0 (HTML and CSS) and expands into front-end programming, server-side development, and backend integration. Students progressively develop a complete website as they learn, allowing concepts to be layered and reinforced rather than treated in isolation. This approach also strengthens their ability to modify existing code, debug and test functionality, and ultimately deploy a working web application.

The curriculum introduces basic networking concepts such as HTTP/HTTPS, requests and responses, sessions, and timeouts, helping students understand how web systems operate under the hood. The course uses JavaScript throughout the stack, with Node.js and Express.js for server-side development, MySQL for database operations, and EJS for client-side rendering. By the end of the course, students will have gained practical experience in developing dynamic web applications.

An essential part of the course, in line with Asha’s pedagogy, is a comprehensive project through which students design, build, and deploy their own full-stack web application. The learning experience throughout the course is intentionally hands-on and iterative, enabling students to explore, experiment, and see the direct impact of each concept as they build and refine a real-world product.

Courses in Robotics

The Robotics 1.0 introduces students to the fundamentals of robotics using the Circuit Playground Express (CPX) board, building on the physical computing concepts they have already experienced through the code.org course. Through progressive, hands-on activities, students learn how to connect and program a wide range of sensors and actuators using CircuitPython, starting with the built-in capabilities of CPX and later extending to external components.

The curriculum emphasizes practical electronics, understanding inputs and outputs, processing sensor data and controlling motors to create purposeful movement and behaviour. A key aspect of this course is the robotics kit itself, which is designed using accessible, standard hardware components such as telescopic slides to demonstrate rack-and-pinion mechanisms, along with generic sensors and motors. By avoiding highly specialised parts, students are encouraged to design creatively and innovate using materials that are commonly available in everyday environments.

The Crickit board add-on further expands possibilities, enabling learners to prototype moving robots such as rovers, sliding gates, environmental monitors and multi-joint robotic arms. Throughout the course, debugging and iterative design are embedded as essential engineering skills. The learning culminates in a final project where students design, build, program and refine a robot of their own, applying the full range of technical and creative skills developed during the course.

The next level will extend these skills into more advanced course Robotics 2.0 by introducing ESP-series microcontrollers, encoder-based motors for open- and closed-loop control, enhanced structural mechanics and advanced sensors. Students will also explore Bluetooth/Wi-Fi connectivity and host-controlled systems, enabling them to design smarter, network-enabled robots while building confidently on their Robotics 1.0 foundation.

As an extension to the robotics pathway, 3D printers and drones are also being introduced in the RTCs to broaden students’ exposure to emerging technologies. Students will be able to design and print custom components for their robots such as brackets, joints, gears and structural elements, gaining first-hand experience with the modern prototyping practices used in engineering and industry. Alongside this, working with educational drones will help learners understand concepts such as aerial navigation, stability, and sensor-based control. By integrating mechanical design, automation, 3D printing and algorithmic control, students gain a more complete view of the engineering lifecycle and are empowered to innovate with practical solutions to real-world problems around them.

Input, Output and Outcome Trackers

We have been building our own trackers to track our assets, work done by our teachers etc. We have also been rigorously conducting assessments at all our programs and these data is also being tracked. Here are the changes we have brought in, in this regard.

Asset Tracker

With a large number of laptops spread across an equally large number of schools, we have done some automation of the asset tracking process.

Each laptop is given an asset ID and an asset ID sticker with the asset ID and a QR code like below is stuck on the laptop. Once a quarter we have the teachers at all the school scan the QR code and report the status of the laptops. You can try scanning the QR Code below to report the status of a virtual laptop!

This enables us to know the status of all the laptops. In addition to this we also have a pinger app that runs on all laptops we have provided which when connected to the Internet periodically send an “I am alive” message to our server. We can thus also know that the laptops are really being used and not just gathering dust in some bureau.

Problem reporting and tracking of the problems, is done using Google Forms and a Google sheet currently. This Asha Chennai Computer Maintenance (or CCM) is also being brought into our own server and can be triggered from the same QR code mentioned above.

Work (Output) Tracking

At the start of the Explore and ACE program, we were using a Google Sheet to track the work being done by the teachers and the trainers. Towards the end of 2023-24 academic year, we developed forms for teachers and trainers to report the work they were doing. Each time the teacher teaches a lesson, they report the detail. This includes the following,

• School (comes from the session).
• Teacher (comes from the session).
• Class and section (comes from the session unless they take multiple classes / sections).
• Date (comes from the system).
• Lesson they taught (comes prepopulated if they scanned the QR code at the end of the lesson in their teacher manual).
• Attendance – Has to be entered. Note that the total class/section strength is entered into the system at the beginning of the year.
• Comments or Notes if any.

As you can see from the above, there is very little that the teacher has to enter manually. They just scan the QR code at the end of the lesson and most of the form comes prepopulated and they just enter the attendance, add any comments and submit. Trainers who visit schools to assist/observe a class also submit a form on the class they observed. They are required to submit their own (trainer) name as well. Otherwise the form is similar.

Data Approval process

The teacher and trainer form submissions are viewed by “Lead Teachers” who then approve or reject the data entry. They can also edit and approve the data. This is then approved on a monthly basis by the “Administrator” for the ACE program.

Curriculum Tracker

For each curriculum we are implementing (ie. 1^st year or DL, 2^nd year Asha programming, 2^nd year CSF Express programming), we have a tracker which shows the progress of the implementation over the academic year. In the picture below you can see the curriculum tracker for ACE v2 Digital Literacy in the year 2024-25.

Each green square represents a lesson taught at the school. The reason some of the lessons (eg. L10 to L15) are white for most schools is that we dropped some of the lessons given the paucity of time. Dark green squares represent visits on that day by Asha trainers. The number in the square indicates that the same lesson was repeated multiple times either because the group was broken into two and separate classes taken or the lesson had to be repeated. If the lesson was taught in the wrong order (not in the pictures here), then that will be shows with a small red ‘x’ inside. Clicking on the lesson numbers at the top will open the lesson plan for that lesson and hovering will show the lesson title. Clicking on the green squares will provide the data entries (both trainer data and teacher data) corresponding to that school-class-lesson combination. The curriculum tracker provides a powerful tool to quickly get the status of the curriculum implementation at the schools and figure out any challenges at a school or with the curriculum.

Tracker for Explore

The Asha Kanini portal includes a comprehensive tracker for its Explore programme that enables systematic monitoring of activity coverage at multiple levels – overall, district-wise, and school-wise.

Trainers log each independent one-hour activity (such as digital-literacy, career tours, or upcoming AI modules) conducted in a school. The data is validated and approved at two different levels to ensure correctness of information and the tracker dashboard aggregates these data. This consolidated view allows lead teachers and others to assess which types of activities are most frequently implemented, how adoption varies across regions, and how overall participation evolves over time. Such a data-driven dashboard supports evidence-based decision making: it helps identify under-served districts or schools, monitor consistency of delivery and inform resource allocation or pedagogical adjustments.

The Explore tracker is built to capture each session of stand-alone learning activities as discrete, independent events. The tracker does not enforce a fixed sequential order. This flexibility reflects a key design decision: since explore-type activities are not part of a linear curriculum but optional enrichment sessions, the tracker simply records which activity was conducted, at what school, by whom, and when. Because of this structure, when we visualise data across schools or districts, the tracker naturally reveals which activities are more popular or easier to implement, for instance, activities requiring minimal resources and short duration compared to those needing more preparation due to its complexity or special tools. Over time, the data aggregated by the tracker helps identify common patterns: which types of activities tend to be repeated more often, which are under-utilised, and where there might be resource or training gaps. In other words, the tracker does more than log participation; it surfaces insights into teacher preferences, resource constraints, and implementation feasibility across different districts and schools. This way, the Explore tracker becomes a powerful tool not just for monitoring coverage but for guiding programme development and output tracking.

Tracker for Sprint Computer Teachers

The Sprint CS Tracker has been designed to monitor the delivery of the Computer Science curriculum and the associated MESL (Maths, Science, English and Logical Reasoning) activities conducted by our computer science teachers in primary and middle schools.

The two parts of the Sprint tracker resemble the ACE tracker and Explore tracker. The CS curriculum follows a defined sequence of progressive lessons like the ACE curriculum. Whereas, the MESL activities are discrete activities like Explore activities. Therefore, the Sprint Tracker simultaneously supports multiple verticals of tracking, the structured Computer Science lessons and the Maths, English, Science, and Logical Reasoning (MESL) based activities that teachers select to build conceptual understanding. In addition, the tracker accommodates versions of curriculum taught. While many teachers may have transitioned to the latest curriculum version, some continue to follow earlier structures due to readiness or school-level constraints. Teachers record these choices and progressions, enabling the system to accurately reflect real implementation on the ground.

The tracker provides both aggregate and detailed views of this progress. The aggregated data summarises sessions delivered across classes and domains. The expanded views across columns show curriculum progression at each class level and the expanded view across rows show statistics at the teacher and school level. The data logging also allows teachers to capture deviations and adaptations made by them. For instance, a teacher may choose an activity from a different package over the prescribed ones from the MESL package. This is captured by the tracker. The tracker also captures repetitions of topics or classes, often indicating where learners require reinforcement and records dates for each session, enabling analysis of patterns such as extended gaps that may disrupt learning continuity.

Together, these insights help identify what is working well and where additional support may be needed. Through this horizontal and vertical visibility, the Sprint Tracker strengthens accountability and planning. By visually tracking output and seeing factors like curriculum coverage, repetitions, pacing and curriculum deviation, we can identify gaps and make informed improvements to our curriculum and implementation.

Trackers for RTC and KaradiPath Programs

The RTC and Karadi Path trackers are currently under development and extend the principles established through the Sprint and Explore trackers.

The RTC tracker is designed to monitor course delivery across RTCs, offering both aggregate progression views at the centre level and detailed, student-wise tracking for each course. As with Sprint, the RTC tracker will highlight patterns such as repetition of lessons, pacing variations and deviations from planned curriculum flow if any. This will help to identify where additional support or adjustments may be needed in curriculum and implementation.

The Karadi Path tracker addresses the Karadipath program’s curriculum progression in a structured sequence. Tracking coverage, continuity, and reinforcement across classes will provide valuable insight into instructional patterns.

Over time, combining this output data from trackers with assessment analytics will allow us to study how far aspects such as curriculum progression, frequency of revision, or disruptions align with student performance in English oral and written assessments. This creates a meaningful evidence stream to understand what is happening in classrooms and to refine programme implementation based on real usage patterns.

Extension to our Baseline and Endline Assessment

We have been using the Northstar Digital Literacy Assessments to conduct Baseline and Endline assessments for a random sample of our students for a couple of years now. This was done for students who have just joined our Digital Literacy course and those who have just completed the same course. Starting from Feb/Mar 2025, we started doing the same assessment for students who have completed 3 courses with our RTCs.

See the section below under assessments for more details.

Assessment Analytics

Asha’s assessment analytics system has been strengthened with several new capabilities that enable richer and more structured views of student performance across schools, programmes and time. These enhancements support comparisons at different levels and allow us to study how learning progresses over years and across different contexts. Recent implementations include:

• Analytics across subjects: enables comparisons like English vs Maths performance at both student and school levels to observe alignment between subjects
• Oral vs written assessment correlations: helps understand consistency across different modes of testing
• CS Programme linked performance views: helps connect Computer Science assessments with academic performance in English and Maths
• Ranking-based comparisons across years: tracks how school rankings shift or remain stable over time, independent of teacher movement
• Longitudinal tracking of individual students: uses a persistent TrackerID to follow the same students from one grade to the next (e.g. 2^nd to 5^th to 8^th), enabling multi-year progression analysis
• Historical trend analysis: compares yearly performance to study effects of events such as Covid disruptions and the pace of learning recovery
• School structural analytics: relates performance to factors like overall school strength and student-teacher ratio
• Geographic and medium-based comparisons: allows regional performance views and comparisons between English and Tamil medium schools
• Programme analytics for Karadi Path: shows English performance in relation to level of exposure to the KaradiPath programme
• Cross-sectional sociological analytics: relates student performance to parental education, preschool exposure, attendance, homework regularity.
• School and Student cross-sectional analytics: relates student performance to class composition (e.g. SC/ST %, BPL %), Medium, Mini school enrolment during Covid period, Region like TN and UP etc.

Together, these expanded analytical perspectives provide a strong basis for studying learning patterns more meaningfully across contexts. One promising direction we can consider is combining them with output-tracking data to enable even deeper insights into implementation and its relationship with performance.

Processes at our Programs

We have been evolving the various programs in several smaller ways as well. Here we capture some of these process improvements at our programs.

Infrastructure at the RTCs

With laptop donations from Amazon, all our RTCs are well equipped with computers these days. In some of the RTCs we have been able to add a printer. Most of the RTCs have also gotten either a projector or a big screen TV. While a Smart Class system would have been ideal, teachers can now teach a class connecting their laptops to either the TV or the projector.

We have also always viewed the RTCs as digital resource centers for students to come experience technology. Towards this end, we are also looking at purchasing some 3D printers and drones that will be made available to the RTCs that the children can play with. The 3D printers can also be used in our new Robotics course. Drones with camera can be used in our media editing course. We are planning to see how we can also incorporate programmable drones into our curriculum.

Amazon TIS Makerspace Training

Asha is partnering with Amazon on various computer education related programs. As a part of that, they invited us to bring our children to the Makerspace they have built in partnership with TIS (The Innovation Story) in Bengaluru. In July we took 50 children from our various RTCs to the Amazon TIS Makerspace. They got an exposure to a lot of latest technologies like Robotics, Drones, 3D Pens, 3D printers etc. TIS also prepares teams for various premier Robotic competitions like First Robotics, FirstTech Challenge etc. The students could see the kind of robots that the TIS teams have created for their competitions.

For many of the students, this is also the first time they are travelling anywhere overnight outside of their homes. It was a great experience for them. We have agreed with Amazon to bring 50 of our children to this training 3 times a year (at the beginning of each academic term).

Teacher Training Model

Teacher training is something we have to constantly do as we are introducing new courses. New teachers are also constantly being added to all our programs. There is a regular teacher training over video conference being handled by volunteers as well as the more senior teachers themselves. Teachers are allotted to these training sessions based on our assessment of their skill levels which is done with an annual Teacher Evaluation Test conducted in June every year. With our software development team getting involved in the course design, they have also got involved with the teacher training especially for the courses that they have designed. See the section below for another initiative we have launched to upskill our teachers.

In addition to this, our ACE program is all about teacher training. Asha Chennai has been training government teachers to implement a two year curriculum in Computer Science. The first year curriculum covers Digital literacy and the second year curriculum covers programming. These teachers are mostly from non-CS background and the entire curriculum needed to be taught to the teachers. We have followed a training plan that includes the following.

1. Teacher as a Lead Learner – Teacher is not expected to be an expert in the subject. The teacher will learn the topics just a little before the students and be able to guide the students to also learn the lessons.
2. Frequent training sessions – We have one training session a month where the teachers learn between 4 and 6 lessons for the upcoming weeks. That way there will not be a long gap between their training and actual implementation of a lesson in the class.
3. Hand holding at the point of delivery – If the teacher has any doubt when teaching a lesson in the classroom or before that as she refreshes, our trainer team will be available to answer any questions. Our trainers will travel to the school once a month to address any doubts and also participate in the teaching of one lesson when he/she is there. Any problems with the infrastructure is also similarly addressed in the classroom by the trainers or a system admin.

With this training model, we have had a tremendously successful first year with the DL curriculum. The same success is continuing into the second year programming curriculum as well.

Teachers as Software Developers

We started trying another interesting experiment with teacher training. The world over, one of the main problems is to keep the knowledge of the teachers up to date especially in a fast changing area like Computer Science. We felt the best way to achieve this is to get the teachers also involved in software development. This will serve multiple purposes.

1. Teachers will learn the latest tools and methods of software development and gain an understanding of the real-world challenges in doing this.
2. As the software development in Asha is geared towards education, teachers’ participation will bring in their expertise on the needs of the school/teacher/students into the development process. The software developers will also gain from this experience in their midst.
3. Given a large difference in salaries between software developers and teacher this will provide the teachers an opportunity to earn some extra money and even transition to a developer role. It will also provide Asha an opportunity to lower the cost of development.

Some teams of teachers have got involved in this kind of software development and the experiment has been progressing well!

Certificate Distribution Function

The Assessment and the RTC Impressions events mark the end of the term at the RTCs. Typically, after the RTC Impressions, the RTCs host a certificate distribution function for all the students who have obtained a certificate in that term (cleared the assessment and submitted an acceptable project for the course). They also give the children a good lunch during this time.

One of the main reasons for hosting the RTC Impressions event was to provide the children a way to develop the skills required to present their work to other, overcome stage fear etc. With the increase in the number of RTCs, this chance was getting harder to come by for most students. We decided this time to bring neighbouring RTCs together for the certificate distribution function and make this a platform for the students of these RTCs to showcase their projects before judges, while also facing Q&A. In these events Asha volunteers and staff acted as judges. Further this also would give the parents and the local school teachers an opportunity to see what these children are learning. This proved to be a great success at all the communities. Organised at local wedding halls, these brought together the parents, the students, the teachers, the govt. officials and the volunteers in a function. We hope to continue this new tradition.

Impact Assessment of our ACE and RTC Programs

An independent impact assessment conducted by AuxoHub between Jan to March, 2025 covering 60 students, 9 teachers and 27 others including government school teachers, judges at the RTC events, etc. It highlighted over 90% pass rates, strong digital literacy gains, and improvements in Maths, English, and problem-solving. Children who had never had the opportunity to touch a computer now confidently write code, design projects to solve real-world challenges, and present their work with pride. You may read the complete report here or the summary presentation here.

Asha has been working hard to ensure RTCs continue to innovate and provide the best education for school children in technology in a cost effective manner. With support from IITM Pravartak and donors, we hope to continue that work.

Funding and Conclusions

These innovations were largely driven by our software developers and senior teachers. These were made possible due to the grant we received from Amazon Innovation Grant in Dec 2024.

We have received another $100K (Rs 87 Lakhs) of funds from Amazon Innovation Grant in Nov 2025 as well. While we as an organization remain focused on innovating what we are doing, this funding enables these bold experiments.

Please click here to view the analysis of the oral, written and CS assessments conducted at Asha in 2024-25.

ACE Winners Turn Prizes into Progress – Batch 1 & 2

Asha Computer Education (ACE) is the flagship initiative by Asha, to bring computer literacy to government school classrooms. In October 2023, ACE took a major leap forward by training 52 government teachers in Thiruvallur district to deliver Asha’s one-year computer science curriculum across 52 schools. Over several months, teachers underwent intensive, hands-on training to master the curriculum. As they learned, they simultaneously began teaching students in their schools, supported consistently by Asha’s expert computer science educators.

ACE Impressions – Batch 1

As per the program design, the students spend the last leg of the course in creating a project. We received 373 project submissions from 50 government schools. Out of the 373 projects, 17 projects were selected to be showcased before external judges for Asha’s first ACE Impressions which was held at Amazon’s office in the World Trade Centre, Perungudi.

The students showcased an outstanding array of topics that captivated and delighted the judges. You can read the full report here. Out of 17 participating teams, three emerged victorious, claiming a combined prize money of ₹4,20,000!

• 1^st place – GHS Murukkampattu, winning prize money of INR 1,80,000

• 2nd place – PUMS Nallatur, winning prize money of INR 1,40,000

• 3rd place – GHS Athimancheripet, winning prize money of INR 1,00,000

  

The funds were allocated to schools with the intent of setting up computer labs or addressing other urgent infrastructural needs.

• At GHS Murukampattu, although we initially proposed establishing a computer lab, the school requested that the funds be directed toward renovating their toilets. We honored their request and undertook the toilet renovation project.

• PUMS Nallatur highlighted their need for tablets for students, along with tables and chairs. Accordingly, we provided the required devices and furniture.

• GHS Athimancheripet, which already houses a hi-tech lab, sought support for its renovation. At their request, the prize money was channeled into upgrading the facility.

To avoid disrupting classes, the renovation work at GHS Murukampattu and GHS Atimencheripet was carried out during the summer break. The tablets and furniture for PUMS Nallatur were delivered after schools reopened in June 2025.

1^st Prize Winner – GHS Murukampattu

The Government High School in Murukampattu serves 154 students across classes 6 to 10. The school had toilets in a dismal state, rendering them unusable for the students. The toilets lacked proper plumbing, the roofs and doors were extensively damaged, and the washbasins were broken. Through Asha’s Sugadharam initiative—an ongoing effort to improve sanitation in schools we support—we have renovated several such facilities over the years. Given our experience in executing similar projects, we felt well-prepared and confident to take up the task.

The project began with clearing the area of debris and fallen leaves. The existing dilapidated toilets were removed, and four new units were installed—two in the girls’ restroom and two in the boys’. Though there was an overhead water tank, the plumbing system was extensively damaged. We removed the old pipelines and replaced them with new ones, along with installing new taps in both restrooms.

Since the school lacked handwashing facilities, we added new washbasins. The damaged doors were repaired using welding to fix cracks and structural issues, followed by a fresh coat of paint to enhance their appearance. New roof sheets were installed. The surrounding area also received a complete repaint.

The entire renovation was completed over two weeks at a cost of ₹1,41,760. The remaining funds were utilized to purchase a laptop for the school.

The toilets were inaugurated by Asha Volunteer Mr. Rajaraman in June 2025.

2^nd Prize Winner – PUMS Nallatur

Panchayat Union Middle School, Nallatur is in Thiruvallur, Tamilnadu with a student strength of over 80. The school was in need to tables, chairs and tabs for the use of children. We procured 6 units of tables and 24 units of chairs at a cost of INR 36,366. We also purchased 10 units of tabs at a cost of INR 1,05,029 for the students. The furniture and tabs were distributed to the students once the school reopened in June 2025.

3^rd Prize Winner – GGHSS Athimanjeripet

Located in Thiruvallur, Tamil Nadu, Government Girls Higher Secondary School Atimanjeripet caters to 164 students. The school’s Hi-tech lab was in need of some sprucing up. The school has just spruced up the main building and they also wanted this lab building to be brought on par with the rest of the school.

To enhance the facility, we installed 4 ceiling fans and 5 LED tube lights, along with providing 10 chairs for student seating. Necessary electrical repairs were also carried out to ensure the lab’s safe and functional operation. Both the interior and exterior of the lab received a fresh coat of paint, giving it a renewed and welcoming look. All the benches and desks in the whole school also received a fresh coat of paint.

The total cost of the renovation work amounted to ₹75,060. The remaining funds were utilized to purchase a desktop computer for the school.

Asha volunteer and Project coordinator, Mr. Rajaraman visited the school in June and spoke to the HM and teachers.

ACE Impressions – Batch 2

Amazon graciously hosted the Impression event once again at their Brigade World Trade Centre office in Perungudi, Chennai, on Saturday, 21 June 2025. Teams from Thiruvallur, Thoothukudi, and Thiruvannamalai took part in the competition, which followed the same format as ACE Batch 1, with 17 teams vying for the top spot. You can read the full report here.

The winning teams of Batch 2 are-

• 1^st Prize – GHSS Melsevalampadi (Villupuram) – INR 1,60,000

• 2^nd Prize – PUMS Singarajapuram (Thiruvallur) – INR 1,30,000

• 3^rd Prize- PUMS Ganalapadi (Thiruvannamalai) – INR 1,00,000

• Judges’ Favorite- GGHSS Ettaiyapuram (Thoothukudi) – INR 40,000

The prize money was allocated to schools to improve computer facilities. Since the schools expressed other pressing needs, the money was utilized to fulfil the same-

• GHSS Melsevalampadi (Villupuram) – The school required an elevated stage to conduct its events and functions, and requested our support for its construction.

• PUMS Singarajapuram (Thiruvallur) -The school already has a computer lab and requested us to help with civil and electrical repairs.

• PUMS Ganalapadi (Thiruvannamalai) -The school classroom was in need of tables and benches which were provided.

• GGHSS Ettaiyapuram (Thoothukudi) – School was provided with a screen and projector.

1^st Prize Winner – GHSS Melsevalampadi (Villupuram)

This is an Upper Primary, Secondary, and Higher Secondary school with nearly 400 students across various grades. While the school already had a functional computer lab, they needed an elevated stage to host events. Our project coordinator in Villupuram facilitated the construction through local masons. The stage, measuring 20 x 20 x 3 feet, was built during the school break to avoid any disruption to regular activities.

2nd Prize Winner – PUMS Singarajapuram (Thiruvallur)

The school, located in Tiruttani in Thiruvallur district, has 79 students enrolled from Grade 1 to 8. The school already had a Hi-tech lab in place, but it required essential repairs to make the space more functional and comfortable.

Previously, the room had only a basic cement floor. To improve the environment, we laid vitrified tiles for a cleaner and more durable surface. We also installed four ceiling fans and four tube lights to ensure proper ventilation and lighting. Additionally, we carried out electrical upgrades, including fixing the piping, replacing old wiring, and installing a new junction box to support safe and efficient power distribution. These improvements have significantly enhanced the usability of the lab for both students and teachers.

3rd Prize Winner – PUMS Ganalapadi (Thiruvannamalai)

PUMS Ganalapadi is a school with over 200 students studying from class 1 to 8. The winning team from Grade 8 requested for new tables and benches to be provided for their classroom. The metal furniture was delivered to the school in August 2025.

Judges’ Choice Winners – GGHSS Ettaiyapuram (Thoothukudi)

The students of GGHSS Ettiyapuram were felicitated at their school, and our Pearl Project coordinator visited to hand over a projector and screen for the school’s use.

by Rajaraman Krishnan, Volunteer Asha Chennai

Asha Chennai started the ACE (ஆஷா வழி கணினி கல்வி or Asha Computer Education) program at the first batch of 52 schools in Oct 2023. The program was launched in the second batch of 53 schools in Aug 2024. It was started at another 40 schools in same districts in June 2025. The aim of the program is to implement a two year CS curriculum using government teachers themselves at these schools. This will help prove the scalability and quality of our curriculum, pedagogy, training model, evaluation model and our overall delivery. The hope is that a successful implementation of the program over a two-year period will lay the foundation for a broader adoption.

The ACE website describes the program in details. This report extends the following older reports.

• Report on the ACE Impressions Batch 1 and Batch 2 held in March and June 2025 respectively.
• Infrastructure assessment report from the ACE and other schools we work with done in April 2025.
• ACE Status report from May 2024 at the end of the 2023-24 academic year.
• ACE v2 Inauguration report from Aug 2024.
• ACE v1 Inauguration report from Oct 2023.

There has been a long gap from the previous status report written in May 2024. This report will provide an update on the staus of the ACE as on date.

Schools, Teachers and Batches

On Oct 19^th 2023, the program was inaugurated and the first training session was completed with teachers from 52 schools – all from Thiruvallur District. This was then expanded by another 53 schools from Thiruvallur, Thoothukudi, Thiruvannamalai and Villupuram in Aug 2024. When we started the program in Oct 2023, it was started as an extended one-year program to complete only by end of the 24-25 academic year focusing on Digital Literacy but with a little bit of exposure to programming also thrown in. However, when we launched the second batch in Aug 2024, it was structured as a two-year curriculum. The first year covered Digital Literacy and the second year covered programming. As the program started late for the second batch, we pruned down a few of the lessons so that the schools may complete the first year of the program within the 2024-25 academic year.

In what went beyond our wildest expectations, all the 105 schools from both the batches went on to complete the ACE program as scheduled. This was especially remarkable for the second batch. They didn’t have the time to work on the project before the schools closed by the end of April 2025. They stayed open and had the students coming in till 12^th of May to complete and submit the projects! Read the details here.

Note that there was no official requirement that the teachers stick with this course and complete it. And these teachers had several other works which were mandatory as most of the teachers were subject or secondary grade teachers. The schools also had several other pulls on the resources, the teachers time being the most important one. Yet all the schools completed the course for all their students and with quality as will be detailed in the coming sections.

As we moved into 2025-26, some of the first batch schools did not continue. The most important reason was that the teachers had been posted to a different school. As the first batch was started as a one-year program, they often started with the 7^th standard in the case of middle schools so that they will complete the program when they finish the 8^th standard. In the case of high / higher secondary schools, they started with the 8^th standard so that these children will wrap up the ACE program by the 9^th standard as their schedule becomes very tight in 10^th standard because of the board exams. Therefore they couldn’t continue the second year program for the same batch of students. In some cases, they once again offered the first year program for a new class of students and in some cases they dropped out. The batch 2 schools have continued on to teach programming for the same class of students. The following graph shows the schools in the 3 batches and what they are doing now.

Computers Donated and Tracked

Laptop Donations

Laptop donations from Amazon has been critical in implementing the ACE program (and other programs of Asha). We have received the following donations of laptops from Amazon.

Oct 2023 267 Laptops.

May 2024 500 Laptops

Dec 2024 500 Laptops

Feb 2025 200 Laptops

July 2025 500 Laptops

We initially started by distributing one laptop to each teacher and up to 3 laptops to each school depending on their need. We weren’t providing laptops to schools with High Tech lab. However over time, we have had to donate laptops to even schools with High Tech lab as that infrastructure was not available for the ACE program often. We purchased 52 laptops for the ACE v1 teachers. For the ACE v2 and v3 teachers, we only provided donated laptops. The donated laptops from Amazon have mostly been of good quality and have served us well. Here is a graph that shows the number of laptops given to the schools.

Note that this graph does not include the one laptop given to each teacher in the school to implement the program. To 11 schools we have only given the teacher laptops. At the other end, there are two schools where we have given 8 laptops each and in addition a teacher laptop as well. In total, we have given 492 laptops to the schools and another 152 lapto     ps to teachers. Of these about 20 laptops are currently not working.

Maintenance of the Laptops

If there are any problems with the laptops, the govt teachers first reach out to our trainers who have been trained to do basic maintenance themselves. If they are unable to fix the problem, at each location we have a system engineer who will then look at the problem. If it is not possible to fix soon or some parts are required, we replace the laptop with a spare and continue working on the problem. For some of the problems we would also need to give the laptop to a service centre. If the problem can still not be solved, we harvest the good parts and condemn the device.

Asset Tracker

With a large number of laptops spread across an equally large number of schools, we have done some automation of the asset tracking process.

Each laptop is given an asset ID and an asset ID sticker with the asset ID and a QR code like below is stuck on the laptop. Once a quarter we have the teachers at all the school scan the QR code and report the status of the laptops. You can try scanning the QR Code below to report the status of a virtual laptop!

This enables us to know the status of all the laptops. In addition to this we also have a pinger app that runs on all laptops we have provided which when connected to the Internet periodically send an “I am alive” message to our server. We can thus also know that the laptops are really being used and not just gathering dust in some bureau.

Problem reporting and tracking of the problems, is done using Google Forms and a Google sheet currently. This Asha Chennai Computer Maintenance (or CCM) is also being brought into our own server and can be triggered from the same QR code mentioned above.

Work (Output) Tracking

At the start of the ACE program, we were using a Google Sheet to track the work being done by the teachers and the trainers. Towards the end of 2023-24 academic year, we developed forms for teachers and trainers to report the work they were doing. Each time the teacher teaches a lesson, they report the detail. This includes the following,

• School (comes from the session).
• Teacher (comes from the session).
• Class and section (comes from the session unless they take multiple classes / sections).
• Date (comes from the system).
• Lesson they taught (comes prepopulated if they scaned the QR code at the end of the lesson in their teacher manual).
• Attendance – Has to be entered. Note that the total class/section strength is entered into the system at the beginning of the year.
• Comments or Notes if any.

As you can see from the above, there is very little that the teacher has to enter manually. They just scan the QR code at the end of the lesson and most of the form comes prepopulated and they just enter the attendance, add any comments and submit.

Trainers who visit schools to assist/observe a class also submit a form on the class they observed. They are required to submit their own (trainer) name as well. Otherwise the form is similar.

Data Approval process

The teacher and trainer form submissions are viewed by “Lead Teachers” who then approve or reject the data entry. They can also edit and approve the data. This is then approved on a monthly basis by the “Administrator” for the ACE program.

Curriculum Tracker

For each curriculum we are implementing (ie. 1^st year or DL, 2^nd year Asha programming, 2^nd year CSF Express programming), we have a tracker which shows the progress of the implementation over the academic year. In the picture below you can see the curriculum tracker for ACE v2 Digital Literacy in the year 2024-25.

Each green square represents a lesson taught at the school. The reason some of the lessons (eg. L10 to L15) are white for most schools is that we dropped some of the lessons given the paucity of time. Dark green squares represent visits on that day by Asha trainers. The number in the square indicates that the same lesson was repeated multiple times either because the group was broken into two and separate classes taken or the lesson had to

be repeated. If the lesson was taught in the wrong order (not in the pictures here), then that will be shows with a small red ‘x’ inside. Clicking on the lesson numbers at the top will open the lesson plan for that lesson and hovering will show the lesson title. Clicking on the green squares will provide the data entries (bo

th trainer data and teacher data) corresponding to that school-class-lesson combination.

Here are couple of more pictures showing the progress of the CSF-Express Programming and Asha-Programming curriculum this year.

As you can see the curriculum tracker provides a powerful tool to quickly get the status of the curriculum implementation at the schools and figure out any challenges at a school or with the curriculum.

How is ACE doing? – Term end Assessment

At the end of the 2024-25 academic year, Asha conducted assessments to check if the students had learnt the contents of the ACE first year curriculum. This was held in Feb-Mar 2025 for the ACE v1 schools and in Mar-Apr 2025 for the ACE v2 schools. This was rigorously conducted. At each school the trainer for that school was paired with another trainer to conduct the assessment with no participation by the teacher at that school. The assessment is conducted individually for each student on a computer as well as pen and paper. There were 4 alternate papers given for the students so that there is no possibility of copying. Here are the papers we used for ACE v1 and the papers we used for ACE v2.

Students’ Performance

Here is how the students performed in the assessments.

The high number of absentees had several reasons,

• Festivals in some villages meant there were lots of absentees.
• As CS is not a proper required subject, our CS exams were not treated with as much seriousness as the other subjects either by the school or by the students.
• Some of the children were indeed absent for good reaaon and there were also some mentally challenged children in these classes who could not have taken our assessment.

The important point to note is that because of time pressure, we could not go back to any of the schools to conduct the assessment a second time for the students who missed out on the assessment. We hope to improve upon this, this year.

The students who scored 8 marks or less in the assessment are considered to have failed. Those who scored 25 marks or more are considered as having passed with distinction. We have deliberately made the cut offs low so that we do not compromise on level of the assessment or the way it is graded. One broad observation from the assessment was that the students mostly did well in the practical questions like creating presentations or doing some work on Excel. They were struggling a lot more to answer questions like “A ______ is used to store multiple files together” where folder is one of the answer options! We believe this has to do with their poor reading skills.

How is ACE doing? – Endline Assessment

For an orthogonal (i.e. unrelated to our own curriculum) standardized (results can be compared across time and with other programs / organisations) assessment, we have been using the Northstar Digital Literacy Assessments. For the ACE programs we did not conduct a Baseline. However, since the ACE programs serves students in classes 6 to 9 in government schools just like our RTC program does, we used the baseline data from our RTCs. If anything, the RTC program baseline will have better results because these schools have more feeder schools that are supported by Asha and therefore more students come with some experience in Computer Science. Here is a table that shows the baseline from the RTC program and the endline from both the ACE batches.

As can be noted, across all the digital literacy areas covered by NorthStar, there is a significant improvement in the performance between baseline and endline. The improvement ranges from 25% to 45%. Note that we teach OpenOffice or LibreOffice and do not teach Microsoft Office or Google Docs. Despite that students have been able to demonstrate a competence even in handling unfamiliar tools. This is an important aspect of digital literacy in a constantly changing technology landscape.

How is ACE doing? – Project Work

Here are couple of reports on the ACE Impressions events for ACE v1 and ACE v2 batches. You can read these to understand the important role project work plays in the ACE program. While the competition played an important role in motivating the school and teacher to put in the best effort, the main purpose of project work is instructional. By doing the project work, children reinforce what they learnt over the whole year through goal-driven, intensive learning. Therefore, rather than just looking at the best projects which get chosen for the RTC Impressions project, we look two other factors.

Team Size

We aim for smaller team sizes. For the ACE v1 batch, there were a total of 373 projects were submitted with an average team size of 4.83. The ACE v2 batch submitted 470 projects with an average team size of 4.2. We were aiming for some number between 4 and 5 for both the batches and this was achieved. As the program matures, we will aim for smaller team sizes. There were schools that submitted as many as 15 to 20 projects. This is clearly a lot of work for the teacher to manage.

Average Quality of the Projects

All the projects are initially evaluated by lead teachers who then select the best 60 or so to be reviewed by the volunteers who then bring it down to about 17 projects for the final Asha Impressions event. When the lead teachers initially evaluate the projects, they check for the following parameters in the projects and award one mark for each:

• Minimum 10 Slides
• Content Fully covered
• Animation with Sounds
• Online Video
• Own Sound / Own Video
• Interaction
• Other Technical content

The 373 ACE v1 projects had an average score of 3.785 and the 470 ACE v2 projects had an average score of 3.895 (both out of 7). This indicates the incredible effort that has been put in by the teachers. The first two points which are a basic requirement of presentation were met by all the projects.

As we would expect, the projects that were selected by the lead teachers to be reviewed for the ACE Impressions and the projects which were finally selected for Asha Impressions were even better as can be seen in the graph below. With the experience gained by one cohort of teachers, the second cohort did even better as can also be seen.

Quality of the Best Projects

As mentioned earlier, we do not evaluate the program by just how the best teams do. But still, it makes us proud to see what can be achieved by the students with a program like ACE.

Here are some testimonials about the projects at the ACE Impressions events.

Mrs. Joan Mary, ACE Impressions V1 and V2 judge – It was my privilege to be a panel member for the presentations delivered by students from various schools. I was impressed with the confidence and energy each team brought with them. Most of the teams were able to answer the technical, content related questions which shows their enthusiasm, efforts and time spent to learn and create the presentations in a creative way. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole event by learning through the innovative thinking of these young minds. Kudos to ASHA team for creating such a positive impact in future generation!

Mr. Bala Vijay, ACE Impressions V1 judge – First of all I would like to thank my leadership and Asha for giving me an opportunity to be a judge for these amazing 17 projects that got shortlisted from about 250 projects originally submitted. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentations, the ideas and thoughts behind each of those projects. One thing I liked about these was that the students presented these projects with more joy and passion and not with fear. This clearly shows their readiness and depth of knowledge in the content and the technicalities of getting it done over the tool, in this case ppt. Kudos to the teachers and Asha who were the root that held this whole tree of event and I am sure these students would emerge with flying colours as was their presentation. And I was glad to witness the Corporate Social Responsibility that Amazon as a company holds. All the best and keep up the great work!!

This is my first ever event with Asha for education and this has broadened my idea how Amazon is supporting these kids under the ACE Impression program. It was such honor and pleasure to be part of the judging panel witnessing every single presentation curated by those young minds and enjoying their unique way of interacting with audience. Arun S, ACE Impressions 2 judge- As a judge for the Asha Impressions ACE program presentations, I was truly inspired by the remarkable talent and determination shown by the government school students. Despite limited resources, these young learners from 5th to 8th standard demonstrated impressive mastery of Open Office tools, presenting their work with confidence and enthusiasm.

Their innovative approaches and creative presentations proved that with proper guidance, these students can achieve outstanding results. The collaborative effort between Asha Foundation, Amazon volunteers, and Teachers created an environment where these young talents could truly shine. This experience highlighted the impact of corporate-NGO partnerships in bridging the digital divide and creating meaningful educational opportunities for underprivileged students. The students’ pride and enthusiasm made this volunteering experience truly memorable.

Success of the Program

The Asha Computer Education or ACE has been a tremendous success. We have evaluated it through various outcome measurements, some of which were detailed above, and it has done very well by every measure. Here are some of the aspects of this.

Curriculum and its Implementation

The first year curriculum needed to be reduced by a few lessons for ACE v2 because the program started only in August of 2024. In a full academic year, the curriculum and the list of lessons was adequately paced to be completed without any problems. See the progress of our curriculum for the ACE v2 Digital Literacy batch last year and the programming batches this year above in the section on Curriculum Tracker.

All the lessons in our lesson plan were structured as a set of exercises in line with our “Learn by Doing” pedagogy. There were no lessons that taught the students that the father of computer science is Charles Babbage or ask them to write down an memorise all the keyboard shortcuts in text document. Teachers who had already been teaching computer science sometimes had the tendency to revert to their old style. But teachers who were themselves learning CS for the first time, took to this like fish to water.

Teacher training methodology

This has been one of the biggest reasons for the poor performance of majority of the government programs. We employed a different model. Our teacher training was guided by the following approaches.

• “Teacher as a lead Learner”: This works well where the teacher is not an expert in the subject under question. Here the teacher is taught the lessons only a little before they teach it to the students. This also has the side-effect of a much more interactive classroom and demands a certain humility from the teacher who acknowledges that the children may also know more than them in some areas. This was a risk. Will the teacher adapt to this methodology? We found to our great satisfaction that they very easily adapted to this methodology. Some of the teachers who already knew computer science and have been teaching computer science struggled a little.
• Frequent training or Immediacy of training: We had one training session every month where the teachers learnt how to teach the next 4 or 5 lessons. Having the training closer to the actual use of the training ensures much better teaching, better conformance to the pedagogy etc.
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• Hand-holding at the point of delivery. Our trainers visited the schools once a month to observe and assist a class. In addition, they were available always for any doubts the teachers may have or problems they have with the infrastructure etc. Also, if a teacher missed a training session, our trainers on their next visit to the school, spent the time with the teachers to train them. This support visits also made us as an organization much more intimately aware of all the challenges the teachers were facing at the school like teacher schedule problems, computer lab scheduling problems, local issues with the community and the school etc.

All of these together have been responsible for all the teachers completing the curriculum and excellent performance from the students as well.

Processes for tracking output and outcome

As explained earlier, we implemented a process for output tracking which provided good information about the work done by the teachers and the progress of various schools in the implementation of the curriculum. It also yielded information about how our program was working in terms of support visits etc. Infrastructure tracking was also strengthened over the year and we have been able to manage our decisions regarding service of computers etc. better through this.

The measuring of the average quality of the projects was done for the first time in the ACE program by our lead teachers. The assessment tracking and conducting of the baseline and endline standardized assessment was started in our RTC program and was implemented in ACE as well.

Completion of the 1^st year program.

The extended first year for ACE v1 as well as the shrunk first year for ACE v2 got over by the end of the 2024-25 academic year. When we started ACE v1, we were hoping that 80% of the schools stay on to complete the program. Instead, 100% of the schools completed the program. Especially in the case of the ACE v2, the schools didn’t have the time to complete the projects. They continued to come to the school for two weeks after the annual exams, during holidays, to complete and deliver the projects. We were ourselves overwhelmed by the dedication and enthusiasm shown by these teachers. I visited some of these schools in early May to see their work in person. It was inspiring!

Within each school almost all the students participated in the project work. The assessment was not perfectly planned at our end and some 15% of the students missed our assessments. We will plan this better the next time.

Outcome measurements – Projects and Assessments

Projects were submitted by almost all the students in all the schools that participated in both the batches of ACE. As described in the section on “Project Work” above, all the projects met the basic quality criteria that we had set for them. The best projects submitted were excellent and, in many way, even excelled the projects submitted by Asha teacher lead teams in our other programs.

Our own course-end assessments revealed the learning levels of the children. The children mastered the things they need to do but not necessarily the language needed to express what they know.

In the standardized assessment based on the Northstar toolkit which is orthogonal to what we taught them, they showed significant improvements of 25% or so over a baseline which shows significant improvement in their digital literacy skills.

Continuation into the second year

As described in the “Schools, Teachers and Batches” section earlier, about 75% of the schools in ACE v1 and v2 continued into the second year of the program this 2025-26 academic year. Most of the dropouts occurred for reasons beyond the control. Of the 29 schools that dropped out, here is the breakup of the reasons.

Third party Impact Assessment

Asha Chennai engaged AuxoHub, an independent third-party consultancy specializing in evaluation for the social sector to study our ACE program. The study revealed how the program is reshaping rural classrooms through technology. AuxoHub conducted an independent impact assessment study of the ACE program between Jan to March, 2025 covering 30 government school teachers, 5 Asha trainers, 10 school administrators, 40 students and 10 parents. The wide-ranging study looked at the impact on the teachers own learning and teaching of CS, the students learning, the impact on their learning of other subjects, the changing perceptions in the community etc. You may read the complete report here. The impact of the ACE program has been tremendous in all these areas and more!

ACE Program in 2025-26

Both the batches of the ACE program have moved into the 2025-26 academic year. 67 of the schools moved to do programming. We have over the last year, been recognized as a regional partner of Code.org and are in many ways working closely with them. Therefore, we decided to try Code.org’s CSF Express course on a subset of these schools. In addition to these another 46 schools got added in the v3 batch of ACE. Currently the breakup looks as follows,

Digital Literacy or 1^st year curriculum: 46 new schools plus 12 continuing schools = 56 schools.

Programming with Asha or Scratch based programming (2^nd year curriculum): 42 schools.

Programming with CSF Express course (2^nd year curriculum): 25 schools.

This gives us a good opportunity to evaluate and improve our own programming curriculum against a world standard! The structure in terms of approx. 30 hours of instructions followed by 10 hours of project work and finally the assessments and Asha Impressions are all continuing for all the three groups.

Spark and ACE

A big challenge and opportunity for Asha Chennai’s CS programs and in particular ACE is the introduction of the Spark curriculum by the TN government. It was unfortunate that Asha couldn’t be involved with the committee that framed the curriculum and the implementation plan. We are seeing the roll out of Spark in some of the schools we ourselves support. At the ACE schools the situation currently is as follows.

1. None of the schools have pulled out of the ACE program because of this which is another indicator of how our program is perceived by the schools.
2. Through them we are learning how the Spark program is being implemented.
3. The teachers are asking us to train them in Spark the way we have trained them in ACE. We are yet to take a formal decision regarding this.

We are seeing several problems in the implementation of Spark.

Curriculum as a textbook instead of a set of learning Objectives:

In India most boards for all their subjects publish a textbook which contains within it the curriculum meant to be taught. Occasionally separate teacher’s manuals may also be published (which is not there for Spark). This poses several problems. It forces a style of pedagogy for the learning objectives which cannot be altered. It also pushes the teachers to frame their assessments based on the textbook instead of based on the learning objectives. Even though Asha has a better way to achieve the same learning objectives, we will not be able to implement our curriculum.

Spiral or Graded curriculum instead of a set of distinct courses:

The same topics, in this case Digital Literacy, online tools, AI and coding are there every year instead of going deep in say Digital Literacy the first year, coding the second year, AI the third year and so on. The first model is correctly practiced in subjects like Maths where it makes sense as there are a large number of basic skills that the student needs to acquire. But in a subject like CS, it is better to be intensive in one area. As we have been finding out, it not as through children forget Digital Literacy when learning coding or AI. The DL learning anyway gets reinforces even while coding and similarly coding is reinforced when doing AI and so on.

Extensive vs Intensive Curriculum:

One of the things we have been following as an axiom is that tools will keep evolving and therefore rather that teach a lot of tools, provide intensive learning through project work which makes it easier for them to learn new tools they have not encountered. However, Spark curriculum introduces the children to a wide array of tools and provides little space for creativity or critical thinking. Many of the tools they have used are very good like Geogebra for teaching Maths, PhET for teaching Science etc. These are vast tools and in our Sprint program we have been finding how difficult these tools are to master. Having 10 or more new tools every year make the teachers and students task impossible! Simple, small set of tools which they use thoroughly will be easier to implement and they will also end us learning more about Computer Science at large. Further many of these tools should be moved to the Maths and Science curriculum instead of be part of the Spark curriculum.

Full rollout instead of a year-wise rollout:

They have rolled out all the year programs right in the beginning. It would be better to start all classes 6 to 9 with 6^th std textbook and next year move classes 7 to 9 to the 7^th std textbook and so on. How will children learn robotics with Python in class 9 without learning basic coding in classes 6 to 8. Does it make sense to learn Spreadsheet when they haven’t even done basic typing and formatting (bold, italics, font colour/size/style etc.) in a text document? This also places enormous load on the teacher to master all the four years’ curriculum within a short span of time.

Teacher Training

They gave 2 days of training for the teachers (most of whom are new to computer science just like our ACE teachers were) and they were expected to start implementing the program which did not happen at all. The education department also seems to deploying some trainers to assist the teachers in their difficulties. It is to be seen how this works.

Output and Outcome Tracking

This ultimately is where most of the government education initiatives fail. The teachers will be asked to report voluminous data which doesn’t translate into anything tangible for them. There will be no proper verification of the data and therefore the teachers will start resorting to just fudging the data. This can be seen in program after program. Finally, the assessment will be based on the textbook and implemented without scrutiny but with penalty if the students do not perform which will result in even more fudging of data. Output reporting through EMIS for Spark also seems to be heading that way.

We feel at Asha Chennai, we can contribute a lot to Spark through our experience with ACE (and RTCs).

• Curriculum inputs – A course-based model that shows significant gain in knowledge in one area without it diminishing over the years. This will cover all the learning objectives of Spark in the same 4 years and achive a lot more.
• Teacher Training – Our “Teacher as a Lead Learner” model of training and pedagogy combined with support at the point of delivery has worked very well. Spark will do well to incorporate that.
• Project work – We have been focusing on projects as a key tool in the children’s learning and it has been very effective. Incentivising the teachers through the Impressions event and tracking of average project metrics is showing very good results.
• Output and Outcome tracking – Our reporting system which minimizes the work a teacher needs to do to report their work combined with lots of backend work to gain insights from that data and encouraging teachers to be honest in their reporting is also working well. Rigorous assessments based on LOs with little penalty for honest reporting is again the way to achieve progress.

Future of ACE

Where does that leave Asha and our various programs?

• ACE as a pilot can continue till Spark displaces it in various schools. Even in schools that are implementing Spark, they can also implement ACE if they so desire. We can support such schools in their Spark rollout as well.
• However, extending it to all classes and beyond 2 years will become impossible. We were hoping to eventually make it a proper 4-year curriculum with AI, Robotics and other advanced topics (like web development, media editing etc.). This will have to take a back seat. This is only partly because of Spark. Even now only 2 schools are implementing both the first year and second year curriculum. These two schools have part-time computer teachers. Other teachers do not have the bandwidth to do this on their own unless government gives proper instructions to school for this (like they are doing with Spark).
• Rolling out a 3^rd and 4^th year curriculum is also challenging without teachers developing significant expertise in Computer Science. With the existing crop of teachers, we are just about able to implement the 2^nd year curriculum. Govt will also face this challenge with the 9^th std curriculum.
• Our other programs like Sprint (working with primary and middle schools on all aspects of the school), RTCs (centres for teaching govt children advanced technology for free outside of the school), Explore (give basic exposure to CS/AI and other tech for students in classes 6 to 9) can all continue without much changes.

Asha will continue to reach out to the government to help them implement the Spark program in various ways and also hopefully influence its direction in the coming years. Our partnership with organisations like Code.org, Amazon, IIT Madras etc. will be very helpful in this regard.