Digital Equalizer Program

AIF’s Digital Equalizer (DE) program is a computer-aided learning program that bridges the educational and digital divides in India by preparing children in government schools to compete in the digital economy. Targeting children in grades six and above, DE provides computer and internet education to teachers and students and helps teachers to be more effective by implementing project-based learning methodologies. To date, DE has trained over 24,000 teachers and 750,000 children in 2,077 schools across India. Despite its rapid economic growth, India faces daunting challenges in the provision of equitable, quality education that prepares its youth for participation in the knowledge-based economy of the Digital Age. Children from economically disadvantaged communities face significant barriers to accessing quality education and hence have a low chance of participating in the global economy. Of the nearly 1 million public schools in India, only about 15% have any form of IT infrastructure or computer-based education. The DE program provides a computer center in each school, in which teachers and students participate in computer-aided learning. The program is integrated with the school’s mandated curriculum, thereby improving subject matter expertise through the use of technology. AIF supports a DE school for three years and prepares it for self-sufficiency after this period. The program operates through two distinct delivery models: In the “Full-Scale Demonstration Model” AIF funds and implements a DE center in its entirety as a way to demonstrate the program’s effectiveness to the local government and community. The total cost for setting up and running the DE center for three years under this model is approximately $20,000. Once the concept has achieved stakeholder buy-in, the “Large-Scale Partnership Model” engages the state government to invest in the hardware and other infrastructure needs to meet the requirements of the DE program. AIF provides teacher training, curriculum development, monitoring and evaluation and some of the ongoing staffing costs. Through this public-private partnership model, AIF has brought down the per-center cost to $3,200, a cost of only $10 per child! AIF is proud to partner with some of America’s iconic technology companies, including companies like Dell, Intel, AMD, Adobe and Applied Materials. Central to AIF’s success in scaling the DE program is the credibility it has built by collaborating with state governments to assess the quality of IT education throughout India. Evaluations of the program

DE coverage in India

A DE student in Tamil Nadu demonstrates what he learned using computers at a DE center.

show that in DE schools, children’s learning was enhanced, students were much more likely to use computers and the internet in their education, and teachers were utilizing computers at a much higher rate to design classroom projects. Two 3rd party external reviews have analyzed the effects on schools where the DE program has been

implemented. In 2004, a DE pilot in Karnataka showed that over the course of three years, the pass rate in math and science increased by 13%. In 2009, the Punjab government conducted an internal review of results in math and science for middle school children and found that for most groups there was a statistically significant difference in favor of schools that had implemented the DE program. AIF’s experience with DE reveals that introducing a well-coordinated digital program in a school reaches far beyond providing access to computers and the internet. Educational models that are innovative, cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable serve to inspire students, persuade parents and communities to keep

children in school, and engage governments for the long term. In partnership with state governments, AIF plans to implement a far-reaching and sustainable program that will reach 280,000 children every year by 2013.