Khan Academy India (KAI) is a not-for-profit, section 8 company, incorporated in India. It has been founded by Khan Academy Inc. (a United States 501(c)3 non-profit organisation) and Tata Trusts. KAI’s mission is to make Khan Academy’s free learning resources available to millions of learners in India. Khan Academy India provides interactive educational content in English, Hindi, and will soon in bilingual Hindi/English. They also provide teachers with tools and data so they can help their students succeed and enable students of all ages to learn at their own pace in their own time. Their syllabus includes math, biology, chemistry, physics, history, economics, finance, grammar, preschool learning, SAT prep and more.
Sandeep Bapna, MD, Khan Academy India, said, “It is essential to provide education to students free of cost and in their local languages in order to reach the agenda of education for all.”
Rural outreach
To increase its reach to students in rural India, Khan Academy India has been working with various state governments. They recently signed a Partnership Agreement with the Government of Karnataka to make available educational content including videos, exercises, articles and teacher tools, in Kannada. These include 5,500 videos and 20,000 exercises in math and science, as well as dashboards, which already help millions of students and teachers around the world. Earlier they had also partnered with the Government of Rajasthan to bring personalised learning to state schools starting from this current academic year.
Sandeep Bapna, further added, “Looking ahead a few years, we see a big challenge and opportunity in creating local language content, as a vast majority of new Internet users would seek content in their own language. Making Khan Academy resources available in as many Indian languages as possible is a high priority for us and this programme is a significant step in that direction.”
On the product side, Khan Academy has made available all its content including videos and exercises for mobile usage. These apps are completely free, are continuously being optimised for low bandwidth conditions, and have features such as bulk download for offline usage. It has also introduced a slew of new features for teachers to make the learning platform more personalised, more useful in class and cooler than ever.
Through its online courses, Khan Academy is also bridging the gap between student's financial backgrounds and the quality of education that they receive by providing equal opportunities to students who could not afford expensive personal tuitions or are hindered by language barriers.
