Edtech-focused Accelerator Launched To Support Foundational Learning For Children From Low-Income Communities In India The programme will help organisations innovate to address challenges, and build evidence on learning outcomes, benchmarks and cost effectiveness, thereby supporting the education ecosystem to improve access to quality education at scale

A consortium of leading non-profit and philanthropic organisations in the education sector in India have launched the 'EdTech Accelerator' to support foundational learning of children at-home. This consortium benefits from the expertise and support of founding partners Reliance Foundation and UBS Optimus Foundation with design and implementation by Central Square Foundation, British Asian Trust as Fund Manager and the U.S. Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing technical assistance to support the fund design and management.

The Accelerator will fund eight high-quality edtech solutions from both non-profit and private organisations that aim to build, pilot, measure, and test innovative ideas. Impact-focused grant funding and dedicated mentoring support will be available in year one, and grants to further scale up this work will be available in year two, thereby impacting up to 2.5 million children by 2025. Applications are now open for the EdTech Accelerator, claimed by the company in a statement.

"Among over 9,000 edtech organisations in India, only about one per cent focuses on foundational learning, and even fewer have built products for low-income segments. NIPUN is an ambitious programme and home learning will be critical to help our children. The Accelerator adopts a unique approach catalysing supply of diverse high-quality solutions and galvanizing demand for at-home learning," said Shaveta Sharma-Kukreja, CEO and MD, Central Square Foundation.

The programme aims to support edtech solutions that are seeking to provide access to affordable and quality learning solutions for low-income segments. It will also help organisations innovate to address challenges, and build evidence on learning outcomes, benchmarks and cost effectiveness, thereby supporting the education ecosystem to improve access to quality education at scale, as per the statement.

"India has seen a significant increase in edtech solutions especially to address the concerns of the past two years. The challenge remains to democratise the edtech solutions across households. New solutions need to address scale, adoption and contextualization for equitable access and opportunity. Through co- founding the EdTech Accelerator, we are committed to supporting the development of evidence-backed pedagogically sound and contextually relevant solutions to create a vibrant ecosystem to address this need," said Jagannatha Kumar, CEO, Reliance Foundation.