Education activist, Espalier Experimental and Heritage Schools
So, you’re an education activist, and a highly recognized leader in education in India. And you have different roles. You’re the founder of the Espalier Experimental and Heritage Schools. And I love the name Espalier. Living in France and speaking French, I knew right away that Espalier means climbing up. And what a beautiful, beautiful choice.
SACHIN
Thank you.
JANE
And I saw that your Espalier Heritage School got the first prize by the Maharashtra government in 2014. Congratulations.
SACHIN
Thank you.
JANE
That sounds like a big deal.
SACHIN
Yes.
Gandhi Montessori philosophy, focusing on holistic child development
Yeah. So let’s start by talking about your overall approach to education, and then we’ll move on to your really interesting AI on wheels. So, you follow the Gandhi Montessori philosophy. You mentioned holistic child development, experiential learning, and hands-on activities. Can you explain what all this means?
SACHIN
Sure, yes. Espalier Heritage School is a concept based school, following the Gandhi Montessori philosophy. Now, you might be thinking, what is the correlation between Mahatma Gandhi and education? Gandhi is known for nonviolence, but the big gift Gandhi gave this world is Nai Talim, means new education. His approach of education is based on three edges, that is head to heart, and heart to hand. And this same approach is followed by Maria Montessori, which as well focuses on the experiential learning. Therefore, in our school, our approach towards education, it’s a trace free, happy environment, focus on a lot of activity. Experiential and skill-based learning is our core area. For example, the student of the Espalier Heritage School engage themselves in activities like the farming, product designing. And they also run the experiential shops in which they sell handmade products. They’re involved in research, working towards green environments, like saving rivers out of box thinking.
We also have a design thinking curriculum, in which they look for a real life problem statement. They work on it and find out the solution. I will give one example. We discuss about a two-wheeler road accident. The student discussed the reason for the same, and found out that certain rules should be followed by everyone while riding or driving a vehicle. They thought, “Why not learn to implement and follow these rules from our childhood itself?” And that’s when they brought implementing the rules of two-wheeler for bicycle as well, and developed India’s first bicycle license. And this is the change. And rightly said by Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” So Espalier is a 21st century school, and our motto is, “Life is a subject and result is happiness.”
JANE
Wow, that’s very interesting. I must admit, I was curious how Gandhi and Montessori came together. Now I understand. You’ve really created a truly innovative movement with your AI on wheels. That’s what caught my attention somewhere on the internet. What started it? I believe it was called Education on Wheels, and then it became AI on Wheels.
Mobile schools for underprivileged children
I began with the Education on Wheels, which is a mobile school for underprivileged children for almost 16 years back. This bus provide door to door education to the children living in the slum. They were a lot of out of school children almost some 20 years back, including my city, that is Nasik. I want to do something for them. I shall tell you, India is known for Land of Saint. And one of them is the Swami Vivekananda. Very famous name, Swami Vivekananda. In one of his speech, he quoted, “If the poor child cannot come to the education, that education must reach him at doorstep.” And this inspired me, and I started Education on Wheels. Till the date, we have brought 19,000 out of school children for the mainstream. Six years ago, this birth Education on Wheels used to teach the student of Sayyid community.
In this community, the marriage of girl child is fixed immediately after the three days of her birth. And she’s sent to her in-laws house when she started her first menstrual cycle. They even refused to send their children to school. We work on this ill-fate. Although we could not stop it completely, we succeed in convincing them to send their daughter to their in-laws house only when they turn 18 years old, which is the legal age of marriage for female in India. I don’t know what is the legal age there, but in India, 18 years is the legal age for marriage. In the last 16 years, Education on Wheels actively work in the slum.
AI on Wheels
Now, how I move to AI on Wheels is a very interesting story. Okay. I started exploring AI, and when I read a book by Mr. Sal Khan, owner of Khan Academy, Salman Khan, his book, How AI Can Revolutionize Education. And this book changed my mindset.
Before moving ahead, Jane, I would like to tell you about the dark side of the Indian education system. First, is a rote learning, which is we will talk later in another podcast. And second one is that student are attending school, but they are not learning. We have a gross enrollment ratio, it’s 98%. Very few out of school children. But they are not learning. Many report says that more than 50% grade six students have a knowledge of grade two. This is very shocking. They are unable to read and lack basic foundation literacy. This is alarming, very alarming. And this is not just in the case of government school, but the private school as well. So it’s come in my mind, “Can we use AI to improve their foundation literacy?”
So initially, I conducted a research on small groups of students and implementing the use of artificial intelligence to improve their basic reading skills. And I did see it’s becoming successful. So I thought, “Why not make an AI learning tool bus?” And that’s how India’s first AI on Wheels bus was invented for the underprivileged children. Again, why only underprivileged children? Because I strongly believe that the technology should be used at the grass root level as technology bring equality in the society. It does not differ between rich or poor. The only issues that the poor children cannot access technology. And I’m proud to say that my boss is the meditator to implement this technology at the grass root levels. All to you.
JANE
You have two types of students, I believe, for the AI bus on your website. Can you describe the types of students in the bus itself?
Two types of students: foundation literacy and 21st century technologies
Sure. We have a two type of students in various school. Many of them lack a foundation literacy. So they can’t read and write. So, we are providing these children with Google AI learning tools like the Read Along, which is helping them to read. And we’re teaching coding, machine learning, data science, robotics, through the AI bus, to their other students of grade five or six who have strong academic foundation or grade level knowledge. In short, AI on Wheels was at a two different level. One held the underperforming student to improve their academic, although AI learning tools. And second, it held the intellectual ones to learn the 21st century skills, 21st century like robotics, data science, in a better way. So it’s the two types of the students.
JANE
Right. Can you describe, I’m trying to imagine, and I have difficulty imagining what the bus is like, can you describe it to me so I can picture it?
SACHIN
Yeah. This is a very interesting question, and I will send the video. So see, I have personally designed this AI bus. This is India’s first bus, which expands beyond its original size. It’s a hydraulic system, which opens up platform on the left side for better access to the student. And this bus is well-equipped with the library with more than 100 books, recording studio, 3D printer, 3D pen, more than 20 tabs, smart interactive boards, then two LED screens, virtual reality set that we call set VR. On the top, solar panel, on the rooftop, CCTV. So the students of government schools usually not get a platform to express their vocal skill. Hence, I installed a recording studio in the bus so that this student will get a platform to present their vocal talent through the online studio. The students also design a few products using 3D printers.
And most important thing, we have at 20 tabs and interactive board. So, this is all part of the whole bus. I have made the curriculum of grade one and 10 available in 3D VR sets. So, this bus is also well-equipped with the high-speed internet, which is easily accessible during the bus visit in rural areas in India, everywhere is not internet. So, this bus across the world, we can connect with this student through the Zoom or Google Meet.
So this bus is completely techno hub. Even your website also can open there one podcast in that bus, also, you can manage in any rural area of India.
JANE
But how does it work? You have a team of people perhaps? And what’s a typical week or a typical month? Or how does it flow?
AI on Wheels Logistics
We have a proper team for the AI bus. It’s include techno savvy teachers, social workers, driver, attendant, and most important are the mentors from various fields who volunteer and contribute to this team, including my better project app. We first identify the nearby government schools, then we identify the students who can’t read. Currently, we are visiting three schools daily and teaching coding to the students of this school who are academically strong. And those who are underperformers, we are working to develop their reading skills through AI learning tools. Most important, every Saturday we visit various government school around the city and conduct three hours robotic workshop for the student. So in a year almost we cover approximately 50 different government schools.
JANE
When we first talked, you mentioned a Google app where children can learn to read. What is it? And does it work well?
SACHIN
Yeah, it works very well. This is a Google Read Along app, which is a social initiative by Google. I really appreciate Google for making this multilingual app.
JANE
That’s very interesting. Yeah.
SACHIN
Yeah. In this app, the child is required to click on the word, and the app pronounce that word, and the child has to repeat it. If the world is mispronounced, the app immediately repeats the correct pronunciation. Yeah. It also appreciates the reader for correct pronunciation. If you’re correct, they clap for you. Yeah. Once he repeat the words, we move to the next word, and the process continue. The child can learn to read without the assistance of a teacher. I’m sure through the read along app, these children will be able to acquire basic reading skills. Within the two months we are happy to share that we are also getting good results. We also use ChatGPT, Gemini, these all AI learning tools.
First Indian to speak on education and democracy at European Council and Parliament
That’s fantastic. You were the first Indian to speak on education and democracy at the European Council and European Parliament. That was in 2016, organized by the World Forum for Democracy. And more recently, a 2023 UN Sustainable Development Goal Accelerator. That is a lot of international visibility and recognition, and I’m guessing it’s given a lot of new energy and new visibility, and stronger future to all your work.
SACHIN
Yeah. Actually, seven, eight years ago when I received an email from the World Forum for Democracy, I found it fishy. I thought it was spam. I shared about this with my mentor, Bishmaraj Bam Sir and Sandeep Waslekar Sir. And after verifying the details, we understood that this was indeed an email from the World Forum for Democracy. And this was a huge surprise for me and my better half Dr. Prajakta
And when I asked from there, they learned about my work in the field of education, they mentioned that they had gone through my website that is www.educationonwheels.org, and were impressed of my part of taking education in a grassroot level. And they told me that education plays an important role in the strengthening the democracy of nation. And they were impressed with my mobile school Education on Wheels. And they sponsored me, and that’s how I visited your country. My mobile school experiment was decided to be used for refugee by the World Forum for Democracy. And yes, you are right that I got an international recognition. Through all this, I got to learn a lot from the World Economic Forum. And in 2023 at the Sri Lanka conference, I got certified as a speaker on STG4, which is focused on equality, quality education.
JANE
That’s fantastic.
SACHIN
Yeah.
JANE
Also, you do a lot on YouTube. I looked around and tried to find you on YouTube, and I did a search for Sachin-
SACHIN
Sachin Panchala.
JANE
Sorry, I mispronounced it. And I got links to a lot of interest looking videos, but not in English. And so I looked at you a bit, but I couldn’t really listen to you. I imagine most of your target audience is Indian. And what are your goals with this channel? And how is it going?
SACHIN
Yeah, the response of the YouTube channel is, well, in India we have 22 languages, which are well recognized. Most of my videos are in Marathi and Hindi language. After this podcast, I definitely start making educational videos in English.
JANE
Good, good, good, good. That’s a great idea.
SACHIN
Yeah. The [inaudible] parts are mostly focused on parenting. Parenting and education and social initiative. So, with your request, we’ll start in English also.
JANE
Oh, great. Great. You described yourself as an activist, or I call you an activist. And an activist really means someone who brings about change. Do you believe deep down inside that you’re bringing about change? And are you satisfied with your work So far?
AI helps develop social and emotional quotients (SQ and EQ, more than IQ)
I’m very happy to have been working actively in the field of education along with my better half. And we both together are beginning a positive change in the society. Then when you work with young minds daily, you never feel that you are growing old. So you feel young, which is a good part. So, I plan to conduct various research in education field. Currently, I’m working towards making a robot teacher, which will assist the human teacher. This is my current project.
And I also authored two books, which will soon be translated in English. Also a book on how we can use AI in education, and bring a positive change in the society.
JANE
Great. Do you have any last messages, any last words that you’d like to share with our listeners?
SACHIN
My message to the teachers and parents is that IQ is being replaced by AI. Therefore, let’s focus on developing our children SQ, that is social quotient, and EQ, that is emotional quotient. And the best teacher will be the one who works on SQ and EQ of their student. See, AI is not your competitor. He’s your assistant, he’s your partner. So, let AI do what he can, and let HR, that is human intelligence, do what they can. And let’s make a positive change in the world by collaborating the best, both of them. So in short, be the change you wish to see in the world. Bring the change by broadcasting this podcast in the society on different experiments being conducted in the world. So be a change maker. I’m a change maker, you are a change maker, and let’s focus on-
JANE
Making change
Making change.
JANE
Well, thank you so much for your time. This is going to be really, really interesting for people. Thank you very much.
SACHIN
Thank you so much. Very happy..
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