Pearson, the
world’s leading learning company, has partnered the Unreasonable
Group to launch “Project Literacy Lab,” the
world’s first accelerator for entrepreneurs dedicated to closing the global
literacy gap by 2030. As a part of the inaugural program, Project Literacy Lab
has identified 16 high-growth ventures, headquartered across five
continents, which are working collaboratively on scaling their technologies and
products to combat illiteracy worldwide.
After a
rigorous evaluation of India-based learning models, two innovative Edupreneurs
have been selected among the 16 promising ventures worldwide under the ‘Project
Literacy Lab’ program – Bangalore-based
‘Guru-G’, the fastest growing mobile app for Indian teachers that’s already
led to 86% improvement in student outcomes and Chennai-based ‘Karadi Path’,
the language-learning curriculum reaching over 1,500 schools and 500,000 children across
India. Pearson and
Unreasonable Group will support these entrepreneurs by providing them
world-class mentors, access to financing, and a global network of support.
“1.19
trillion US dollars is the cost of illiteracy to the world economy each year.” explains Jennifer Young, Director of Social
Impact Programs at Pearson. Young explains that in fact, “Illiteracy is linked to just about
every major sustainable development challenge. That is why Pearson, as the
founder and convener of Project Literacy, is excited about our partnership with
Unreasonable, a group that has a track record of helping entrepreneurs solve
pressing global challenges.”
Some other
global participating ventures include the world’s first customizable machine
learning technology platform for one billion people around the world with
disabilities (Livox, Brazil) and a company that decreases recidivism by providing the
2.25 million incarcerated adults in the United States with daily access to educational
and vocational programming via tablets (Edovo, USA).
During the
recently organized program, the entrepreneurs met up with 20 mentors and
specialists including Emilie
Colker, Vice President, Global Brand & Social Impact Strategy and Campaigns
at Pearson, who is steering the Project Literacy initiative. She
further elaborates, “Today,
there is a need to provide an impetus to entrepreneurs that are introducing
innovative technologies & solutions to complex social issues.”
Guru-G
Learning Labs is a
teaching innovations company that is transforming the teaching-learning process
globally through the world's first gamified platform for teaching & teacher
training. Guru-G improves student outcomes by increasing teacher motivation and
skills through an engaging mobile application that continuously mentors the
teachers on the best ways to use new teaching methods & innovative
practices in their classrooms such as guided lesson plans, 21st century practices and adaptation to
different student moods etc. The platform works offline as well as in local
languages. Guru-G reaches to 350+ rural schools.
Karadi Path
addresses
the huge need to improve language learning across India, which is often the key
to student progress, whether in higher education or the workplace. To
accelerate learning, Karadi Path provides schools with a proprietary curriculum
that includes multi-media materials and training designed to accelerate the
acquisition of language skills. They use a highly impactful approach that
mimics the processes of mother-tongue learning to help students learn English
through actions, music and stories in an immersive environment. Founded in
2011, Karadi Path now operates in over 1,200 schools, both private and
government-run, across 8 states, reaching over 200,000 students this school
year. They have also trained over 6,000 teachers till date.
Adds Asheesh Sabarwal, Vice
President - Marketing, Pearson India, “Enabling access to quality
education is one of the key efforts that Pearson is driving globally and I am
confident that firms like Guru-G and Karadi Path, with their innovative
learning models, will contribute towards this shared vision.”
