In-School Support to Teachers for Implementing CAL Effectively: An RCT of Khan Academy in Indian Government Schools

A fundamental challenge of education is that students are different. Teaching children in a classroom of 20 or 30 students when these students vary enormously in their academic levels is an extraordinarily difficult task. In Indian government schools, this problem becomes worse as students are usually many grade levels behind. Thus government schools in India need to focus on exploring the potential of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) software or digital tools that can offer personalized learning to improve academic performance. India has over 200 million students in the 6 to 14 age group (K-12) and there are no other alternatives that have the potential to deliver quality education at this scale within
reasonable cost. This project provides personalized learning and high-quality state-aligned content in vernacular language to students through Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) by leveraging Khan Academy, a widely recognized online educational platform to address the foundational gaps and low academic levels among students in government schools in India. The core strategy involves deploying 'khoaches' to selected government schools in Uttar Pradesh, who will facilitate the integration of Khan Academy into the curriculum, offer training to teachers and students, and ensure effective use of the platform. Once teachers are fully trained and become proficient with the process, they would continue to use KA effectively in subsequent years.