TECH LEAP FOR RURAL SCHOOLS IN INDIA
SPEAKERS
NAMITA
DALMIA
Namita leads Central Square Foundation’s work in the area of technology for school education. She also co-manages Edupreneur Quest, an education-focused business plan competition. In India, she worked on various education policy projects for two years as part of the National Knowledge Commission, an advisory body under the Prime Minister's Office. Her other experiences include working on a breakthrough technology at Intel Technologies and co-founding a pan-India non-profit organisation Pankhudi Foundation.
WILLIBRORD GEORGE
Willibrord founded the St. Willibrord International School in Mumbai in 2004. In the last 10 years, the school has grown from 100 students and 8 staff members at a single location, to a network of 5 schools, with a total 3600 students and 200 staff members. To improve the quality of education provided, WIllibrord has transformed the curriculum, integrated technology within the classroom, and conducted over 500 parent workshops.
MEG WHITTENBERGER
Meg Whittenberger believes that every child deserves access to high quality education. Meg currently works as Director of Operations at Zaya Learning Labs, where she oversees program operations, curriculum development, and teacher training. Before joining Zaya, she worked with a USAID contractor and numerous NGOs on programs for conflict-affected youth across four continents. She has also taught English as a second language in schools and community centers in the United States and India. She holds a Master's degree in Education from Columbia University and a Bacherlor's degree from Amherst College.
NEIL D'SOUZA
Neil D'Souza is the founder of Zaya, an educational social enterprise startup that is bringing the online education revolution to the bottom of the pyramid. Neil has an engineering background and worked in the computer networking industry for over four years at Cisco Systems where he focused on Mobile Internet and Video Technologies. He developed his ClassCloud technology that now powers 60 and more schools/orphanages in India, Indonesia and Mongolia.
​SRIDHAR RAJAGOPALAN
Sridhar Rajagopalan is an educational entrepreneur who has helped change the way student learning outcomes are seen in India. He worked in IBM India for 2.5 years before co-founding and running Eklavya School in Ahmedabad. Sridhar is a member of various central and state government committees related to education including the committee for devising model rules for the Right to Education Act in Gujarat.
GAURAV SINGH
Gaurav Singh founded the 3:2:1 Schools, he intervenes with the most important stakeholders in India’s education system: students, teachers, parents, and government, to build conviction and get them to invest in the education of first generation learners from low-income families. Gaurav is setting up a network of schools that will make the entire public school system deliver quality education from within their existing infrastructure and budget.
NATHAN KOBLINTZ
Grant Manager and RANJAN ALLES (Advisor) from Porticus. Nathan advises foundations and private donors on charitable giving in South Asia, with a strong focus on education - especially teacher training, school management and leadership, quality rural education
PRANAV KOTHARI
Pranav Kothari heads the Large Scale Assessments and Mindspark Centres divisions at Educational Initiatives. This includes all the work with Governments, Foundations and Corporate CSR in the domain of learning level assessments, interventions and advisory consulting. Prior to EI, Pranav worked as a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group in USA, Germany, Chile and Argentina. He also worked as a Private Equity investor with GTI Global in USA and India.
FR. MARIA CHARLES SDB
Fr. Maria Charles SDB is the Secretary of AIDBES and co-ordinates all the educational activities of Don Bosco Organization of India. He organizes the National Educational Conference of Don Bosco Schools (NECDBS) and has started the School Self Review & Evaluation (SSRE) Programme in Don Bosco Schools all over India. He is keenly interested in bringing apt communication technology for enhancing teaching and learning capacities in rural India.