Evangeline Harris Stefanakis

Stepping India in the Right
Direction

Innovations Case Discussion:
iDiscoveri

When I was asked to comment on this educational innovation in India, I was
thrilled to learn about a student-centered reform that has had clear, 可持续的
结果. 的确, this market-driven school “franchise” has achieved stunning
results in some schools by cracking a code and addressing social issues, 哪个
India’s massive public education system has not been able to do.

I have firsthand experience of the dire need to provide India’s children access
to the high-quality education they need to compete in the global marketplace. 在
一月 2010, I returned to the U.S. after a month of teaching medical profession-
als in India how to teach. I also had visited the public schools in Chennai,
Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad, where I observed how rote learning led to excellence
in test-taking while leaving serious gaps in critical thinking, problem-solving, 和
沟通. The iDiscoveri XSEED Living Knowledge System has clearly
sought to address this gap. This educational franchise is designed to reform pri-
mary education in India so that children will first learn how to learn, and then to
apply what they know in original ways.

I am a school reformer who works to educate minority populations. As I read
the iDiscoveri case study authored by Harvard-trained, corporate businessmen, 我
asked myself how viable this private business model of Western education could be
within the social and cultural context of Delhi’s slums and the surrounding rural
地区. In these areas, home to the bulk of India’s population that lives in poverty,
schools without doors, without toilets, and without teachers who show up on a
daily basis are the norm. 所以, India’s massive goal of providing access to
basic primary education is distinct from what this case described. The iDiscoveri
XSEED innovation clearly has made important contributions in India and is
potentially a beacon of reform, but questions still remain as to its broad applica-
能力.

Evangeline Harris Stefanakis, EdD, is an associate professor at Boston University,
and a Faculty Fellow in the BU Provost’s Office.

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Evangeline Harris Stefanakis

A RESOUNDING CALL FOR GLOBAL EDUCATIONAL REFORM

清楚地, the global educational race is on, and innovations in countries such as
South Korea and Singapore give India the incentive to act quickly to keep up with
its efforts to develop a 21st-century workforce. As Linda Darling-Hammond writes
in her new book, The Flat World and Global Education:

The 21st century is characterized by the availability of abundant informa-
的, advanced technology, a rapidly changing society, greater conven-
ience in daily lives and keener international competition. In response to
这些变化, our education reform must be . . . focused . . . on develop-
ing the potential and personalities of students. This student-focused spir-
it underlies the education and curriculum reforms, improvement to the
learning environment, and enhancement of teacher training.

In the space of one generation, South Korea moved from a nation that
educated less than a quarter of its citizens through high school to one
that now ranks third in college educated adults, with most young people
now completing postsecondary education . . . Starting in the 1970’s,
Singapore began to transform itself from a collection of swampy fishing
villages into an economic powerhouse by building an educational system
that would ensure every student access to strong teaching, an inquiry
curriculum, and cutting edge technology.1

Despite high levels of poverty and growing ethnic and linguistic diversity
among their citizens, South Korea and Singapore have created high-level, equitable
educational opportunities. This puts the pressure on other developing countries to
respond to the global marketplace with serious educational reforms that will pro-
vide its students with 21st-century skills. In this aspect, the developers of iDiscoveri
XSEED have hit the nail on the head in terms of creating a viable model for India’s
future educational system, one based on world-class standards. As they note:

IDiscoveri was conceived as a “social enterprise with a mission to renew
education in India.” Its founders chose a for-profit model that would go
to scale and sustain itself.

If renewing India’s education system was the goal, why did this group of social
entrepreneurs choose a private model to drive their innovation? The founders
解释:

Our work needed the best and brightest professionals and significant
investments in research and advocacy. This could only be achieved
through the means of a commercially viable model. India is littered with
well-meaning initiatives that have dried up when the donor funds or
nonpaying consumers dry up.

Other social entrepreneurs in India have focused on cell phone companies,
which enable even the poor in rural settings to pay for and benefit from cutting-
edge technology. This seemed to suggest a natural carryover to education.

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Stepping India in the Right Direction

THE IDISCOVERI XSEED CREATION

The XSEED case study explains how a diverse team of professionals, dedicated to
improving the quality of teaching and learning for children in India, 发达
their Living Knowledge System over a ten-year period, a remarkable trajectory of
marketable growth. So how did they grow from reaching three schools in 2007 到
four hundred schools in 2009? The founders of XSEED explain that they
addressed four critical challenges by doing the following:
• By altering what actually happens inside a classroom between a teacher and her
学生, replacing a process in which a teacher tells and the student listens
with a more effective process that gets children to understand and apply what
they learn

• By developing a practical tool kit that all teachers can use in the classroom,

which includes daily teaching plans and other tools, and then training them to
teach and assess children more effectively

• By ensuring that our solutions worked at scale, empowering schools with

robust instructional processes, in-house master-trainers and year-round aca-
demic support

• By creating a viable, sustainable economic model for quality education, 在
which parents and schools pay an affordable price to improve educational
质量, and using the revenues to create a thriving social enterprise

Today XSEED is being implemented in over 400 schools enrolling over 120,000
learners. The program’s impact is clearly evident in these schools within three
月, as students show improved understanding of core concepts, and better
reasoning and communications skills.

然而, as we look at the larger picture—educating a huge number of chil-
dren throughout a country that has vast divisions between rich and poor—serious
questions remain. For middle-class students who have the economic means to
attend schools using the XSEED method, one question may be whether this suc-
cessful elementary model will serve them equally well in secondary or higher edu-
cational settings, where the traditional British model of rote learning is still in
地方. 而且, what happens to young people who attend government schools
that do not have the benefit of the XSEED system? If XSEED is indeed the way of
未来, will having participated in the program give students an “in” to second-
ary schooling in India’s best schools? Will the Living Knowledge System in fact
exacerbate the divide between the haves and have-nots?

Another question arises from the fact that India’s current education system has
produced a strong technical workforce that has successfully entered the global
marketplace, particularly in the areas of engineering, 科学, and medicine. 如何
has this been attained? Are there aspects of the current Indian education model
that provide students with the skills and knowledge to compete internationally,
including in English-speaking countries? Do students who negotiate India’s edu-
cation system from elementary school through higher education ultimately learn
persistence and develop skills that translate into success in the global workplace?

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Evangeline Harris Stefanakis

和, 最后, will the XSEED model work with children whose parents want them
to experience more traditional forms of learning later on? How can this progres-
sive educational model be adapted to the bulk of India’s successful sites of higher
教育?

REACTION TO THE IDISCOVERI XSEED SYSTEM
AS IT GROWS IN SIZE AND POPULARITY

Reactions to XSEED were documented in the local press in Hyderabad and
Chennai, and in Educational World Magazine.2 As an education reformer, I have
serious questions about the XSEED model, which are based on my own experience
in India. My greatest question is this: How can this innovative educational enter-
prise take hold in its own country?

The reactions of local leaders and media are a key element in the development
and growth of this innovative educational model. If local news outlets or other
publications are chronicling this reform, then it would indeed appear that it is
beginning to attract an important following that warrants attention. 然而, 向上
to now the media reports clearly address both the assets of the model and the
issues that remain:

ReachoutHyderabad.com, 二月 2009
iDiscoveri, a social enterprise with a vision to renew education in India,
conducted an interactive seminar titled “Making your Good School
Great” in their XSEED Learning Centers . . . for school correspondents
and principals from across Andhra Pradesh. 先生. H. Joshi meets require-
ments of various school systems in India, including those promoted by
state boards, CBSE and ICSE Council, as well as the IB and Cambridge
curricula.
iDiscoveri leaders note that the positive reception by these
principals has prompted us to chart aggressive plans; seeing deeper pen-
etration into schools in the state.

Education World: The Human Development Magazine, 行进 2010
The XSEED Revolution . . . Although our XSEED curriculum was intro-
duced to K-VII schools as recently as 2007 and was accepted by only three
in the first year, it is currently being taught in 303 primary schools in 22
states across the country. The growing acceptance of iDiscoveri’s innova-
tively designed primary and middle school curriculum by leading private
schools—government schools are not yet on the company’s radar. . . .

不出所料, it has been most enthusiastically welcomed in private
primary schools in Tamil Nadu (pop. 62 百万), traditionally in the
vanguard of education reform and development in the country.
现在 71 schools—almost one-fourth of all primaries countrywide
which have signed up for XSEED study programme—are sited in this
southern literate state. . . .

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Stepping India in the Right Direction

Although this new genre company has made . . . invaluable contributions
to the development of innovative curriculum and teaching-learning sys-
tems to improve the quality and consistency of primary education, 这是
pertinent to note the iDiscoveri and its affiliates are for profit business
enterprises, albeit driven by the highest principles of enlightened self-
兴趣. . . .

By Indian standards the XSEED program is not cheap. An alliance mem-
bership of Rs99.000.00 per year is payable by every XSEED affiliated
学校 . . . 尽管如此, the phenomenon of new genre educational com-
panies offering well designed, particularly ICT-driven curriculums and
teaching-learning systems, is hardly novel . . . Several listed corporate
ventures, including Everonn Education, Educomp Solutions and NIIT,
and numerous unlisted companies are aggressively marketing new tech-
driven pedagogies for longer periods throughout India.

With the revolutionary X SEED teaching-learning programme being wel-
comed in progressive schools across the country . . . the major challeng-
ing confronting Indian education is introducing contemporary curricu-
lums into government schools. They may have made a beginning in the
kingdom of Bhutan, where at the invitation of the government they are
implementing XSEED and its programmes in 14 government schools.

It is evident that XSEED has a quality product that is gaining acceptance among
leaders of the private schools that serve the middle-class parents who are able to
pay for a world-class education.

清楚地, in a global marketplace where educational credentials can determine
future schooling and career opportunities, the middle class in a developing coun-
try like India is hungry for what appears to be high-quality, Western, 21st-century
education model that is engaging for young children who respond favorably to
active learning, as opposed to the passive learning their parents were accustomed
到. It remains to be seen how XSEED will take on the ultimate task of providing all
India’s children with a world-class education.

XSEED AT A CROSSROADS

Can the XSEED program be adapted to India’s 140,357,454 primary school stu-
凹痕?3 That is the country’s foremost need and greatest challenge. As a scholar of
school reform and proponent of education for minority populations, I applaud
iDiscoveri’s excellent efforts, but I have to wonder if they will be able to rise to the
serious challenge of offering all India’s children a chance to learn and to grow into
creative critical thinkers.

In sum, I would say that the iDiscoveri XSEED Living Knowledge System
appears to be a strong model, one rooted in Howard Gardner’s Multiple
Intelligence theory and Eleanor Duckworth’s Piaget-based learning-by-doing

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Evangeline Harris Stefanakis

模型. As an educational reformer focused on Multiple Intelligences and differ-
entiated instruction and assessment, my personal view is that the iDiscovery
XSEED Living Knowledge System has moved Indian education a step forward, 在-
marily due to several key elements:
• An educational reform model and franchise with 21st-century design
• A school-based model of leadership and learning
• A business model that provides creativity, critical thinking, original problem-

solving

• A replicable set of resources—a tool kit, teacher training, institutes, 和骗局-

帐篷

As I reflect on how these social entrepreneurs moved from problem to possibility,
I offer them a few questions to ponder as they continue their excellent work:
• How will they address the most critical educational needs of India’s poor?
• How will they create sustainable, long-term, quality educational training for
学生, 教师, and parents in both economically sound and poverty
plagued urban and rural areas?

• How will they differentiate the curriculum, assessment, and training for various

minority groups, and for the handicapped?

• What is their plan for providing a public-private partnership approach and the
necessary policy to support the growth of 21st-century learning for all children
印度的?

A pressing national need and challenge is to reform India’s educational system
for the 21st century by providing modern curriculum, trained teachers, and better
facilities in both urban and rural areas. My wish is that these talented social entre-
preneurs, who have conceived and nurtured this very admirable educational prod-
uct, may help India and other developing countries meet the ultimate challenge of
serving the world’s most short-changed child populations—and the sooner the
更好的.

Bravo, iDiscoveri, for offering a 21st-century, world-class education to a critical

segment of India’s children.

1. L. Darling-Hammond. The flat world and education. 纽约: 师范学院出版社, 2010.
2. These releases are available on the web at the following: www.chennaivision.com; www.education-

worldonline.net; www.hyderabad.com.

3. World Bank EdStats site available at: http://econ.worldbank.org/

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