An Edupreneur’s take on Nalanda Assist

Tanushree Das is a mother of two. Having completed her teacher’s training, she wanted to follow a career path that had always appealed to her – that of a teacher. However, with young kids at home, it was impossible for her to take up a full-time job, and just when she resigned herself to her fate, the opportunity to start her own play school presented itself. She had seized it by the horns and the Little Laureates (Kasba) had happened.

In no time was the entity run by her the cynosure of all eyes – the children loved being with her and the parents swore by her ability to transform her wards into confident “little laureates” who were ready for the world ahead. Admission was skyrocketing and though there were many Montessori playhouses in the vicinity, her institution had curved out the pride of place.

But that was before the pandemic struck. Before the lockdown was clamped on the hapless children. Before the only way out became a digital one. To cut a long story short, Nalanda Learnings arrived, just in time, with a beacon of hope – providing digitized succour to many “edupreneurs” like Tanushree Das as they made the transition, first to electronic pedagogy and then to a NEP 2020-mandated curriculum, which has made compulsory preschool education from the age of 3 onwards a must.

“While we do have the infrastructure, it is the Nalanda Learning content that is making the difference,” says Tanushree Das, “teacher’s training, technology, and child development tools are all provided in-house. What I like most about it is the fact that it provides me access to a highly efficient hybrid model that allows me to work both online and offline, combining physical & digital content via in-classroom studies, as well as teaching online in virtual classrooms. The backup services provided by Nalanda are extremely efficient, with issues addressed real-time by professionals who know their business and are ever ready to sort things out.”

“Most children have gone through a terrible, trying time when they were forced indoors, away from their friends, from their playschools, from a routine that they were used to. Naturally, they need to be handled with extra loving care by trained professionals, which I feel is a need of the hour, as even the parents are often on the very edge themselves, mostly overwhelmed by the turn of events. The problem will be further compounded, as the schools make a beeline to offer education to what we used to call preschool children, and I personally shudder at the thought of all the things that can go wrong, at least in the initial years before a semblance of normalcy returns.”

“The Nalanda Assist program is God-sent under the circumstances and I am confident that we will be able to not only apply the healing balm but also start working on the children to help them attain all-round development in the shortest period possible.”