EdTech Startup Add-On-Gyan Launches 21st Century Skill Learning Platform – Kidovators

Backed by Impact Investor Gray Matters Capital’s edLABS initiative, the platform aims to impart critical 21st Century Skills such as Creativity, Critical Thinking, Complex Problem Solving and Collaboration among others for K-10 students.

To create active engagement between Corporates and the K-10 student community wherein student insights as consumers can be used for product or service innovation.

BENGALURU, 11^th January, 2018: Add-On-Gyan Educational Services Pvt. Ltd., a Bengaluru based education-technology startup which has created programs and curriculum for K-10 schools in diverse areas such as STEAM (Science, Technology, English, Arts and Mathematics), Logical Thinking, and Entrepreneurship, has today announced the launch of Kidovators^TM  – India’s premier 21st century skill learning platform.

Kidovators^TM has been backed by impact investor Gray Matters Capital through its edLABS initiative that provides very early stage funding to ‘visionary edu-preneurs’ to help build breakthrough solutions that address education gaps, 21^st century skills and future of work for the Indian mass market.

Through this platform, school students of Classes IV to IX can acquire skills such as Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking and Complex Problem-solving by participating in gamified challenges and by availing online continuous learning programs geared towards inculcating core competencies necessary to create the workforce of the future.

Speaking on the sidelines of the ‘Kidovators Edu Summit’ where the platform was launched, Priyadeep Sinha, Founder and CEO, Add-On-Gyan Educational Services Pvt. Ltd. said, “65% students entering school today will grow up to do work that does not even exist today. Various research reports highlight that skills such as creativity, critical thinking and adaptability are going to be key to the success of the future human capital. This means that the education system needs to morph itself to be one that can orient the students to this mode of thinking. We believe that the Kidovators Platform is one such spark that our education needs to ignite the minds of our future!”

“Backing affordable breakthrough solutions of for-profit education ventures focused on inculcating 21st century skills and improving the learning outcomes of the students is in line with our investment strategy in India”, said Ragini Bajaj Chaudhary, India CEO, Gray Matters Capital.

Throwing light on the edLABS initiative, Smita Sircar, Innovation Director -edLABS and ecosystem, Gray Matters Capital said, “Be it education startups who have an innovative idea and need early stage funding to pilot their product prototype or an established education enterprise looking for business line innovation, edLABS creates a nurturing environment for them to downscale into the affordable private education space. We are on the constant look out for entrepreneurs like Priyadeep who are mission driven to solve the toughest problems in education with their innovations applicable to not just India, but globally too.”

How the Kidovators^TM Platform Imparts 21^st Century Skills

Creative Thinking Program

A course for students of Classes IV – IX to help them tap into their existing creative skills & giving direction to it. Students are encouraged to look at or use objects and spaces from a completely different perspective. They also read about how some of the existing products and solutions we use today have come into being through applications of creative thinking and are introduced to tools and triggers to expand their scope of creativity.

To create the course, Kidovators has partnered with Erehwon, the 25 year old innovation consulting firm which pioneered the unique ‘Orbit-Shifting Innovation’ approach that has successfully moved leaders, teams & organisations across Europe, US & Asia-Pacific to create and execute Innovation led transformations.

Besides the course, the education-technology start-up has been conducting ‘Kidovators Creativity Olympiad: The Erehwon Challenge’ – India’s Biggest Creativity Olympiad to help students from Class IV to IX to hone their creative thinking skills.

Critical Thinking Program

A program also for students of Classes IV – IX that is designed and built to help them understand how to form a decision or judgement based on unbiased and objective evaluation of facts. In this program students will learn the concepts of scientific method and logic for judgments and decisions are key not only at work but also in our day to day life. Critical thinking is also a key factor for decision making and students will learn how to critically evaluate each solution when multiple solutions are possible to a presented problem.

Kidovators^TM is also launching its Critical Thinking Olympiad in 2018 to help students build and grow their critical thinking skills.

Complex Problem Solving Program

With an objective of inculcating problem solving traits in students, this program helps students identify a problem area or a need and develop, analyse and implement their thoughts and ideas to solve the problem and cater to the need. Students are encouraged to also understand topics such as finance, marketing, execution hurdles, real world issues and are introduced to team building activities.

Through this program, Kidovators^TM as a platform will also be to create active engagement between Corporates and the student community to apply creative and critical thinking to some of the most pressing issues that our society faces as well as providing their insights into products as consumers & future customers!

Future Plans

The platform will be looking to add more challenges, courses and spotlight programs around Adaptability and Collaboration in the future. “Kidovators is levelling the playing field by ensuring that kids from affordable private schools (APS) are provided with the exact same quality of learning on the platform as students from marquee schools of India.”, Priyadeep Sinha added.