Physics Wallah (PW), India’s leading EdTech platform, has joined hands with Earth Care Foundation (ECF) to empower impoverished and underprivileged students through its flagship programme, Project Udaan 2.0. This collaboration, in line with Physics Wallah’s (PW) mission of democratizing education across the nation and the Earth Care Foundation’s goal of delivering knowledge to the underprivileged at minimal cost, is a beacon of hope for these students.
Dr Ajit Kumar IAS (Retd.), Founder and Chairman of Earth Care Foundation, established the foundation in 2005 with a vision of a sustainable society and lifestyle by empowering the poor and underprivileged sections of society with knowledge, skills and resources. This partnership will empower students approved by ECF residing in villages and small towns who lack access to quality online education.
Through this initiative, eligible students competing in recruitment and entrance examinations like NEET, JEE, Banking, Defence, and SSC will be given access to the high-quality content and courses offered by Physics Wallah (PW). Along with the PW courses, the programme also offers courses in English proficiency, PDP & Soft skills courses, and career counselling courses through Know Thy Choice and Fastinfo. A meagre registration fee is charged to the students to ensure their willingness to learn and make them feel more invested in completing these courses.
Alakh Pandey, Founder & CEO of Physics Wallah (PW), shared his thoughts on the partnership:
Helping students from across the country regardless of their social or economical status, is the sole reason why we began this company. We are delighted to have partnered with ECF as our visions are aligned. In future, we aspire to partner with multiple NGOs to empower 10 lakh underprivileged students in the next five years so that we can give them equal opportunities and access to top-quality education.
Most of these students are the primary breadwinners of their families and, therefore, prefer self-paced learning. The Flexi-Time and Flexi-Location mode of online teaching and learning, which allows these students to complete the online course at their convenience from the comfort of their homes, has been a resounding success. The pilot run witnessed an impressive completion rate of around 85-90%, instilling confidence in the potential of this teaching method. For every 10 students, a mentor is assigned who connects with them each week to track progress and guide them through their academic journey.
Dr Ajit Kumar IAS (Retd.), Founder Chairman of ECF, stated:
We are excited to expand Udaan 2.0 this financial year after the success of Udaan 1.0, which empowered students belonging to families of migrant labourers dwelling in the slums of Delhi and having Physics Wallah (PW) as our knowledge and technology partner will enable us to use their robust digital distribution network to reach students whose education is constrained due to socio-economic reasons. We aim to level the playing field when competing in recruitment and competitive exams by giving them access to quality online education.
ECF has teamed with CSC (Common Service Centre) Academy, a Ministry of IT & Electronics initiative, to allow students to register for Udaan 2.0 by visiting their nearest CSC in the village (the country has around 5.5 lakh centres). In addition, as part of the registration process, they must submit their mark sheet and income certificate. Know Thy Choice (KTC) is the project’s technology and delivery partner.
