The pandemic greatly hindered the education system of the physical presence. It has made a sudden shift to digitization, where learning has been through online platforms. This system created chaos at the beginning, with both teachers and students adjusting to the new norm and normal. But it was at such times when companies like GurujiWorld Technologies lent a helping hand to simplify the process of learning and make education fun for all again.
GurujiWorld is featuring as one of The 5 Best K12 Technology Solution Providers in 2022 in this issue of The Enterprise World.
In this interview with Girish Prabhu – Founder, CEO, he is letting us know more about the company’s journey.
Tell us about the inception and your inspiration for GurujiWorld.
During the year 2006-2007, I came across the challenge of making my mother learn how to use computer, open a Hotmail account and send and receive mails. I figured out that there are thousands of senior citizens who would want to learn use computer so that they can interact and chat with their dear ones staying abroad. I saw this as a pain area for hundreds of thousands of people and realised it was a great opportunity to get started with my venture.
I developed my first product, which was a computer-based training (CBT) application for computer literacy and while doing this I tested my product in the market in different demographics of Maharashtra to understand the challenges of my target group (TG) to be more aligned to the expectations for me to release my minimum viable product (mvp).
Since the days of my first product Seekho ICT a CBT on computer literacy, my journey through various opportunities and projects, I worked assiduously and got my taste of failures and success, what kept me going till date is my conviction, my passion, and my go-getter attitude towards my purpose to use technology to simplify the way people learn and that kept me going with the same vigour.
What were the initial challenges you faced during the foundation of the company?
Success for me is a journey not a destination. I learn from my success as well as from my failures and that makes me stronger and drives me further towards my goal. I truly believe there is no alternative to hard work and passion. I owe the long-standing success of GurujiWorld to my lovely team of gurujians! We at GurujiWorld have great synergy amongst us and everyone’s beliefs and vision are aligned to that of the company!
To be honest, my passion always has been in the field of e-Learning, and I wanted to build a product that can help and impact masses. My vision was to design and develop good quality software products in the field of education. I always wanted to be a product company, as I felt that just merely working in the software space isn’t of much value if one doesn’t get to create any intellectual property that solves a bigger problem.
As I mentioned earlier years of 2006, It was challenging to teach my mother use of computer and how to learn to open a Hotmail account and send and receive mails. I cleary saw this as a huge pain area for so many people and saw it as an opportunity to get started with my idea. I started my company from my apartment, being a software engineer I worked on designing and developing a computer-based training (CBT) application in java swing technology over windows platform.
In 2008 at the PUNE IT Expo, I managed to get a small table to display my Seekho ICT CBT application which was in vernacular language i.e. Marathi. This exhibition gave me an opportunity to showcase my product to more than 1000+ people who visited my stall during 5 days of the exhibition.
This was the time I got introduced to the Government sector and was able to navigate and meet many good bureaucrats who appreciated the product and gave us bigger opportunities to work.
This is when my journey into public sector started and we were able to capture large opportunities and strike partnerships with companies like Educomp, NIIT, Everonn, Microsoft to work on projects in government school education sector in the state of Maharashtra.
What are the products and services your company focuses on?
GurujiWorld today has evolved into a school edtech company. We partner with privately run affordable private schools (APS) in India (phase 1 Maharashtra) and is the only company to cater to the private schools with vernacular medium.
GurujiWorld pivoted towards providing integrated Digital Education Platform (iDEP) to cater to school academics and administration to adept to the new hybrid mode post covid and to empower the school ecosystem consisting of school trustees, principals, teachers, parents, and students.
So, iDEP is a simple B2B integrated digital education platform, digitizing school curriculums for K10 sector, introducing new teaching methods, automating assessment processes, monitoring learning progress and setting up connected solutions for all stakeholders — school trustees, students, teachers and parents.
iDEP school system involves all stakeholders for schools. GurujiWorld ensure that our proprietary iDEP digital e-Learning app for curriculum, co-developed with educationists, pedagogists and other subject matter experts is properly implemented by the schools.
The iDEP program’s focus is to change the ‘learn – repeat’ approach to new ‘multi-modal’ learning. iDEP school system comprises our innovative proprietary products –
1. iDEP digital e-Learning App – an innovative teaching learning app consisting of simple, high quality, engaging and interactive audio-visual learning multi-media contents for hybrid education for K10 schools
2. iDEP ERP – a cloud based online School Management ERP system and
3. iDEP Analytics – a cloud based academic progress monitoring and analytics system.
Over the years we have gained rich experience of various stakeholders from our TG by working with more than 7500+ state board schools in Maharashtra who used our proprietary digital curriculum contents in ICT labs.
How are your services different from those in the market?
iDEP school system is composed of seamlessly integrated proprietary products designed and developed by GurujiWorld, which are –
1. iDEP digital e-Learning App – an innovative teaching learning app consisting of simple, high quality, engaging and interactive audio-visual learning multi-media contents for hybrid education for K10 schools,
2. iDEP ERP – a cloud based online School Management ERP system and
3. iDEP Analytics – a cloud based academic progress monitoring and analytics system.
Key differentiators:
- We are the only company to cater to affordable private schools in the vernacular space
- We have developed the entire digital curriculum mapped to the state board outline as opposed to some selective concepts
- Content is aptly aligned to NEP 2020 guidelines that focus on competency and outcomes with the help of innovative teaching pedagogies
- GurujiWorld focus on holistic development of the child by providing digital contents as per school syllabus, English Language skills and mock MCQs for exposure of competitive exams
How are your services providing a better leverage to educational institutions?
iDEP is a simple B2B integrated Digital Education Platform, digitizing school curriculums for affordable private schools (APS) in K10 sector, introducing new teaching methods, automating assessment processes, monitoring learning progress and setting up connected solutions for school ecosystem i.e. school trustees, students, teachers and parents.
Our services to these APS schools are categorized under 4 key areas:
- Digital Teaching and Learning support
- Learning Analytics
- Automation – Academics and Administration
- Branding and Marketing
Teachers are the backbone of the schools. What GurujiWorld observed is that teachers in these APS schools are highly passionate but lack the right skills, exposure to tools and new teaching techniques that require use of technology. For digital teaching-learning through our iDEP digital e-Learning app for teachers we focus on empowering teachers with the right skills and provide them with lots of digital resources to enable engaging classroom sessions and extra-curricular multiple assessments for students.
Today, more than 95% of APS have no digital or social media presence. GurujiWorld provide them marketing support by enabling their digital presence and helping them increase their outreach by creating their school website. GurujiWorld’s iDEP ERP facilitates the automation of new admissions, fee collection, academic management processes for the school that improves productivity, speeds up report generation and increases accountability.
Lastly, GurujiWorld provide nudges and infographics to help with digital marketing and branding for the schools.
