About Us

Smart School

Introduction

     Bharat Sevak Samaj (BSS) is the National Development Agency Promoted by the Planning Commission, Government of India to ensure public co-operation for implementing government plans.The constitution and functioning of Bharat Sevak Samaj is approved unanimously by the Indian Parliament. Since its inception in 1952, it has been striding through the path of education and recently entered into online field of education namely Smartindia.

Project Profile

     An analysis of the performance of the students from Rural areas in the All India competitive Examinations reveals that their performance are not up to the mark as compared to the students from many other parts in the country. Competitive Examinations are application based and work through a process of elimination, where only the best who has the required scholastic as well as soft skills makes it to the premier institutions in the country.

     Scholastic and soft skills can be said to incorporate all aspects of generic skills that include the cognitive elements associated with academic skills. Scholastic and soft skills are identified to be the most critical skills in the current global job market especially in a fast moved era of technology. Based on the vast research done by smartindia, expert opinions have been sought to determine the specific scholastic and soft skills to be incorporated and used in education institutions, especially in schools. In this effort the following soft skills have been identified and chosen to be delivered through smartindia.net.in. They are:

Communicative Skills

1. Thinking skills and problem solving skills
2. Team work force
3. Life – long learning and information management
4. Entrepreneur skill
5. Ethics, moral and Professionalism
6. Leadership skills

     As a responsible educational research organization, smartindia’s dream is to give the best possible education to all students to attain the above mentioned skills. Smartindia.net.in, the online portal launched by the National Development Agency Bharat Savak Samaj, is equipped to help children at school and at home in a clear, correct and interesting way to attain the scholastic and soft skills.

     At smartindia, students will be expected to master the scholastic as well as the soft skills, through a series of continuous and comprehensive evaluation tests, remedial lessons and monitoring systems. Through smartindia, students will collaborate, communicate, think, experiment and reflect throughout the day. Therefore being in smartclass of smartindia is very important for each student every day.

Purpose

      The need for quality education along with scholastic and soft skills is more evident than ever as we raise our children today. It is our purpose to provide high quality education, which is centered on continuous and comprehensive evaluation, remedial teaching and monitoring. The skills developed through smartindia includes the ability to think critically, creatively, innovatively and analytically. It also involves the ability to apply knowledge and understanding in different situations. For ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ (ESD) to be successful, it must give students practical skills that will enable them to continue learning after they leave school to have a sustainable livelihood and to live sustainable lives. The critical thinking skills, skills to organize and interpret data and information, skills to formulate questions and the ability to analyse issues that confront communities are greatly addressed in the meticulously designed test series of smartindia.

     Smartindia helps the student to be independent and self – regulated in learning as well as acquiring skills and new knowledge, through smart corners, remedial lessons and class notes. Besides this, students are also expected to develop an inquisitive mind and crave for knowledge through “Tell me Why”, question and answer Forum, Creative corners etc. in smartindia.

Strategy

     A holistic approach is used to plan and implement the scholastic and soft skills among students. This approach is based on the combination of several programmes and activities. Continuous and comprehensive evaluation tests after each topic student learned in the class, in the form of chapter test, subject test and general tests, are the first approach to practice and develop the skills. It also includes the approach of embedding the remedial teaching in the continuous and comprehensive evaluation tests, answer sheets, class notes and smart corners across the curriculum.

      It does not require the student to take special courses for each subject. Instead, the students are trained to master the subjects through various tests and activities. The learning outcomes related to the subject wise/ chapter wise tests will be integrated and be part of the learning outcomes of the respective lessons. This is followed by implementing several teaching and learning activities such as questioning, class discussion, brain storming, team work, presentation, task/projects etc.

Participation

      It also involves active participation of the students. Students active participation is ensured through,

a) Learning through Practice tests.
b) Learning through questioning.
c) Co-operative learning with students from all quadrants of the world.
d) Working with more learners,teachers and subject experts outside the student’s limited geographic area.
e) Problem based learning.
f) E- learning – through library available in smartindia.
g) Leadership skill development through online discussion and various activities.

Methods

      A student on registration will get a username and password with which he/she can login to smartindia.net.in and take tests as continuous and comprehensive evaluation tool. In general the development of scholastic and soft skills using the embedded model requires time scheduled training centers with teachers, Principal and authorities throughout the state of Kerala to use the various strategies and methods that are embedded in this package which is entirely student centered.

Outcome of the Project

Benefits to the student

     The student shall acquire all the scholastic skills, that are envisaged to attain in the different classes, through the transaction of the respective curriculum, through the practice of the innumerable tests provided as well as with the perusal of the class notes included for each chapter in the meticulously designed package of smartindia. Apart from the scholastic skill the following soft skills will also be developed in the students, who login and practice the package continuously.

No	Soft Skills	Must have sub Skills	Good to have sub skills
1	Communicative Skills	(a) Ability to deliver idea clearly, effectively and with confidence either orally or in writing. (b) Ability to practice actively and to respond. (c) Ability to present clearly and confidently to the audience.	(a) Ability to use technology during presentation. (b) Ability to communicate with individual from a different cultural background.
2	Critical Thinking and problem solving skills.	a) Ability to identify and analyse problems in different situation and make justifiable evaluation. (b) Ability to expand and improve thinking skills such as explanation, analysis and to evaluate discussion. (c) Ability to find ideas and look for alternative solutions.	(a) Ability to make conclusions based on valid proof. (b) Ability to understand (c) Ability to think beyond.
3	Leadership Skill	(a) Knowledge of the basic theories of leadership (b) Ability to lead a project.	(a) Ability to understand and take turns as a leader and follower alternatively
4	Self Learning Skill	(a) Ability to find and manage relevant information from various sources. (b) Ability to receive new ideas performs autonomy learning.	(a) Ability to develop an inquiry mind and seek knowledge.
5	Competitive Skill	(a) Ability to identify position and manage to improve ranking. (b) Ability to understand, recognize and respect competition to survive from an early age.	(a) Ability to understand, recognize and respect practice is the key behind competition success.
6	Time Management Skill	(a) Ability to understand the role of time factor behind the success of all	(a) Ability to practice with in the stipulated time.

Benefits to the Teacher

     1. Appropriate tool for the teachers to evaluate the learning outcome of the students after each class through various tests in the form of topic wise, chapter wise and term wise.
2. It helps the teacher to prepare questions and evaluate the performance of the student through separate username and password.
3. Enables the teacher to grade the performance of the students in therespective classes.
4. Teacher can update his/her knowledge using the package through evaluation tests, online discussions with subject expert concerned, tell me why and many other reference resources embedded in the package.
5. Getting opportunities to interact with peers outside their geographical limit.

Benefits to the head of the institution

      1. The performance of the students is at his fingertip, as the package facilitates a unique username & password for the administrator.
2. To assess and understand the changes in the acquisition of the skills and values by the student.
3. Providing an opportunity for the comparison of the performance of the teachers and students.
4. To understand the difference in the performances among the schools in the locality as well as of a wider area.
5. Giving opportunity to present the caliber of gifted students of the institution to the outside world.

Benefits to the parent

     If parent can take a few moments to browse through our website, the parent will find a link to his/hers child’s time line track record, which provides access to grades/ranks, answer sheets with correct answers and explanations about all the questions his/her child attended, graphical analysis of the student’s performance and much more.

Conclusion

      To live to the challenge of globalization which is in line with the era of information economy, the strength of a nation is strongly dependent on the ability of its citizen to be highly intellectual and skillful. The development of human capital is thus important and necessary since it drives the nation to the envisioned vision and mission. Without a quality human capital, a nation will be weak as there is no human factor that is capable to embark on new initiatives and perspectives. A quality human capital comes from a quality education process. A carefully designed and well planned education system is critical to developing such human capital. Thus, smartindia.net.in plays a very important role to produce a human capital that is highly knowledgeable and skillful to meet the demand and expectations of many people.

      The continuous and comprehensive evaluation tests and remedial teaching processes of smartindia.net.in should be capable to provide such knowledge and skill to future graduates of India.