For my master’s thesis, I took on a project which focused on early childhood education and addressing the challenges faced by Anganwadi workers (India's government pre-primary school teachers). My research focused on enhancing the DIKSHA ( Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) app, a national platform developed by NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) under the Ministry of Education, by adding features like teacher training modules, teaching resources, and a student performance tracker.
The DIKSHA platform offers valuable learning materials aligned with the national curriculum for teachers, students, and parents. My redesign aimed to empower Anganwadi workers with the tools they need to provide better education for young children across India.
My Role: UI/UX Designer
Time: 6 months
Tools: Figma, Canva, Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop
With a population of more than 1.4 billion, India is today the fastest growing economy in theworld with the youngest population. However, it faces several challenges such asunemployment, high rates of child malnutrition and stunted growth, rising gaps between rich andpoor and low participation of women in labor force (World Bank Group, 2023). It has been found that well-meant attempts to understand and tackle social problems have often failed becausethey have taken little account of the fact that children’s early experiences lay the foundation fortheir future development.
The Right to Education Act (2009) in India overlooked preschool education for a longtime, however the new National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) emphasizes its importance,advocating for comprehensive child development.The focus of the project was to design a comprehensive curriculum framework and digitalteacher-training platform to assist the educators of pre-primary government schools of India inproviding quality education to children.
The new National Education Policy of India 2020 or NEP 2020 is a comprehensive framework for elementary education to higher as well as vocational training in both rural and urban India. NEP 2020 recognizes the importance of holistic development and aims to nurture well-rounded individuals. My thesis focused on the first part of ‘Foundation Stage’.
The next step in this project would involve conducting iterative testing and refining the prototypes. This process includes gathering user feedback through usability tests to identify areas for improvement. Based on the insights gained, adjustments will be made to enhance functionality, usability, and visual design before handing off the final design for development.
Early childhood education is the foundation of lifelong learning. With the rapid growth of technology in India, smartphones are now widely accessible in rural areas, and most pre-primary teachers have access to digital devices. The proposed early education training features in the DIKSHA app will ensure that these teachers have access to high-quality training, empowering them to deliver effective education and lay a strong foundation for their students' future success.I successfully completed my thesis with honors.
