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Ex-J'khand bureaucrats launch AI-based app to bridge learning gap, help students
Ex-J'khand bureaucrats launch AI-based app to bridge learning gap, help students
Ranchi, For decades, they shaped public policy and worked to improve schools and strengthen health institutions, but now three former bureaucrats from Jharkhand have launched an AI-based mobile application to make quality education accessible to every child.
Retirement from the government sector did not mark the end of their public service as ex-health secretary Dr Shivendu, who is now an associate professor at the University of South Florida, former state education secretary Mridula Sinha and ex-chief secretary Sudhir Tripathi pursued their mission.
The result is Prepzy.ai, an AI-powered personalised learning platform for CBSE students from classes 6 to 12, which seeks to do something India's education system has struggled with for decades - bridge the gap between privilege and potential, the bureaucrats said.
The app will make quality education accessible to every child, irrespective of where they live or how much their parents earn, said Dr Shivendu, a former bureaucrat who is credited with overhauling Jharkhand's health infrastructure.
"The platform has been created keeping in mind that a child studying in a government school in a remote village should be able to access the same quality of academic guidance as one attending a top private school in a metropolitan city," he said.
It offers a free basic version, making personalised AI-driven learning affordable even for families that cannot spend thousands of rupees every month on private tuition, he said.
Its advanced features are available at a nominal cost of ₹7 or 8, as the founders believe that people may not value the product if offered free.
For the founders, it is not a start-up venture but an extension of the public service they pursued throughout their careers.
"We have seen the social divide. We have seen poor children struggle despite having enormous potential. Prepzy.ai is our effort to give back to the society that gave us so much," Dr Shivendu said.
"Our conviction has been shaped by years spent travelling through villages, interacting with students, teachers and parents, and witnessing first-hand how educational inequality often mirrors economic inequality," Dr Shivendu's wife and former bureaucrat Mridula Sinha said.
She had brought in many reforms in the education sector said.
"When I was the education secretary in Jharkhand, I often saw a big gap between what students dreamt of and what they could actually achieve. It used to hurt...I am so happy to see that even a small effort is starting to make a difference," she said.
Sinha recalled they met parents who believed education was the only path to a better future but simply could not afford private tuition.
"We visited government schools where teachers worked under difficult circumstances and had little time to provide individual attention to every child. Those experiences remained with us long after we left the civil service," she said.
The government service allowed her to understand people's aspirations at the grassroots, she said, adding that education lay at the heart of almost every aspiration.
Dr Shivendu's journey took a different route after leaving the administrative service. Moving into academia, he became an associate professor at the University of South Florida, where his research has focused on educational innovation and learning sciences.
Years of studying how technology could improve learning led him to ask a different question - not how to digitise classrooms, but how technology could understand the unique learning needs of every student, he said.
That thinking became the foundation of Prepzy.ai's Self-Adaptive Learning to Mastery framework, the associate professor said.
Instead of functioning like a library of recorded lectures, the platform analyses how individual students learn, identifies conceptual gaps and guides them step by step until they master a topic, he said.
"When students get stuck, simply giving them an answer doesn't help them learn," Dr Shivendu said.
The objective is to help them understand the reasoning behind every step so that they become independent learners, he said.
Students begin with interactive AI-supported lessons that simplify complex concepts before progressing to higher-order problems. An AI tutor remains available round the clock to answer questions, explain concepts and clear doubts.
The platform also offers chapter-wise assessments, customised practice tests, CBSE-style mock examinations, previous years' board papers, digital notes and continuous performance tracking.
Parents and teachers have dedicated dashboards that help them monitor a student's progress and identify areas requiring additional support.
Recognising India's linguistic diversity, Mathematics and Science lessons are also available in Hindi and other regional languages, enabling students to learn in the language they understand best, Dr Shivendu said.
Ex-Jharkhand CS Sudhir Tripathi, who joined the initiative as senior vice-president , believes artificial intelligence should strengthen teachers rather than replace them.
"The classroom remains central. Technology should complement teachers by ensuring students continue receiving personalised academic support even after school hours," he said.
The initiative comes at a time when successive national surveys, including the National Achievement Survey , ASER and PARAKH, have highlighted persistent learning gaps, particularly in Mathematics and Science, with the challenges becoming more pronounced among rural and economically disadvantaged students.
The founders believe artificial intelligence, if deployed responsibly, can become an instrument of social inclusion rather than deepen existing inequalities.
They describe the initiative as an attempt to combine educational research, administrative experience and artificial intelligence to address one of India's most enduring developmental challenges.
For the three former civil servants, success will not be measured merely by downloads, subscriptions or algorithms but by whether a child who once believed quality education was beyond reach begins to believe otherwise.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
