WhatsApp Tutor: The Indian chatbot bridging the digital divide
The adoption of new technologies in the education sector has long created a “digital divide,” separating students, educators, and schools that have access to the equipment, programs, and skills needed to leverage these technologies and those that do not. A second digital divide emerged when access to computers expanded, and a third could be on the way as Artificial Intelligence is increasingly leveraged in classrooms.
In India, the digital divide is significant. According to the Ministry of Rural Development, only 47% of households received more than 12 hours of electricity between 2017 and 2018, and more than 36% of schools across the country operated without electricity. Fewer than 15% of rural households were found to have Internet access (compared to 42% of urban households), and only 13% of people surveyed were able to use the Internet. Training for teachers and institutions on e-learning methods and platforms is also often lacking. This was exacerbated during COVID-19 school lockdowns, which saw 320 million students transition to online learning of varying quality. While exciting strides are being made in the Education Technology sector, it is prone to inequities due to high resource requirements.
An accessible alternative is text message education. By February 2024, there were over one billion active SIM cards in India, representing 82 mobile connections for every 100 people. In 2020, Abhijeet Khandagale sought to expand access to educational support by developing Ekatra, a WhatsApp and SMS-enabled chatbot that allows teachers and institutions to design and disseminate micro-courses to supplement formal education. Based on text messaging, Ekatra is a low to no data-consuming platform, reducing the costs needed to access learning support. In addition to accessing courses sent by their educators, users are able to interact with an AI-generated chatbot to learn a subject of their choice. The chatbot provides basic definitions, visualizations, and links to external resources to aid the user in learning the topic. Ekatra sends reminders each day to the learner to return and continue the course and employs science-backed learning techniques aimed to increase retention, such as spaced learning. Ekatra is partnering with schools and local organizations to aid in distribution, and is looking to further expand its partnerships.
Ekatra’s long-term vision is to expand its reach to provide education to billions of people across geographies, starting with a million students within five years of launch. As countries increasingly digitize sectors, including education, ensuring the availability of accessible solutions such as text message education will be crucial to ensure equitable access to learning for all students.
