Rangeet addresses inequities and variabilities in learning at scale through a platform for schools and communities to measurably develop a breadth of skills using active pedagogies to promote wellbeing, agency, and global stewardship. The mobile app provides teachers with the tools to teach and monitor the impact of their Social Emotional and Ecological Knowledge (SEEK)© curriculum.
"These children are victims of a birth lottery and will never find their way out of their circumstances" - Simran Mulchandani, Co-Founder, Rangeet
The curriculum easily fits into the school curriculum, with 100 1-hour lessons that can be used over 3 years. Since starting in 2018, they have impacted close to 200,000 children in 7 states in India.
The idea for Rangeet started when Simran Mulchandani, a former investment banker, became interested in education when diving deeper into the subject to raise his own kids. He was presented an opportunity to teach part-time at a government school in Mumbai with many students from a disadvantaged background.
Students in Bangladesh enjoying playful learning sessions during a Rangeet Implementation in 2018
In a class of 40 4th-graders, there were a variety of students of different ages. All of the girls were older, having experienced different obstacles such as physical abuse or responsibilities at home that made it challenging for them to have continuous access to education.
“I left thinking, these children are a victim of a birth lottery and will never find their way out of their circumstances,” shared Simran.
Simran and his founding partner, Karishma Menon recognised that they could not change the education system, but could do something to help children to tackle the challenges of today.
They started by conducting different workshops for free about topics such as health, rights and responsibilities as a citizen, gender, bullying, and the climate. But they realised that this was not scalable and they needed to find an approach that could reach more people in a sustainable way.
Teachers provide feedback in the app after each Rangeet class, which helps them to continuously refine the product. This human-centred approach is one of the key factors of the success of Rangeet.
Together with BRAC and the government of Bangladesh, they went through a journey of visiting different schools and learning about what education looks like in Bangladesh. They concluded that they needed to create a curriculum to address topics about self, society, and ecology. So over the pandemic, they put their heads down to create the SEEK™curriculum, filled with modules and lessons that can be easily used by teachers.
And to make it most easily accessible for teachers, they create a mobile app that can be simply used to access the curriculum and track its impact.
The on-ground project management team worked tirelessly, travelling 50-60 km per day to rural areas to talk to government officials, teachers, and principals to tell them about the Rangeet app.
But it wasn’t always easy. The Rangeet team of 15, including management team members Sandeep Mishra and Renisha Bharvani, sat and learned from thousands of teachers to collaboratively create a curriculum that is useful for teachers. And they continue to collect feedback, iterate, and grow their curriculum. Teachers provide feedback in the app after each Rangeet class, which helps them to continuously refine the product. This human-centred approach is one of the key factors of the success of Rangeet. In partnership with Oxford University Press India, Rangeet organised a Wellbeing Webinar Week attended by 5,000 teachers whose foremost feedback was that teacher well being has been hit hard. Rangeet immediately began working on wellbeing resources for teachers, parents and community members.
The spread of Rangeet required work as well. The team worked tirelessly, travelling 50-60 km per day to rural areas to talk to government officials, teachers, and principals to tell them about the Rangeet app. Even while people were suspicious about people selling new digital products, the Rangeet team built trust with communities by showing their sincerity and travelling to meet them directly to show them the value of the SEEK™curriculum.
A student doing the ‘Empathy Tree’ activity from the SEEK™ curriculum, as a part of its ‘Society’ umbrella that teaches children about perspective and putting oneself in someone else's shoes.
And their efforts have paid off. In December 2023, Rangeet worked together with Oxford University Press India to create India's first wellbeing curriculum, “My Happiness and Me” for students in grades 1-8, adapted from their proprietary SEEK™curriculum. Their hope is that this curriculum will be used widely across the schools that Oxford University Press serves across South and East Asia and the Middle East to start with. They have already received great feedback from teachers about it.
Not only is their approach being validated by curriculum publishers, but the impact of the programme is reflected in the support they have received. This year, they have raised enough funding to impact 4 times the number of students they did last year.
Long term, Simran hopes that they will be able to scale Rangeet to several Indian states at the state-wide level and with collaborators in different countries from around the world.
Header Photo: A teacher from the Aasraa Trust in Dehradun leading a class teaching mindfulness using SEEK™
