The nonprofit online learning platform Khan Academy has finally arrived in India with the launch of a Hindi portal.
The brainchild of MIT graduate Salman Khan, the launch of the portal comes in the wake of the latter's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Silicon Valley in September last.
"We're really excited -- we are a not-for-profit organisation with mission of bringing free education to the world," said Salman Khan. "A part of the world which could use this kind of resource and where my roots are from, is India," he added, according to India Today.
Khan Academy is based in Mountain View, USA. The Hindi portal at present will begin with resources for grades 5-8. It will also have online some 2000 videos for mathematics lessons. Sandeep Bapna has been hired as the India manager of the venture.
"If a student has access to a great school, Khan Academy can supercharge it. It should help a well-resourced school and if you don't have that, the Khan Academy can have even a bigger impact. But I don't see it as replacing the actual schools... we want to empower teachers and fill in the gaps," said Khan.
Khan Academy projects a three fold growth in India and is only just sussing out the market to find its focus. In 2012, it had around 2.1 million users, and by the end of 2015 it estimates more than 8 million users in India. Globally, it estimates to cross 20 million users by the end of the month. It is also workign on aligning the curriculum with that of India. For mathematics, the NCERT curriculum in India is quite similar to the one in the US, said India Today.
