How Imran Rashid is helping schools across Varanasi and Gorakhpur with his edTech product

Entrepreneurship is not taught, it bursts out of a person because of the shear urge to make a difference. And Imran Rashid's journey proves this point. Only 25, Imran's tryst with entrepreneurship began in 2011 while still in third year of college at IIT BHU.

He didn't venture out as a 'startup' but the intention was to do something in the field of education. He started working with a school in Varanasi (The Aryan International School) on a part time basis and assisted the school in improving the quality of teaching (especially Maths and Science), designing curriculum, and training students for NTSE (National Talent Search Examination) by implementation of technology.

Within a span of 1 year, he was working with 6 schools in Varanasi. "Integration of NTSE preparation in school curriculum was a major hit at that time," shares Imran. Alongside, he started reading more and opened up to the amazing world of startups. And so when Imran wrote in saying, "I have read your coverage on a number of startups and I must confess that these stories have inspired me a lot. I would like to share the story of my venture with fellow entrepreneurs," we could hardly say no.

As a student, Imran was working with many schools, teachers and students and he simply loved the experience. So after graduating, he didn’t go for a job and decided to continue as a venture and thus was born Learnix. Imran teamed up with Manish Shah (IIT-BHU) and Chetan Lakhanpal (animator) to start developing educational modules on Science, Mathematics and Reasoning. "Most of the e-learning companies are missing the insights of the teachers and students. This causes problems while implementing technology in teaching and learning. This industry needs more of an edutech company rather than the technology giants," feels Imran.

So far, Learnix has implemented their programs- Logic booster and NTSE Prep in 20 schools across Varanasi, Lucknow, Patna and Gorakhpur. Logic Booster is a learning solution focused on developing reasoning skills among students of classes V, VI, VII & VIII and NTSE prep is a program designed to equip class IX and X students with the tools necessary to qualify NTSE.

The product is designed to cater to the reasoning needs of school students. One of the interesting about the product is that it is not tailor made for an exam but focuses in an area- Logical reasoning. It is an important component of all competitive examinations and must be included in a student’s curriculum at an early stage for optimum results and thus, fits into a wide spectrum of sales proposition. Logic Booster was launched earlier this year and 20 schools have contentedly implemented it in their curriculum. Their digital content comprises of 50 chapters, 1700 questions and 22 learning tools.

There are various plans suited to the individual needs of schools. There is a model which requires all students of a standard to be enrolled while in the other model as low as 25 students per standard can join. The software is installed in the schools in the beginning of the session and maths teachers are trained. Math teachers conduct Logic Booster sessions on a weekly basis.

"With our commitment towards making teaching and learning more effective through the introduction of technology, we look forward to working with 100 schools in the next three years, says Imran.

EdTech as a space has grown multi fold over the last couple of years (look at the number of online test prep players) and some interesting developments are taking place across the spectrum. B2B might turn out to be a difficult approach once Learnix hits scale and sees the competition that looms ahead but the enthusiasm and tenacity of team Learnix deserves full marks. Building out from Varanasi, Learnix will certainly be on our radar in the detect space.

Website: Learnix