E-learning one would have to say is the need of the decade. While the concept of e-learning has been making its way to the mainstream since 2016, the advent of Covid-19 and the subsequent need to socially distance ourselves has only propelled e-learning to an all-new level. One argument that has always been used against e-learning is the impact it could have on the interest of students, considering the fact that most online portals use animated science experiments to teach students, which without a doubt is a mile apart from the student getting a chance to witness the experience live and the curiosity that comes with it. Manish Kumar, a 33-year-old teacher turned entrepreneur who is an alumni of prestigious universities like IIT Kharagpur and IIM Bangalore has set out to solve this very problem through his new initiative, the Curious Minds Institute.
Manish, who has 12 patents filed in his name for various inventions has substituted the animated forms of experiments with live demonstrations of various scientific on his platform, thereby invoking the curiosity of the students which is a far more effective way of imparting knowledge according to experts. The USP of this change that Manish is trying to bring about is his portal teaching students experiments that can easily be replicated using household appliances or household items.
Another con that e-learning has always had to battle with is the psychological impact that limiting a student to a room during the process of learning could have. Curious Minds Institute solves this problem as well. Like the name itself suggests, special emphasis is laid on the mental health of the students, and steps are taken to make instill a sense of interest among students rather than trying to bombard students with knowledge that he/she isn’t interested in, which has been the norm ever since the evolution of the Indian education system.
When asked about what made Manish quit a comfortable MNC job in order to start this new venture, founder of Curious Minds, Manish Kumar said, ‘ After entering the professional circuit post my graduation, I came across a lot of individuals who limited themselves to just memorizing textbooks while in school and facing massive hurdles a decade later once they become professionals only due to the same. There’s a lot more, over and above the prescribed syllabus that one needs to be taught/learn in order to make a mark in this highly competitive world. I felt the need to change the way are imparting knowledge, the way we are teaching children to become machines that can memorize thousands of pages without even understand the logic behind it. Therefore, I decided to quit the MNC and start Curious Minds. Under our programme, LEAP, we wish to educate hard-working students using various ‘experiential learning’ methods. People have been talking about’ experiential learning’ for quite some time now but I see that no concrete steps have been taken to make it mainstream so that it reaches a significant number of students if not all. All we require the student to cater is 5-6 hours a week for the classes and 4-6 hours of after study.’
