AI-Enabled Teacher Echo Comes To Rescue Of Schoolchildren In Uttarakhand's Last Mile Village Jajar Chingri
The headmaster's decision to bring in an AI-enabled maths teacher has come as a boon for the school and upped excitement among students to learn.
Published : April 19, 2025 at 12:10 PM IST
By Pradeep Mahara
Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand): “Hello teacher! Can you tell us what is 24 times 6 ?” a student asks as curiosity grips the entire class. "144. Do you want to know something else?," answers a metallic voice, from within the sleek robot, draped in a red saree, sporting a pair of glasses from which the batting digital eye lids are clearly visible.
Students start giggling in a state of excitement. But this excitement is not for a day or two, it is going to be the way classes are held in Government Model Primary School, in the sleepy Jajar Chingri village near the Indo-Nepal border. Here, the AI-powered robot teacher Echo has been given the responsibility of teaching maths to the students.
Despite internet networks going patchy off and on, the school with 50-odd students has got a solution to the teacher crisis, something that even well-funded schools elsewhere have not been able to do.
It has also encouraged students to come to school everyday as for them it is learning with giggle, gape and excitement. Designed to answer all the queries in 22 languages, Echo is fast even when solving complicated maths questions and also makes learning engaging and fun-filled.
How did the AI-powered robot make its way to the school? It was the initiative of headmaster Chandrashekhar Joshi who had been troubled not getting teachers for the school. Joshi thought beyond the conventional solutions and took help of his engineer friend in China to get an AI-powered robot for the purpose. "I knew there was no solution in sight. I had to think beyond conventional solutions. Since the present generation is drawn to technology, I wanted to make the children from the rural background get acquainted with the digital world,” Joshi says.
He spent nearly Rs 4.5 lakh for Echo, from local contributions, his own savings and also with help from his friend. "It was my friend who arranged everything from China and sent me. He helped me assemble the robot through video call. Situated 40 km from Pithoragarh, the fluctuating internet signal in the school area is an issue, but I have therefore installed it in the verandah so that we get uninterrupted service. It is powered by electricity," Joshi explains.
The school had been widely discussed for its innovative efforts to encourage children and this is just another addition. Earlier the school was in news for introducing mushroom farming for children, bag-free days, Anandam and eco-clubs.
Joshi who has been instrumental in bringing new things to the school for the benefit of the students has been recognised for his efforts and received the Shailesh Matiyani Award.
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