The word ‘coding’ when it strikes our ears, we associate it with the computer engineering students who remain glued to their blue screens for several hours until the compiler returns with a satisfying ‘no error’ comment. In pandemic, several edtech companies in the pandemic have grabbed immense attention as they have launched online coding programmes for the kids.
However, school kids learning to code in the formative years of their education have received mixed reactions from parents and education scholars since they are invariable believers of the screen or online learning hampering a child’s concentration.
Learning to code at an early age also makes parents think that the child will ignore the basics of maths and science for weak fundamentals.
But, with the emergence of advanced technologies like AI and ML and their inclusion in business processes, the nature of jobs in the future will demand coding as a must acquired skill. According to the LinkedIn’s emerging jobs report of the last decade for the role of coding experts the demand of data scientists will rise by 650 percent and demand for coding is said to increase by 37 percent y-o-y.
The online coding learning brought in by the edtech companies in India has been a bit monotonous as kids glare at the screens to understand and follow their trainers. In short, there is a lack of practicality along with lectures and tutorials. To this, a Jaipur-based edtech startup Tinkerly is disrupting online coding courses for the kids by introducing a blend of fun and hands-on learning experience that allows them to explore their love towards building robots and smart gadgets.
Tinkerly’s humble beginnings
What dreams would usually a fresh graduate from IIT have? A high-paying job in an MNC? or climbing the corporate ladder to become the next CEO? Surprisingly, these aspirations were not a part of Sharad Bansal’s dreams.
What made his entrepreneurial ship sail in the edtech space was the absence of practical sessions in the school pedagogy. The academics in IIT followed an LPT structure i.e. Lecture, Practical, and Tutorial, which is a balanced combination of theory, practical, and practice of the lessons learnt.
Putting the LPT structure in Indian schools we can witness that there is lecture happening in the schools and tutorials happening from external classes but the practical part is lacking. Also, due to limited infrastructure, it is not feasible and possible for a school student to go to the laboratory now and then and come back to their classes.
This led Sharad to think of effective pedagogy to add a twist to the mundane online coding programmes with a ‘learning by doing approach by incorporating STEM educational kits.
These STEM portable labs or educational kits cover the basic science concepts based on the 5-D methodology comprising of see, touch, feel, understand, and perform with a focus on covering the essential 21st-century skills such as IoT, rapid prototype,3-D printing, computational and design thinking.
As we near towards a technologically advanced era, the majority of the jobs be it engineering, fashion designing, or humanities would be demanding STEM skills i.e. science technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Standing true to its name Tinkerly- build-out of English words‘ tinkering’ and the suffix ‘ly’ meaning the habit of improvisation has indeed brought a revolutionary change in the field of STEM education that has benefitted over 150 thousand students across India, the Middle East and North America.
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According to the LinkedIn’s emerging jobs report of the last decade for the role of coding experts the demand of data scientists will rise by 650 percent and demand for coding is said to increase by 37 percent y-o-y.
Let’s tinker with the kid’s learning
Tinkerly’s innovative online coding learning solutions are not just to code but to build things with coding that enables students to design, build and deploy their code to make real-life tech projects. Tinkerly’s products are divided into three-
Online Coding courses
STEM kits
Lets Tinker App
The online coding courses blended with STEM toys are designed for the students for grades 1-12. The kids here get to build next-generation solutions and projects that solve real-world problems. Inculcating these into the early stages of education might seem a bit overwhelming for the child already managing the school curriculum but it is a future-ready skill set that enhances cognitive skills and improves analytical and problem-solving skills.
The online coding courses with STEM toys are segregated into three stages for every grade i.e. explorer, learner, and achiever. The classes can either take place in the 1:1 or 1: 5 teaching model.
Tinkerly’s STEM kits consist of DIY kits appropriate for the 8-12+ age group. The specialised DIY STEM kits consist of equipment belonging to electronics,3-D printing automobile, Agritech, Biotech, Biomedical, Robotics that comes along with a concise instruction manual.
Over the years, India’s education system has demanded students to score well in the examinations forcing students to blindly memorise concepts rather than questioning them and somewhere curbing a child’s curiosity in the process. Tinkerly’s lets tinker app fosters curiosity among the students by allowing them to learn about the latest education trends from subject matter experts and top teachers. The learnings include real-life scenario activities grooming sessions and enhancing the problem-solving skills with its organised tests on class-wise content.
The online coding classes in Tinkerly are affordable that begin with as low as Rs 500 a month and is the first edtech company worldwide to offer coding courses in Hindi.
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Tinkerly has raised Rs 6.5 crore from Navneet Tech Ventures which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of publication and content provider, Navneet Education Limited(NEL).
Tinkerly’s funding, revenues, and the road ahead
Recently in September 2021, Tinkerly has raised Rs 6.5 crore from Navneet Tech Ventures which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of publication and content provider, Navneet Education Limited(NEL). With this recent funding round, this edtech company has raised Rs 10 crore.
With the newly raised fresh capital, Tinkerly plans to utilise the same in product development, increase consumer awareness and expand into new geographies developing vernacular content. The company has ambitious plans to become a strong global brand.
The launch of Tinkerly’s learning platform Let’s Tinker in April has been beneficial just after 3 months of its launch. It witnessed its revenues surging up to 8 times with more than 50,000 online learners who have undergone more than 300K hours of learning.
Future Jobs will require STEM skills
According to a report by McKinsey & Company Global around 800 million jobs will be replaced by robotic automation in the future. Taking early steps to build analytical and cognitive skills among students the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has introduced coding from Class 6.
Besides coding, gamification with hands-on experience will be the most effective tool for the kids of today since they have a lesser attention span. Also, it has been observed that kids while engaged in games and learning use all of their senses, therefore Tinkerly’s hybrid learning solutions will offer hands-on experience to the mundane theory learning and will make studies interesting thus giving kids a controlled and active learning screen time.
