Learn online | (Pic: Internet)
Learn online | (Pic: Internet)

Let your kids indulge in PlanetSpark's Happiness Hour and learn skills through live classes

As many as 15 courses are being offered by this start-up based out of Gurugram to ensure that learning and fun don't stop, not even during the lockdown. So, which skill will you be learning today? 
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We, as adults, are yet to process the utter chaos the pandemic has created so just think about a child's psyche in the same context. Their routines have been disrupted since schools were asked to close and coping with staying indoors all the time is not easy for young minds. Keeping their predicament in mind, EdTech start-up PlanetSpark announced Happiness Hour for children between the ages of four to 12. A curation of the choicest courses, like concept framing, visual design, problem-solving and over 15 more, are available for children to pursue for free between 1 to 2 pm each and every day. Delivered by industry experts who have been thoughtfully chosen by the Gurugram-based start-up after a rigorous test will be delivering these live sessions, not pre-recorded ones, mind you. So, what will you be signing up for?


The chosen one
Coronavirus has certainly shaken up things violently when it comes to education, leaving educational institutions no choice but to switch to screens, a transition accelerated by the pandemic, which otherwise would have taken years. While the scope of learning online is abundant, early year education is yet to get it's a fair share. In such times, when all homes are going through a monetary crunch, these free classes during Happiness Hours come at the right time. "We just focussed on the Early Childhood Children Education (ECCE) guidelines given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India while curating the list of courses that will be featured during the hour," says Kunal Malik, Co-Founder, PlanetSpark, when we ask him about what went behind selecting certain courses for this programme. "We also limited it to one hour on a specific time every day because this Netflix-type of learning which allows a child to tune in when they want doesn't work. A fixed schedule brings back some sort of routine and normalcy into their lives," says the entrepreneur who launched PlanetSpark with Co-founder Maneesh Dhooper.



This EdTech platform builds careers and life skills in young students through live streaming all their courses. Including the ones selected for Happiness Hour, all their courses fall under three categories —  language, life skills and aesthetical and creative skills. While language courses involve comprehension, basics of other foreign languages and so on; life skills is all about Mental Math, Robotics, problem-solving and other such subjects. Aesthetical and creative skills involve design, chess and more. The USP of PlanetSpark, who launched their operations back in July 2016, is the attention they give to choosing teachers. Since they conduct live classes only, which they believe works much better for K8 learners they cater too, they ensure that teachers are put through TSAT, a test they developed that examines a teacher's Intermediate Math, languages and communication skills, logical reasoning, child pedagogy and so on. After another internal screening, teachers are given curricula that they can teach. "The industry experts taking the classes during the Happiness Hour were also put through the same process," informs Kunal.  


Our very own
The start-up uses its own video-conferencing platform, PlanetSpark Live, to deliver these classes. Features like conducting polls, a white canvas, breakout rooms (where teachers can segregate students into different rooms for projects and other purposes) of PlanetSpark Live come in handy. "We wanted to build our own platform because we did not want to use Zoom or other such platforms, they are not made for learning, they are made for online meetings," asserts Kunal.
 

To know more about them, check out planetspark.in/about

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