For many of us, school has seldom been more terrifying than a dreaded Math class. Many teachers have tried hard to put the 'fun' in Math and failed. But changing times have meant a change in tools. Here comes a story of two people based in Malappuram — Aravind Pakaravoor and Ragesh MN — who are the founders of Funmiyo, a start-up whose premier product is a fun and educationally engaging Math kit. Their creation is meant for all those who wish to learn the subject in a story and game-based approach.
The pair of ex-lecturers came to know each other at their previous job, where they found a common interest to create educational and fun products for children. "During our previous stints as faculties in engineering, we came across a couple of gaps that we felt were opportunities for us. Firstly, we saw a lack of engagement in learning by the students. The second issue was that of skilling. We thought that these issues need to be addressed at the grassroots level, which meant catching the attention of children between ages 5 and 12," says Aravind.
When asked about why they specifically chose to introduce Math kits, Ragesh points to the cultural misnomer about the subject. He says, "Math has a very bad reputation. It is considered as a fearsome and hated subject by so many. On top of that, it has conventionally been taught using a set of rules, formulae and steps to be followed blindly. Kids hate the repetitive aspect of it. But they love to play games even though that may be repetitive. At Funmiyo, we have incorporated this gaming feature so that children learn Math concepts without even attempting to. To support this, we will have online classes that are based on story pedagogies." And how cool is that!
But surely a game repeated for a certain number of times is bound to get boring, right? Not in this case, Ragesh explains. "We have kept different levels so that kids, after getting used to a one level of difficulty, can move upwards and keep challenging themselves," he says. And all this is made further engaging by utilising the story mode in live classes for a small focus group of kids. They are posed with challenging questions that pique their curiosity at all times.
This is where they make the phygital approach to the kids, by combining the fun of playing in a physical setting enabled by the Math kits and participating in digital sessions to extend their experience. The really useful aspect of all this is that the lessons are mapped to the CBSE curriculum which means they prepare the students for those tough Math exams at schools as well. This further means that the mode of learning can be replicated in classrooms too. "The collaborative feature where kids can learn with their peers is just one of the many useful traits of our kits. Studies have shown that collaborative learning boosts skills like analytical and critical thinking," mentions Aravind.
The duo wish to go further into the phygital realm in the coming days. "We want to incorporate technology into our kits, which are currently completely physical in nature. We are also in the process of enquiring and developing a full-fledged online platform, either a website or a mobile application, to integrate our physical and digital systems," says Aravind about their ambitions.
What is heartening to know is that they have made it this far all by themselves. "We have only recently started hiring more people in our team. We realise that to grow, we need more professionals on board and we are trying to overcome this challenge presently," adds Ragesh.
The beginner and intermediate Math kits are available on Funmiyo's website at a price of Rs 999 each.
