Education Asifabad

Asifabad students learn coding without using computers

The Kumuram Bheem Asifabad district administration has tied up with Hyderabad-based startup Next Skills 360, which supplied over 300 programming kits that work without a computer. Under the programme, 46 Class 9 students and 13 teachers from six schools in two mandals learnt coding using the children's language SCRATCH. In coming months they will train more than 500 classmates. Currently backed by MIT funding, the administration plans to use CSR support to extend it to 4,000 students.

Written by AI from Kumuram Bheem Asifabad — jobs · not yet reviewed by an editor · Published 29 Sept 2026, 4:20 pm IST

Source

Kumuram Bheem Asifabad — jobs · read the original report ↗

#coding#education#asifabad#startup#scratch#digital skills

Desk check · compared with the source

What the desk checked (5)

Next Skills 360, a Hyderabad-based MIT award-winning startup, supplied about 300 computer-free programming kits to the district. — Figure and description appear in source; award claim is not independently attributed.
46 Class 9 students and 13 teachers from six schools in two mandals learnt coding using SCRATCH. — Figures appear in source; no document or official order cited.
Over 500 classmates will be taught by the trained students in coming months. — Stated in source as a plan, not a completed outcome.
School occupancy fell to 30-40% over the last two years and has risen to 70-80%. — Attributed to district administration plans section; no data source named.
Initiative is currently funded by MIT; district plans CSR support to cover 4,000 Class IX students. — Stated in source as current arrangement and future plan.

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Analysts’ view opinion

AI Policy Analyst

This design inverts the usual sequence of "infrastructure first, skills later" — instead of waiting for computer labs, it puts the basics of coding into a classroom with one kit and one phone. The district's plan to convert students and teachers into master trainers who then cascade the learning is cheap and fast, but it is also the model hardest to quality-control. The real test is not the first 46 learners; it is whether the model holds at 4,000 students once MIT funding gives way to CSR money.

Teaching coding without computers cleverly works around an infrastructure gap rather than closing it — deeper learning will eventually still require actual machines.
Targeting Class 9 looks like a deliberate policy choice, using the programme as a retention incentive at the stage where dropout risk is highest.
The peer-cascade approach scales cheaply, but without teacher supervision and assessment the quality of instruction can thin out with each round.
Calling participants master trainers after a six-day workshop is motivating, but the story offers no independent benchmark of how much they actually learned.
Alignment with coding's place in the National Education Policy gives the scheme policy cover, yet shifting from MIT funding to CSR means reliance on external philanthropy rather than a secured government budget line.

What to watch — Watch whether CSR partners are actually signed up, how fast the rollout reaches 4,000 students, and crucially whether the district measures any shift in attendance and dropout numbers.

The story does not establish that the programme improved school attendance or how much the students genuinely learned; at this stage it remains a small pilot with 46 trained students.

Deep dive

Research brief · 8 facts · 5 dates · exam-ready

The brief

Context

Kumuram Bheem Asifabad, a tribal-dominated district in Telangana, lost about two years of formal schooling to the pandemic, with school occupancy falling to 30-40 per cent. To revive learning and build 21st-century skills, the district administration partnered with Next Skills 360, an MIT award-winning Hyderabad startup, which supplied "ProGame Kits" that teach programming basics without a computer. Students learn SCRATCH, a children's programming language, using a game board and cardboard cutouts scanned through an app on a teacher's phone. Coding as a 21st-century skill also finds place in the latest National Education Policy.

Key facts

The district administration tied up with Next Skills 360, an MIT award-winning Hyderabad-based startup, which supplied 300-odd programming kits that do not need a computer.
46 Class 9 students and 13 teachers from six schools in two mandals of the district have learnt to code using SCRATCH.
These trained students will teach nearly 500-plus classmates in the coming months.
The ProGame Kit has four elements, including a gaming board and cardboard cutouts carrying characters and coding syntax, arranged logically to make characters replicate actions.
The arranged code is scanned via the ProGame app on the teacher's phone, and the output appears as bright colourful animations on the phone.
A classroom full of children needs only the kit and one phone running the app, per co-founder Sowjanya Suraj.
Students became master trainers after a six-day workshop in February; before that they knew only the word 'coding'.
The initiative is currently supported by MIT funding; the administration plans to rope in CSR and extend it to 4,000 Class IX students.

Timeline

Last two years (pandemic period)Formal education in the district pushed back by two years; school occupancy fell to a low of 30-40 per cent.
FebruarySix-day workshop trains 46 Class 9 students and 13 teachers from six schools in two mandals; they become master trainers.
PresentSchool occupancy has risen to 70-80 per cent; 300-odd ProGame Kits in use in the district.
Coming monthsTrained students to teach coding to nearly 500-plus classmates.
Planned (date not stated in the source)Administration to use CSR funds to extend the programme to all schools, targeting 4,000 Class IX students.

Who has a stake

Class 9 students of Kumuram Bheem Asifabad — Gain coding skills without computers; Class IX is a stage when dropouts are likely, so the programme also aims to retain them in school.
Kumuram Bheem Asifabad district administration — Wants to motivate students jaded by lockdown, counter dropouts and open employment opportunities beyond the district.
Next Skills 360 (Sowjanya Suraj, co-founder) — Supplier of the ProGame Kit and the training model; demonstrates low-cost coding pedagogy in resource-poor settings.
Government school teachers (13 trained) — Must deliver coding lessons using only the kit and a phone app.
MIT (current funder) and prospective CSR donors — MIT funding currently supports the initiative; CSR support is sought to scale it to 4,000 students.
Tribal communities of the district — Source notes resistance to exploring employment outside the district; the programme is pitched as widening opportunities.

Why it matters

The initiative shows how digital-skill gaps in remote, tribal districts can be bridged with a kit and a single phone rather than costly computer labs. It links pandemic learning loss and dropout risk at Class IX to a concrete retention and skilling strategy, and aligns with the National Education Policy's emphasis on coding as a 21st-century skill. If the CSR-funded scale-up to 4,000 students works, it offers a replicable low-cost model for other districts.

UPSC angle

Prelims pointers

Kumuram Bheem Asifabad is a tribal-dominated district where school occupancy fell to 30-40 per cent and has recovered to 70-80 per cent.
SCRATCH is a programming language designed for children, used in the district's coding programme.
ProGame Kit: four-element computer-free coding kit (gaming board plus cardboard cutouts of characters and syntax) scanned by the ProGame app.
Next Skills 360 is an MIT award-winning Hyderabad-based startup; it supplied 300-odd kits.
Coding is treated as a 21st-century skill in the latest National Education Policy.
Target group for scale-up: 4,000 Class IX students, a stage with high dropout risk, using CSR funding.

Mains framing

Pandemic school closures set formal education back by roughly two years in Kumuram Bheem Asifabad, with occupancy collapsing to 30-40 per cent, and Class IX emerging as the point of highest dropout risk. The district's response is instructive: rather than waiting for computer infrastructure that remote tribal habitations lack, it adopted the ProGame Kit model, where a game board, cardboard syntax cutouts and one teacher's phone let a whole classroom learn SCRATCH, with output rendered as animations. The design also builds local capacity — 46 students and 13 teachers trained in a six-day February workshop now act as master trainers for 500-plus peers, a peer-cascade approach that lowers per-child cost. Implications include better alignment with the National Education Policy's stress on coding as a 21st-century skill, improved retention incentives at the dropout-prone Class IX stage, and a widening of aspirations in a district where officials note resistance to seeking employment outside. The constraints are equally clear: the programme depends on MIT funding today and on uncertain CSR commitments to reach 4,000 students, and a phone-mediated kit teaches basics rather than substituting for hands-on computing. The way forward, on the source's own terms, lies in institutionalising teacher training, securing predictable CSR finance for district-wide rollout, and tracking whether coding exposure translates into retention and later opportunity.

Key terms

SCRATCH: A programming language for children, used by Asifabad students to learn coding basics.
ProGame Kit: Four-element computer-free coding kit with a gaming board and cardboard character and syntax cutouts arranged logically to write code.
ProGame app: Phone app that scans the arranged code and generates the output as bright colourful animations.
Next Skills 360: MIT award-winning Hyderabad-based startup that supplied 300-odd programming kits to the district.
CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility): Corporate funding route the district administration plans to tap to extend the programme to 4,000 students.
National Education Policy: Policy framework that, per the source, includes coding as a 21st-century skill.

Practice questions

How can low-cost, computer-free pedagogical tools help bridge the digital skills divide in remote and tribal districts? Discuss with reference to the Asifabad coding initiative.
Examine the link between pandemic learning loss, Class IX dropout risk and skill-based interventions in government schools.
Evaluate the role of startup partnerships, CSR funding and peer 'master trainer' models in delivering National Education Policy goals at the district level.

Grounded only in the source report — figures and dates are the source's, not inferred.

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