A visually impaired teenager from Junagadh district’s Keshod block has stunned many, including her teachers, by scoring 94.93% in the recently declared Xth board exams of the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) in 2023.
Even though textbooks in Mathematics were not available in Braille, 15-year-old Manasvi Unadkat, took up the challenge and scored 86% marks in the subject, thanks to Vidyakul, an e-learning platform, which provides after-school education to state board students in their mother tongue.
At the age of 8, Unadkat lost her eyesight suddenly after brain surgery. The daughter of a provision store owner with limited resources, Unadkat, though traumatised, didn’t give up after the life-changing event. Her mother, Pushpaben, recalled how they travelled daily to Junagadh for eight months to learn Braille.
But as she entered Class Xth, she had a difficult choice to make – to drop her favourite subject mathematics as no Braille books were available.
“In Class IX, she received a mobile phone through a government scheme, which she used for her studies as it was audio enabled. It was during one of her searches on the internet, she found this app, Vidyakul, and contacted them,” said Pushpaben.
The e-learning platform, Vidyakul, is partly funded by Gujarati business tycoon and philanthropist Savji Dholakia. On learning Unadkat’s difficulties and dreams, Vidyakul not only provided her with the course materials free but also made one of its senior mathematics tutors, Sahil Vekariya, available for virtual assistance.
“Vidyakul’s app has helped me immensely as it made me learn mathematics and solve equations by repeatedly listening to the lessons from Sahil sir,” Unadkat commented.
Unadkat’s ability to memorise the formulas and visualise the steps to solve equations stunned Vidyakul’s mathematics teacher too.
“I have never experienced anything of this sort in my entire teaching career. I was astonished how one can memorise mathematics, visualise the steps to solve a problem and then do that correctly,” Vekariya commented.
Unadkat has now enrolled in the Commerce stream at a local high school and her after-school tutoring will be provided free of cost by Vidyakul.
“Our company carries the vision of Savjibhai Dholakia, from whom we have imbibed the spirit of giving back to society. Vidyakul was founded with the idea of providing quality education to the students of Bharat, and Manasvi Unadkat is one example of how lives can be changed through the power of education and technology. In the future, we hope to transform more such lives in the remotest parts of the country,” said Tarun Saini, co-founder of Vidyakul.
Undeterred by the challenges that lie ahead, a confident Unadkat wants to pursue her dream of becoming an IAS officer by clearing the UPSC. “I want to achieve this dream and make my parents happy, as they have always supported me in this journey,” she said.
