The international award was given by Banka District Magistrate Kundan Kumar at a function in Georgetown, Guyana on 24 October, 2018
Unnayan Banka, an online and offline education project started in Banka, one of the most under developed districts of Bihar, has won the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management’s international innovation award for 2018 on 24 October. The project outmaneuvered the other finalists from Singapore and Mauritius to win the award in the Innovation Incubation category.
The international award was received by Banka District Magistrate Kundan Kumar at a function in Georgetown, Guyana last Wednesday.
Unnayan Banka initially started in five schools in the district and has now been implemented in all its 143 schools. It involves teaching Class IX and Class X students through interactive concept videos, providing real-time doubt-clearing, examination and digital report cards. This was done through an application called Eckovation, which has been co-founded by IITianRitesh Singh.
The Banka experiment is also carried out in a similar manner in Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. It is soon going to be implemented in Classes IX-XII in about 5,000 schools across the country under the Central government’s flagship scheme Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA).
Eckovation co-founder Singh said their efforts were lauded for “innovation that represents early thinking and promotes unproven innovative ideas”.“It was a great feeling to see Banka DM give a presentation before top officials of other countries”.
RakhiKumari, a teacher at a Banka school, said, “This recognition has given us more reasons to work harder.”