About Us
COVID-19 has taken a lot from us but on the other hand has taught us some valuable lessons too. Honestly, if not for this terrible pandemic, I would never have started Tutopia. COVID-19 was a blessing in disguise because it is the very reason why I started thinking of launching an educational app. It started when I realised that during the pandemic period, the entire education system had come to a standstill. However, it was a revelation when I noticed after a few days that schools, educational institutes and even teachers had started normalising the trend of studying online through smart phones.
It was also during this time that I started surfing for online courses for my daughter, and when she finally selected the most suitable one, I subscribed it without a second thought. I was hesitant, not entirely sure how my daughter would cope with online education. Surprisingly enough, she showed a lot of interest and adapted very quickly to this new form of studies. I was witnessing a remarkable transitional phase in front of my very eyes. This evolution of offline education to online education was quite fascinating.
In the midst of all this, I suddenly started thinking about the plight of Bengali medium students. My daughter is from an english medium school. What about Bengali medium students? Was their journey of online education as smooth as my daughter’s? Or was it slightly different? Being a Bengali medium student myself, I really wanted to know how they were coping with online education during this pandemic. With the interest of knowing more, I approached a few of my friends who teach in various Bengali medium schools. Through them, I got to know that they too were striving ceaselessly to ensure that their students do not lag behind and have a smooth education experience.
Despite everything, the biggest challenge of all was the availability of proper infrastructure. Even today there are numerous families who cannot afford a smartphone. Thus, it became apparent to me that not everybody was having a smooth online education experience. I wanted to know how students from economically challenged families were coping with this situation. How were they studying under such circumstances?
I asked my cook how her children were dealing with this situation. She answered that she had somehow managed to procure a smartphone for her three children, and all three of them were sharing that single phone. It was at that moment that I understood that no parents are ever really rich or poor. They are always rich by heart and forever try their utmost to provide their children with the best of things despite any obstacles.
That incident sparked my curiosity and I set out on a quest to find out how bengali medium students were doing during such difficult times. I came across teachers who were using novel ways like uploading educational videos on Youtube, some were sharing notes online, while others were hosting live classes. Basically, everyone was trying their best so that education could keep progressing during such times.
That is when it struck me like a bolt of lightning - everything seemed fine enough, yet somehow it was a bit disorganised. If by any means, all these could be brought together under a single online platform which would reach the students, then that would be the solution to all our problems.
Without a moment’s delay, I started working on my vision for an online education app which would serve as a one-stop platform for everyone’s educational needs. During the lockdown period when the entire world was at a standstill and everyone was befuddled, I started recruiting the best teachers. We toiled day and night. Notes were prepared, question-answers were structured, shooting videos of various subjects commenced, animation and sound effects were incorporated, and the entire project went off with a bang.
Simultaneously, I engaged the services of a Bangalore based company for the creation of this educational app with robust technology. I started this project keeping two major objectives in mind. Firstly, this app should be made available at a bare minimum price so that everyone could afford it and no prospective student should be bereft of the benefits of online education. It should be easily available to future generations and online education should become the accepted mode of education in every household of Bengal, irrespective of their background. Secondly, the tutorial content of each subject should be so interesting that education will become an enjoyable experience for students, instead of a tedious one. No longer would they fear any subject or find it boring or irritating.
My main challenge was to make sure that average bengali medium students such as myself would find these tutorials engrossing and extremely interesting. I want them to enjoy studying and successfully reap the benefits of online education, resulting in their holistic development. That is my main objective.
Our content philosophy here at Tutopia is that each and every tutorial video is a story in itself. Each video in Tutopia has dual layers. The surface layer contains a story which is actually the subject matter itself. The inner layer contains the complexities of the subject, which will be explained in such a subtle manner that the students won’t even realise that they are being taught something.
This led to the inception of Tutopia, an integrated e-learning platform specially designed for bengali medium students. Here at Tutopia, we truly made our vision possible “দুনিয়া যে ভাবে পড়ে আজ বাংলার ঘরে ঘরে”।
Implementing world-class digital education in every household of Bengal at an unimaginably affordable price.
Creating an association of the best teachers who will tap into unique educational sources and make online learning more engaging through the use of various multimedia modes and incorporation of audio visual tutorials. Through Tutopia, learning will come alive with the use of 3D graphics and animation and making studying as enjoyable as watching a movie.
