With the nationwide lockdown extended till May 3, 2020, and schools remaining shut across the country, LEAD School is aiding over 2.5 lakh school students to continue their learning online and ensuring there is no disruption in their academic year. The move comes amid the coronavirus outbreak and the April 15 directive from the Government of India asking educational institutions to maintain academic schedules through online learning platforms.

Even before the government imposed the 21-day national lockdown, LEAD School — one of the fastest-growing technology-enabled academic systems in India — launched its unique School@Home programme on March 16 itself when only a few state governments had started announcing lockdowns. Bringing the school right into living rooms, LEAD School then started the new academic year on April 2 and till date, online classes under the programme have generated approximately 30 lakh video views. The initiative has made remote or distance learning accessible to students in over 600 English-medium schools, leading to a paradigm shift in India’s school education system.

In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the LEAD School@Home programme is based entirely on the core syllabus conceived by central and state education boards, and taught in schools. The students will study the regular curriculum as they would in schools, and not supplementary courses that other education platforms are offering.

There are 250 million students that go to schools in India, and many of them yet do not have access to online school. LEAD School@Home is now open to any child across India. Parents can register their child using https://leadschool.in/lead-school-at-home.html.

LEAD School is collaborating with school owners, administrators and teachers to offer the many benefits under School@Home, which, apart from starting the academic year on time, also includes live online classes from Day 1 and digital content and workbooks for students. Students do not require any extra device to start learning. LEAD School is also helping its partner-schools adopt the right technology to improve their processes, make education more student-centric, empower teachers, and ensure quality performance among both students and teachers.

LEAD School Co-founder and CEO Sumeet Mehta said, “The disruption of education in pre-schools and K-12 schools due to the pandemic and the lockdown has created uncertainty in the minds of school owners, teachers, students and parents. There is apprehension among students that they may lose a year if schools do not reopen on time. To assuage their concerns, we lost no time in making the LEAD School@Home programme accessible to all English-medium schools across the country. This is in keeping with our mission to impart education in both good and bad times, and our firm belief that learning is a continuous and a lifelong process. School@Home has been designed in a way that students in both ‘urban India’ and ‘rural Bharat’ find easy to comprehend and learn in the comfort of their homes. I am confident that this integrated learning system will benefit all stakeholders — and none more than the students who need it right now.”