The Netherlands headquartered Shell – one of world’s six oil and gas majors – recently launched its global Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education programme, NXplorers in New Delhi. Launched in the presence of Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister, Delhi, in a programme attended by students, school principals, teachers and media at the Rajendra Prasad Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, President Estate, New Delhi, NXplorers has already reached over 30 schools in New Delhi. NXplorers is an endeavour by Shell to nurture young minds to design sustainable solutions to ease the pressure on food, water and energy supply using a unique combination of Systems Thinking, Scenario Planning and Theory of Change. The programme is being rolled out across four states and aims to reach 3000 schools and 2,60,000 students between 14-19 years of age by 2020 in India.

Launched in 2017, NXplorers is presently available in 14 countries including India, Brazil, Egypt, Nigeria Kazakhstan, Australia, Oman, Qatar, UAE, China, Brunei, Singapore, Philippines and Trinidad.

Speaking on the occasion, chief guest Manish Sisodia said, “I congratulate Shell and Learning Links Foundation for launching the NXplorers initiative and giving an opportunity to children to identify problems and develop sustainable solutions. The programme is in line with our focus on providing quality educational and developmental opportunities to students of government run schools. We need to encourage students to think out of the box, think local and instill a thinking to challenge the existing and go beyond the textbook to find solutions beyond the obvious. We want to create a generation that is not just seeking jobs in the future but is empowered and capable to offer job opportunities for others. Let us shape young minds today to become the leaders of tomorrow.”

Nitin Prasad, chairman, Shell Companies in India also added, “Food, water and energy systems that form the foundation of growth for India and other countries across the world are tightly interlinked. Water is needed to extract energy and generate power; energy is needed to treat and transport water; and both water and energy are needed to grow food. This creates a critical nexus or a series of connections. Shell NXplorers aims to instill complex and creative thinking skills in young Indian minds to bring about a positive change to our country’s food-water-energy nexus. Students explore issues and causes, create actions and design solutions to power sustainable growth for India and the world. We are grateful to the government of Delhi for giving us the opportunity to partner with us for this programme and we aim to increase participation of the schools in the region in the next three years.”

Delivered mainly at government and municipality schools in its first year with special focus on girl students, NXplorers is a facilitated programme where teachers and students learn about and engage in real world issues through three stages: Explore, where students identify the issues, its causes, and ways to dig deeper into the issue Create, where students identify the actions needed to bring about the change, and envision the preferred future Change, students design the roadmap to reach the preferred future

Learning Links Foundation (LLF), a non-profit organisation dedicated to enhancing the quality of education, promoting innovation and developing future ready citizens has been selected to implement the NXplorer programme in India Some of the projects being carried out by students include: biogas production from the local food/agricultural waste, smart drainage system using algae and bacteria, ‘seedographer’ that improves resource use efficiency in agricultural farms, smart irrigation system that can help farmers to optimize water usage.

Shell is one of the most diversified international energy companies in India with over 7000 employees, 200,000 retail customers and a 250 – strong distribution network. To learn more, visit https://www.shell.in/