Indian Children Will No More Be Denied Their Dreams Because Of English

India’s first digital platform to offer English language training in 11 Indian languages for kids, OckyPocky offers students an easy gamified learning experience. Amit Agrawal launched this interactive platform with the vision to help vernacular kids pursue their dreams regardless of their background.

How it started?
Brought up in Lucknow with his roots in Dadri and Pilakhuwa, Agrawal’s parents, like many other middle class families at the time, prioritised education above all. “Education is the only hope,” Agrawal explains to take a family to the next level. After eight years of research and conversing with hundreds of parents and children, OckyPocky is solving the missing skill of English.

“Social status, performance in schools, admissions into colleges, entry into jobs and self-confidence are a function of English communication skills,” Agrawal details, adding that there is little choice for those who want a good career, since most higher education books, college admission forms and job vacancies are offered primarily in English.

Overwhelming response
Amit says that vernacular users were hungry for content in their mother tongue and the demand has stressed his technology team. With 8000 reviews, the words OckyPocky kids learn has grown 10 times in just last 4-5 months – now at 3 million words being learnt everyday – that’s an incredible 100,000+ words per hour!

First priority- online safety
The internet and online content are designed for teenagers and adults ie not for kids. Cybersecurity is a major concern. Agrawal, who is also the former YouTube India Head, says “We are fairly obsessed with kid safety and we screen everything that goes on our platform”.

What their users have to say
A mother in Uttar Pradesh was worried about her son’s admission, as it included an interaction session. Like many children coming from small towns, his natural instinct was to speak in exclusively in his native language, Hindi. Despite this, with only the use of the OckyPocky platform, the child ranked first on the admission list.

A primary school teacher from Morbi Gujarat joined the platform, following her child’s dream to become a model. Not only were they able to use the language skills to properly navigate the industry and discover a wealth of new opportunities, but building strong English speaking skills added to the child’s confidence.

Conclusion
OckyPocky especially fills in the gap for early childhood education, a time when most learning habits are instilled in children. Learning English speaking and writing skills not only ensures a strong foundation in communication, but also confidence that can attribute to the overall development, career building and social skills of a child.

The next steps for the edtech include going deeper into India and also expanding into other emerging markets. “The dream is to reach everybody in Bharat, especially every middle class parent out there,” Agrawal concludes.