ThinkZone

05/09/2026

At ThinkZone, we meet teachers who are constantly learning alongside their students. Working with them has reminded us that teaching is not a profession where you simply repeat what you already know. It grows with every classroom, every group of learners, and every new experience.

That is also what guides our work through Empower Educators: creating opportunities for teachers to strengthen their practice, learn new approaches, and feel supported in doing their work well.

This Teacher’s Day, we’re grateful for the opportunity to learn from and work alongside so many teachers.

Thank you for everything you bring to the classroom. Happy Teacher’s Day

03/09/2026

Teaching in a remote school comes with its own set of challenges. But the educators here continue to find ways to make learning work for their children.

Through ThinkZone’s programmes, they have had access to new teaching ideas, learning materials, and ongoing support, helping them experiment with approaches that work in their own classrooms.

This Teacher’s Day, we’re sharing their voices and experiences from across some of Odisha’s most remote schools.

Not as stories of hardship, but as stories of teachers learning, adapting, and growing alongside their students.

To every teacher who keeps learning so they can help their students learn better, Happy Teacher’s Day.

02/09/2026

What does it take to turn a parent’s concern about their child’s learning into action?

For PRAKASHAK, the answer lies in many small decisions: when a message reaches a parent, how an activity is designed, and what keeps them coming back.

Our latest newsletter takes a closer look at this behavioural layer of PRAKASHAK, which was recognised by the Cheistha Kochhar Nudge Award 2026 for using behavioural nudges to encourage and sustain parental engagement in children’s learning.

Link to the newsletter in the comments.

01/09/2026

A Parent-Teacher Meeting can tell us a lot about what gets attention in a school.

In many government schools across Odisha, PTMs have traditionally been a space to discuss infrastructure, facilities, complaints, and other school-level concerns. These conversations are important, but there often wasn’t enough time to talk about something just as important: how children were actually progressing in their learning.

Through ThinkZone’s work with schools and parents, schools are now setting aside a dedicated 30-minute slot during PTMs to focus on children’s progress.

Teachers share what they are seeing in the classroom. Parents get a clearer picture of where their child is doing well and where they may need support. The conversation can then move towards what can be done next, rather than ending with an update.

It’s a small change to the structure of a PTM, but it changes what the 30 minutes are used for.

31/08/2026

As highlighted in a recent Business Standard article, economists have found that the drivers of long-term growth are not years of schooling, but rather the quality of schooling. Improving a nation’s learning levels by one standard deviation can lead to roughly two percentage points of additional GDP growth.

This is a powerful reminder that foundational learning is not just an education priority. It is a foundation for the India we want to build.

“The Road to Viksit Bharat Runs Through a Strengthened NIPUN Bharat” by Ashish Dhawan and Rajiv Memani highlights why strengthening NIPUN Bharat must remain central to India’s journey towards a Viksit Bharat.

Worth reading for anyone working in India’s education and policy space.

Doubling down on the National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy will yield long-lasting growth multipliers

28/08/2026

Celebrating the bond of love, laughter, and togetherness that makes every sibling relationship special.

Wishing you a very Happy Raksha Bandhan!

27/08/2026

Anushka Singh Deo recently joined our Content and Pedagogy team. Here, she shares what it has been like to transition from teaching in the classroom to designing learning experiences for children.

Having spent time inside the classroom as a teacher, I have experienced the privilege of being closest to the learners and reading their faces for signs of confusion, curiosity, excitement, and knowing when a lesson needs to shift in the moment.

Now, as I work in content and designing learning experiences, I carry those classroom realities into every experience I create. While I may no longer be present directly with the child, the questions remain the same: "How might a child think through this?" "Where might they get stuck?" "What could make them curious?"

Good learning design does not simply lead children to the “right” answer, but creates opportunities for them to ask better questions, make connections, and take ownership of learning.

Along with empowering the child, meaningful content also ensures that it does not replace the teacher, but complements them by building on what happens in the classroom and extending learning beyond it, with families and caregivers as equally important partners.

Moving from teaching to learning design has reinforced one belief: designing for children begins with understanding them, but meaningful learning is sustained by the ecosystem around them.

26/08/2026

Eid Mubarak! 🌙

Wishing you and your loved ones a joyful Eid filled with peace, warmth, and togetherness. May the spirit of the occasion bring renewed hope and happiness to all.

25/08/2026

Shruti joins us as a Program Associate, contributing across Partnerships & Outreach and Monitoring & Evaluation.
With a background in development studies from Azim Premji University, she’ll work to strengthen our programs through collaboration, evidence, and strategic engagement, supporting ThinkZone’s mission to expand access to quality foundational learning for every child.

So glad to have you with us, Shruti. Looking forward to the journey ahead together.

24/08/2026

At the Cheistha Kochhar Nudge Awards, organised by the Indian School of Public Policy (ISPP), a panel discussion with Biju Dominic, Ruby Sinha, and Rama Shankar Pandey, moderated by Sujoy Chakravarty, explored a deceptively simple question: what makes a nudge actually work?

The discussion went beyond the idea of nudges as tools for influencing behaviour. A nudge should not manipulate or force. It should make the intended action clear, easy to understand, and easy to act upon.

And that led to a larger point: nudges are a means, not the end.

Even a well-designed nudge cannot do much if the path it points towards is full of obstacles. For an intervention to work, the surrounding experience needs to be simple enough that people can actually act on the nudge.

In other words, good behavioural design is not just about finding the right nudge. It is also about removing the friction that stands between the nudge and the action.

It was a privilege to listen to such experienced practitioners and thinkers, and to come away with ideas that extend well beyond the discussion itself.