In July 2022, the state government along with Meynikara, an Extended Reality (XR) development company from Chennai, launched an ambitious project – Meta Kalvi (translates to Meta Education). It was launched in a shared 3-D Virtual Reality (VR) environment in the presence of Ministers Udhayanidhi Stalin and Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, and Lok Sabha Member of Parliament Dayanidhi Maran. Meynikara announced that it will set up VR labs and undertake courses in VR for five Chennai-based government and Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) schools for a year, following which the programme was to be extended to more schools as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.
A visit to the five schools by TNM revealed that the company had conducted sessions in only one school and a single demonstration class in another. TNM also couldn’t trace the CSR agreement or related documents that Meynikara, the two-year-old registered private limited company, should have filed with the respective government authorities for carrying out the project.
On June 26, TNM visited the three government schools – Lady Willingdon Higher Secondary School, Government Model Higher Secondary School and Government Madrasa I Azam Higher Secondary School and the two GCC schools – Chennai Middle School and Chennai High School, which were listed for the inclusion of Meta Kalvi in their syllabi.
Upon visiting the schools, TNM found that only the students from Classes 7 and 8 at Lady Willingdon Higher Secondary School received courses once a month under Meta Kalvi. At Government Model Higher Secondary School, the company had an introductory demonstration for one hour on March 3, 2023, but no sessions were conducted. A senior faculty at the Government Model Higher Secondary School confirmed the date and said, “Following the first demonstration class, we didn’t know how to follow up with them since no channel for communication was established. They also didn’t reach out after that.”
The teachers and principals from the other three schools told TNM that no such sessions were undertaken. A senior staff from Chennai Middle School said, “Our school was there on the list and we were informed of it, but the experts never visited and the VR lab was not set up.” On the other hand, the Head Mistresses and the faculties at Chennai High School and Government Madrasa I Azam Higher Secondary School were completely unaware that such a project existed and that they were enlisted as beneficiaries.
Further, the dedicated classrooms have either been closed or doubled into make-shift classrooms as Meynikara has not set up the VR headsets as announced.
Meta Kalvi lab turned into a makeshift classroom at Lady Willingdon Higher Secondary School.
“We dedicated a classroom for setting up the VR lab like they had asked us to. But the class was shut throughout last year. We opened it in June for this academic year,” the senior teacher from Government Model Higher Secondary School said. The teachers from the enlisted schools also told TNM that they were not trained to operate the technology either. Kasi Viswanathan Ravindran, Head of Meta Kalvi from Meynikara responded, “Since it is a pilot project and VR is a new technology, we wanted to check the problems that students face during VR classes. We focused on Lady Willingdon School and we have understood the needs of the students. We will now think about training the teachers.”
An empty classroom which should have been used for Meta Learning at Government Model Higher Secondary School.
Contrary to what TNM found in the schools, Raghuraman Ravi, director of Meynikara and Kasi, claimed that sessions were conducted in all five schools. According to them, two sessions were conducted in Government Madrasa I Azam, Chennai Model School and Chennai Middle School and one session was held in Chennai High School.
TNM also contacted the officials in the Namma School Foundation wing of the Education Department to understand the agreement between Meynikara and the government. The Foundation could not trace the agreement or the CSR documents.
It is to be noted that companies which have grown to have a net worth of more than Rs 500 crore or have a turnover of more than Rs 1,000 crore or a net profit of more than Rs 5 crore in the preceding financial year are only required to hold CSR initiatives compulsorily. Meynikara’s paid-up capital (which constitutes net worth) is one lakh rupees. TNM couldn’t access their Profit and Loss statements on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website.
Prince Gajendran Babu, General Secretary of the State Platform for Common School System-Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN), commented, “This is an administrative failure on the part of the state government. The government should check the company’s experience and past credits before agreeing to partner with a private company for such initiatives. They should routinely monitor the effectiveness of such programmes. If not anything, the government can always resort to charging education cess and use the proceedings to create such infrastructure.”
Challenges in Meta Kalvi Classrooms
Although the students and teachers who spoke to TNM from Lady Willingdon School appreciated the classes, they reported several challenges. “They only brought a couple of VR headsets. So, every student didn’t get a chance to experience virtual reality. Every lesson was extended to two or three months to allow time for all the students to experience VR lessons. Another disadvantage was the battery life of the headsets. They usually ran out of charge within one and a half hours,” a senior faculty from the school said.
The Meta Kalvi team corroborated and added that every course designed for students was 12 minutes long. Hence, they couldn’t wrap up each course in the two hours designated for Meta Kalvi every month due to both time constraints and the headsets’ battery life. “Our team would return to the office to charge the headsets,” Kasi added.
From Meynikara’s end, Raghuraman said they had trouble incorporating sessions into the academic calendar. “There were exams and holidays which made it difficult for us to get time. We faced additional issues of attendance, which was low in some schools, and there were several monsoon breaks last academic year,” Raghuraman said.
The company said that the VR sessions conducted at Lady Willingdon School had yielded good results, as the overall marks scored by students in tests conducted post-VR sessions were 75% on average.