Monthly Highlight Report - August

Project NIPUN Maharashtra: Government Coordination, Next-Phase Planning & Digital Strengthening

VOPA’s NIPUN Maharashtra team continued close coordination with SCERTM and office of the Hon' Commissioner (Education), Maharashtra state for the extension and planning of the next phase of NIPUN Maharashtra. The team supported DIETs and Education Officers in Pune, Satara and Ratnagiri with previous year’s assessment data for audit, analysis and policy insights, while district-level data analysis was shared with Ahilyanagar and Dhule to support local planning and decision-making.

As part of preparations, we continued revising FLN assessment tools in line with the updated NIPUN Lakshyas. In academic year 2026-2027 students of class 1-5 will be included in FLN assessments. Multiple notifications were sent to teachers on NIPUN Maharashtra (SCERTM) app regarding various education related news and updates.

Alongside programme and government coordination, the team continued strengthening the NIPUN Maharashtra digital platform, data systems and AI capabilities. Improvements were made across teacher assessments, the parent interface, Oral Reading Fluency (ORF), educational games and chatbot integration. Work also progressed on SCERTM assessment flow, assessment architecture and authentication processes. The educational games platform was upgraded with a new admin panel and integrated into both mobile and web applications, defined for Classes 1–5.

The analytics chatbot also saw a major improvement in performance, with district-level data queries that previously took 60–70 seconds now returning in under one second. Enhancements to query handling and data validation further improved reliability.

Team continued to engage in improving audio analysis, data augmentation, learning-rate tuning, gradient clipping, duration bucketing and text preprocessing.

V-School Digital Learning Project - IMPACT REPORT

The V-School Digital Learning Project, supported by Bajaj Finserv, was implemented from August 2023 to July 2026. Over the three-year project period, baseline, midline, and endline assessments were conducted to measure improvements in Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN), academic learning outcomes, and digital penetration and usage.

At the end of the three-year implementation period, the assessment findings were consolidated to undertake an overall baseline–midline–endline impact analysis, capturing the project's progress and outcomes over time. Based on this analysis, a comprehensive three-year impact report was prepared.

To know more about our DLP Project : Watch V-School: Digital Learning Project & Detailed Impact Report : DLP Impact Report 2023-2026

MYCA : Teachers’ Mental Health Initiative

The Teachers' Mental Health Project, supported by NOCIL, progressed and continued engagement through a WhatsApp community of over 350 teachers, with students daily through notifications, activities, and educational wallpapers. In the month of July and August, MYCA app had nearly 400 new users added, with average user engagement of 7 mins.

SAIYAM 2.0 - Project Renewal for 2026-2027

SAIYAM - addiction prevention programme will be implemented across nearly 300 schools in Pune city in academic year 2026-27, in partnership with Tarachand Ramnath Seva Trust. The team engaged with SCERTM, DIET, Pune and nodal authority of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan to strengthen collaboration and approval letters for next academic year. Team also discussed next phase planning including shortlisting of schools with PMC Pune and shared previous year’s learnings. 67 schools which participated in SAIYAM Olympiad in the year 2025-2026, will continue to be part of SAIYAM 2.0. VOPA's dedicated SAIYAM Program team revised learning modules as well as updated content on digital platform.

Read more about impact stories of SAIYAM : Impact Story Book

VOPA 8th Foundation Day Celebration

Prafulla, Founder and Director of VOPA, noticed as well as experienced the societal difficulties while growing up and questioned why things were the way they were. The sensitivity to understand social problems, question why certain sections of society were left behind, and find ways to make things better gradually became a part of his journey. Much of human progress has come from that very sense of uneasiness, the feeling that something is not right and the question, “Can I do something to change this?” In many ways, the work in social impact began long before VOPA had a name. VOPA was founded on 24th August 2018 and this year, VOPA completed eight years. In these 8 years, VOPA evolved through ideas, time and People.

Today, its work reaches millions of students across all 36 districts of Maharashtra. VOPA provides digital infrastructure support to NIPUN Maharashtra Mission that enables real-time, AI-based and evidence-backed Foundational Literacy and Numeracy assessments of students in Marathi-medium government and aided schools.

Building and sustaining a system of this scale is not easy. It requires passion, not just hard work. It requires the belief that knowledge and skills can be used to create something that serves society. Today, VOPA has a team of more than 50 people. What connects us across different roles and backgrounds is this shared desire to create meaningful change. We share not only VOPA's vision, but the values that shape how we approach our work.

As VOPA grows, passing these values from one generation of employees to the next becomes increasingly important. For the eighth Foundation Day, we therefore chose to celebrate by going back to that story.

In the week leading up to 24 August, the team held five candid conversations with Prafulla Sir, Our founder & Director. We spent time asking questions and listening to stories from his life and VOPA's journey. These were not formal presentations, but conversations about experiences, challenges and the decisions that shaped VOPA. They offered an immersive view of how VOPA was built, the values it stands for, and where it hopes to go in the future. On Foundation Day, the team came together to celebrate eight years of VOPA, shared memories, laughed over stories, and took part in games and activities.

As VOPA enters its ninth year, the most important part of the journey remains the same: our values, attitude, behaviour and most importantly PASSION  !!

Read a heartfelt gratitude post by Prafulla Shashikant here : 8 Years of VOPA