We aim to democratize quality education and diagnostics at the fingertips of every child, says Mr. Sandeep Kavety, Head of Product, ConveGenius Insights

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We at Business News This Week (BNTW) thank Mr. Sandeep Kavety, Head of Product, ConveGenius Insights., for this exclusive interview opportunity. Mr. Sandeep discussed his vision for India’s future educational system and on many more aspects with Mr. Neel Achary, Chief Editor, BNTW.

BNTW: Can you tell us about the services by ConveGenius Insights (CGI)?

Mr. Sandeep Kavety (SK): We assess the impact of education interventions with the help of standardized assessments. In 2013, we started with a sense of curiosity around tactical, rigorous methods to assess the quality of schools in India. Since then, we have come a long way. We now provide a range of assessment services including designing impact assessment studies, evaluating the cost-effectiveness of interventions, conducting diagnostic assessments, data collection for education assessments and many more.

BNTW: What is the mission of CGI?

SK: We at CGI believe that every child, irrespective of the background they come from, is born with the potential to learn. We are on a mission to make quality assessments accessible and affordable so that every parent, teacher, school and system can have diagnostic data on learning levels so that they can use it to improve the learning outcomes of children. Through our work in assessments and expertise in measurement, we aim to enhance this journey of every child by helping the key stakeholders in the system understand and bridge the learning gaps.

BNTW: What types of tests and evaluations do you do and at what level? Whether it is at an individual level or institutional?

SK: Our offerings are both at an institutional level and at an individual level. Since our larger focus is bringing in a systemic change through quality education assessments, our focus has been institution-level assessments that evaluate the programmatic impact of interventions that guide systems/policymakers for better decision-making in education.

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BNTW: How do these evaluations benefit educational institutions, parents, or teachers?

SK: Impact evaluations form a very critical aspect of any intervention. In the context of education, they are even more important because they can enable us to course correct and mirror what the realities are. These impact evaluations can help every stakeholder part of the system, helping
– parents diagnose learning levels of their child,
– teachers to understand the distribution of students at different proficiencies,
– institutions to build a program, solicit feedback for existing programs, or set targets to maximize the impact

BNTW: Do you propose suggestions based on the results in addition to doing tests and evaluations?

SK: Since, we have collected data points from millions of students across the country and globally, evaluating impact of 10s of interventions, we do understand why certain results arise. 

BNTW: How many schools have you worked with and in how many locations? Are there any that you can think of?

SK: We have assessed over 15,000 schools through field assessments and over 30,000 schools through digital assessments across 16 states Indian states. CGI has also set its footprint in UAE and African region.

BNTW: How do you think data analysis will aid in the development of new educational standards in India?

SK: There is enough evidence from across the globe that, modern measurement techniques such as Item Response Theory can enhance the ability to diagnose student learning. Moving away from traditional approaches to these techniques can not just make the results of our assessments robust, but also guide the system in the right direction.

BNTW: Can you tell us about your accomplishments?

SK CGI has been able to leverage its expertise in measurement science to solve the complexities that exist in Indian education by building a proprietary scale that can measure the learning outcomes of students across the country on a single scale. Just the way, how we measure height on a height scale.

– CGI is the only organization, which has integrated an ORAL assessment and written assessment on a single measurement scale.

– CGI has been instrumental in the Saksham Haryana project enabling stakeholders from the grassroot level to think in the lines of competencies which is a great shift in mindset.

– CGI is the outcome evaluator of world’s largest education development impact bond which is in its last year of evaluation.

CGI Assessment in action

BNTW: What is your vision for India’s future educational system?

SK: No child has to be left behind because of the background they come from. With the power of assessments and technology, we aim to democratize quality education and diagnostics at the fingertips of every child.

BNTW: What are your upcoming projects, and can you give us any insight into your ambitions for the future?

SK: COVID-19 has impacted the education system drastically. There is a need for state transformation programs that are data-driven. CGI aims to partner with policymakers and state systems, to transform state education through large-scale assessments.

About Sandeep Kavety: 

Sandeeep Kavety works towards guiding organizations to solve problems strategically & structure work methods with cost-effective solutions. He holds over 9 years of experience in Project Management in Software & K10 education with a proven track record in Measuring Outcomes. He specializes in measuring learning outcomes and evaluating longitudinal quasi-experimental educational interventions & RCTs based on methodologies like item response theory (IRT) & Rasch model. Currently, he is leading multiple Large-Scale Education Assessment projects, measuring learning outcomes of students across the country to help policymakers in transforming the education system in the country. He worked with multiple high-stakes large-scale K-10 assessment projects across different geographies of India working with various stakeholders including state government officials, service providers, NGOs, and funding organizations. Previously, he was associated with Deloitte and Accenture.

About ConveGenius Insights 

ConveGenius Insights (CGI) (Ex Gray Matters India) believe in the power of data and assessments to unlock the potential of millions of children and make them future-ready and services including – Impact Assessment, Early Childhood Assessment & All India Critical Test. It measures learning outcomes in a reliable, valid and standardized manner to enable data-driven decision-making for all stakeholders in education. And create access and affordability for assessments so that every parent, teacher, school and system can have diagnostic data on learning levels and use it to improve outcomes. CGI has worked with 15 states & more than 10,000 schools and executed in 1,000,000 test administrations. They are working reluctantly to establish academic standards and performance benchmarks that are inclusive of all students in the country so that progress in education can be measured with equity.

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