The lockdown imposed during Covid-19 pandemic, pushed people to online mode and the ed-tech platforms compensated the education needs of students across the globe but a population of students who had no access to these platforms were devoid of the education. For many, the only reason was the unaffordability to the paid ed-tech forums.
To make education accessible to everyone, Mohammad Anas Shah, a young edupreneur has started his online education platform, Pienity (www.pienity.com).
Pienity is a one stop education platform offering study material catering to the students of class 8th to 10th. In addition, the website also offers daily news, question panels and free test courses to the students with Jammu and Kashmir Board Of School Education curriculum.
In the ATL Marathon 2021-2022, it was the sole idea from Jammu and Kashmir which was featured in the top 350 projects selected all over India by ATL NITI Aayog.
Shah is a 10th grade student at Green Valley Educational Institute. He has been a part of many national and international events organized by JK Bharat Scout and Guides, the national Scouting and Guiding Association of India.Also, he has been awarded an excellent entrepreneur by Save Youth Save Future, an organization working for the development of youth.
Talking about his startup, he said that his aim is to provide quality education to the needy and unprivileged section of society who are not able to pay for the quality education. “It’s an online platform for the students of Jammu and Kashmir. The beta version of the website is available on the internet,” he said.
The thought that stuck him during the lockdown days, took him three months to ideate. With time, he developed the website on his own by learning the coding and web building techniques from YouTube tutorials.
He said that the other online education or learning platforms already available are paid and one can’t access them free of cost. On the Pienity, the students can register themselves and get study materials without being charged anything.
The idea was further strengthened when he came to know that despite having thousands of students associated with JKBOSE curriculum, the students are suffering due to the dearth of study material specific to the curriculum on YouTube and other platforms.
Currently, on the website, a panel for video courses is under development. “We can add video courses as well. For that we are trying to get in touch with the various coaching institutes and teachers to make these videos for the website,” he said.
In the coming future, the other features will be added to the platform which includes one on one counselling sessions, exam preparation, doubt clearing sessions and homework help.
Emphasizing on the importance of student counselling, he said, “There are many students who have no idea about the career choice and planning. For them, we are having a section where they can meet counsellors and interact with them. We are in talks with companies like Career Launcher so that students can be career oriented and can get a broader perspective of things.”
He further said that in a month, thousands of students have got connected to them and the number is increasing.
He said that his website is backed by a small team where everyone has a section to create and look after, to keep the updated news and study material for the students while managing their own studies and maintaining a good work environment.
Having an education background, from the beginning he has an inclination towards doing something in the field of education.
“I had an entrepreneurial mind and my father never stopped me in pursuing it. Although he is a job-oriented person, he is supporting me in exploring the entrepreneur field,” he said.
Shah also runs a YouTube channel, Knowledge Realization where he uploads the content related to recent happenings, news, events, culture and heritage etc.
In a donation camp held recently, he donated stationary to the kids in one government school.
“There are many resources in the world but only few reach the unprivileged section of the society. If only we help them and make things accessible for them too, the society will grow and develop,” he concluded.
