Bridging Rural-Urban Knowledge Divide in a Digitally Connected World:

A Social Entrepreneurial Perspective

Priyadarshini Dey*, Arina Bardhan*, Somprakash Bandyopadhyay*, Swananya Mukherjee#, Sayan Bit#,
Chirayata Bhattacharya**

*Social Informatics Research Group, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

# Department of Electrical Engineering, Jadavpur University
**Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Jadavpur University

1. Introduction:

The satisfaction of human needs and aspirations is the major objective of development. Sustainable development
requires meeting the basic needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to satisfy their aspirations for a better
life (UNDP, 2003). However it must be highlighted that the services and resources to satisfy basic human needs,
particularly those that contribute to education and health are not reaching the mass in terms of access, quality, and
affordability. The complexities of social challenges experienced in most nations of the world demands an innovative
approach in balancing these constraints (OECD, 2011).

In this context, social entrepreneurship plays crucial role in achieving sustainable solutions to neglected problems
with positive externalities. Social entrepreneurship, commonly defined as “entrepreneurial activity with an
embedded social purpose” (Austin et al. 2006), has become an important economic phenomenon at a global scale
(Mair and Marti 2006). Some striking social entrepreneurship innovations originate from developing countries and
involve the deployment of new business models that address basic human needs (Seelos and Mair, 2005).

It has been observed that the ‘underserved ‘or ‘marginalized’ communities are the most disadvantaged with regards
to accessibility to quality education, information, business training, technical training, financial services, market
information and access to essential networks. In this context the paper addresses the problem of access to quality
education and information among some rural communities of West Bengal by proposing a sustainable social
entrepreneurial model using social technologies. We describe a social entrepreneurial initiative named
“NexConnect” (www.nexconnect.co.in) (Fig.1) which is an online teaching learning platform that connects learners
from all socio economic background and geographical locations with knowledgeable senior citizens. Unfortunately,
in today’s world, the educated senior citizens who possess knowledge in forms of acquired experiences are no
longer considered to be a part of the mainstream socio-economic activities of the nation. NexConnect uses the
dormant knowledge resource of those educated elderly or retired teachers by connecting them with children and
young learners online. This model uses web 2.0 technologies to connect communities in rural areas online (live)
with various external agencies including educated senior citizens as teachers from urban space that assures access to
quality education and information.

Right kind of information and knowledge that are required to include rural or disadvantaged communities into the
mainstream are (i) access to quality educational support, training, advisory services (ii) knowledge about the

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available local opportunities (community assets, sharable resources), market links (buyer, seller, micro-credit etc.)
and (iii) access to a platform to discuss their local governance/ public service related issues with relevant agencies.
This brings us to the pertinent issue of the knowledge gap between urban and rural sectors. NexConnect is such an
online teaching learning platform that aspires to bridge the rural and urban information and knowledge divide.

Fig1: NexConnect (www.nexconnect.co.in): Online Teaching Learning platform

In this paper we are focusing on three communities such as adult learners and children in rural communities,
knowledgeable elderly community who are the providers of knowledge and local agents who are acting as enablers
of the rural community. On one hand, remote rural schools are shrouded with problems such as lack of quality
teachers, teaching learning materials and poor learning environment. On the other hand, senior citizens, traditionally
considered as the knowledge providers and guardians of the society, are now relegated to the background and are no
longer engaged in any productive activities. Through our model we wish to connect these two disadvantaged
communities and include them into the mainstream by using our online teaching learning platform. We require the
third community of local agents to act as a bridge between the rural community and our online learning platform.
We aim to sustain both the community of senior citizens and local community agents both socially and
economically by proposing a business model.

We propose a cross-subsidized business model. In this model, senior teachers teach students both in urban and rural
areas online using the NexConnect online teaching learning platform. The revenue earned from urban students is
used to subsidize the rural students learning process. This model has been tested in some regions of West Bengal
such as Kolkata, South 24 Parganas, Burdwan, Murshidabad districts in West Bengal. Agents or representatives of
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the rural communities are our franchisee who arrange, motivate and assimilate students into a rural classroom
(called NexConnect Internet School) from where the online classes at NexConnect are conducted. To sustain this
model, the local agents (local entrepreneurs) yield revenue by charging a minimum amount from students.

NexConnect as an online platform uses components of cooperation and collaboration by including within the model
various agents such as volunteers, representatives of rural/local communities, classroom coordinators, parents and
teachers. The purpose is to disseminate quality learning to students and include senior citizens into the activity of
disseminating quality learning to all.

2. NexConnect: An Inclusive Business Model

NexConnect is based on a cooperative relationship between various agents such as teachers, local agents or local
entrepreneurs and students who forms a network to achieve the following goals (Fig.2):

Bridging rural urban education divide: Online teachers will share uniform study materials in forms of audio visual
content to all.
Upskilling young adults and disseminate holistic education: Senior experts will teach vocational subjects such as
tailoring, agrarian production, basic computing to adult learners which would help them avail various non-
mainstream activities or opportunities in building their career. Educated senior citizens will also take story-telling,
recitation, music etc. classes to disseminate holistic learning among all.
Mobilize and socio-economically sustain senior citizens and local agents through knowledge dissemination and
conducting online classes in rural study centres.

Fig2: NexConnect: Creating sustainable networks

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Apart from NexConnect, there are few other initiatives both profitable and non-profitable that works on online
learning environment. Vedantu (www.vedantu.com) is a for profit enterprise that has created a robust online
learning platform where students (privileged) and teachers interact. Similarly, Evidyaloka (www.evidyaloka.org ) is
a not for profit organization that connects underserved children in rural schools with quality teachers online. Both
these online learning initiatives follow one particular model either profitable or non-profitable.

NexConnect unlike these for profit and non-profit organizations follow a hybrid model, combining components of
both profitability and non-profitability. This new successful model termed as the hybrid business model brings in
elements of non-profit entity and a business (for-profit) entity together to solve the social problem of bridging rural-
urban education divide. The for-profit entity is able to earn revenue to support the non-profit entity. The hybrid
model helps organizations aiming to achieve high social impact by offering them cross subsidy options that strike a
balance between customer acquisition and quality access of services to benefactors (Ramírez 1999; Porter &
Kramer 2011).

NexConnect (www.nexconnect.co.in) is a unified digital teaching –learning platform where senior teachers share
knowledge (formal and informal) with young students through interactive on-line teaching sessions using audio-
visual content following specified curriculum. It connects the communities of knowledgeable senior citizens of
urban areas with students from rural areas through a community of rural/local agents. In doing so the objective is to
bridge rural-urban education divide and disseminate uniform learning to all. The social entrepreneurship thus aims
at providing holistic development to individuals and communities mobilizing knowledge capital of experienced
senior citizens. The online teachers teach both urban and rural students.

This social entrepreneurial initiative earns maximum revenue from urban areas and cross subsidizes with rural
areas. As mentioned before, NexConnect works in collaboration with senior teachers, cyber citizens and social
entrepreneurs who constantly teach, train, manage and assimilate structured and unified course-materials. This
collaborative environment promises to transfer students into an empowered and networked individual.

To sustain this platform, NexConnect has designed a cross-subsidized business model where the knowledge transfer
has been divided into two modes of teaching (Fig.3):

1. Direct teaching: Senior and experienced teachers teaches both academic and non-academic subjects to one
or two students in urban areas. These students belong from upper socio economic strata of society. These
students pay standard hourly fees to the online learning platform. Social entrepreneurs (NexConnect) take a
percentage of the fees and pay the rest to the senior teacher. Educated senior citizens as online teachers thus
find a way to earn and be productive citizens again. This Direct mode thus paves way to create ways of
earning revenue from the online teaching services by the platform.

2. Franchise mode of teaching or NexConnect Internet Schools: The social entrepreneur (NexConnect)
identifies some individuals (local agents) who have a study center or are willing to rent a space to conduct
NexConnect online classes. These individuals must have the infrastructure of computer/tablet/laptop and
internet connectivity. They will have to assimilate students from the locality who needs assistance with
studies. The local individuals will have to create class of students ranging from 5 to 15. These students will
pay the hourly fees to the individual. He/she as platform charges will pay NexConnect a certain percentage.

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This Franchise mode of teaching/learning can be conducted in urban/semi-urban/semi-rural and rural areas. In rural
areas with low paying capacities, students in classroom modes pay at a subsidized rate to the local agents. To
sustain this mode of learning in rural areas, NexConnect as social entrepreneurial endeavor does not take any
amount from the local enablers which results in the potential of local enablers to earn. This model thus transforms
local enablers into local entrepreneurs whose drive is to expand number of students in his center. Knowledgeable
senior citizens as online teachers too are participants in the business model. They earn maximum amount from the
urban, semi-urban and even semi-rural areas. But in remote rural areas, they earn very low and often nil leading to
an angle of social welfare in their service of knowledge dissemination.

URBAN STUDENTS NEXCONNECT

STUDYING IN DIRECT ENCOMPASSING LOCAL
MODE SENIOR ENTREPRENEURS
TEACHERS, FRANCHISE
OWNERS
VOLUNTEERS

UNDERSERVED/RURAL
STUDENTS

Local Entrepreneur Earns At

Subsidized Rates from
Students

Fig3: NexConnect: Business Model

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 3. NexConnect: A Few Success Stories

This initiative has been tested in a few regions of West Bengal in South 24 Parganas, Burdwan, Kolkata and
Murshidabad districts (Fig.4).

Namkhana, South 24 Parganas: Local students are trained through this online learning portal at Lalpul, Namkhana
for almost a year. Senior teachers are teaching students of classes 8 and adult learners mathematics, English and
spoken English. Students of the community are from lower socio-economic strata of society leading to their
inability to pay regular academic session charges. These sessions are conducted by a local entrepreneur in his study
centre. Each batch comprises of 15 students. Students pay a certain amount to the local entrepreneur which becomes
his earning.

Kalichranpur, South 24 Parganas: Here, a local entrepreneur owns a Common Service Centre (CSC) where he
provides internet services to the local community. Through training, he started conducting NexConnect online
classes at his CSC. He now conducts English and spoken English sessions at his centre. 50 students of the
community now come regularly at his centre to learn the subjects. He takes nominal monthly fees from the students
(local rate) which are his earning.

There are experiments conducted using NexConnect Direct Teaching Mode with 20 students where students from
urban areas belonging from upper socio-economic strata. They pay standard academic rates these students pay an
hourly rate to our online learning platform. 70% of the amount is the earning of respective senior teachers. Rest is
used to subsidize rural teaching.

Apart from empowering local agents in franchisee modes, we have conducted regular online classes in more than 10
study centres spanning West Bengal using NexConnect Platform. Knowledgeable Senior citizens have not only
taught academic subjects but also trained vocational subjects to adult learners such as tailoring, basic computers etc.

Fig4: Online classes at two study centres: Namkhana and Kalicharanpur, South 24 Parganas

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 4. Conclusion:

The potentials of social business using web 2.0 technologies can be used to address issues of disparity in quality
education between rural and urban areas. NexConnect as a hybrid business model aims towards bridging rural urban
education divide and improve quality of learning among students in remote rural communities by cross subsidizing
revenue from urban to rural sector. Thus to sustain such a concerning issue in domain of education, a social
entrepreneur needs to create networks of students, teachers, local agents, volunteers, governmental and non-
governmental bodies. This points out the necessity to use components of collaboration and cooperation in
empowering underserved communities. Students both adult learners and children can receive quality content from
the cyber resource and interact with good quality teachers online. The paper thus aims at highlighting a relevant
social business model specifically aimed at mobilizing the dormant knowledge capital in contributing effectively
and positively toward affordable and easily accessible educational programmes for one and all.

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