Lohit Sahu is founder-director of the Mumbai-based Phyzok Learning Solutions LLP (estb.2011), an edtech start-up providing customised maths and science content for class V-X students of CBSE-affiliated schools. The company, which began with conducting science workshops for students, currently offers blended classroom end-to-end learning solutions — pre-class videos for flipped learning, in-class interactive content, teacher training and student assessment modules — to 40 schools countrywide.
Newspeg. In 2016, Phyzok was ranked among the Top 25 Best Science Video Content designers by Stony Brook University, New York in its annual Flame Challenge — a global competition that evaluates the quality of science content created for 11-year-olds.
History. In 2006, while studying mechanical engineering at BITS, Pilani, Sahu began conducting science workshops for school students using unconventional pedagogies such as stories, crafts and magic to explain science concepts. As the popularity of his workshops grew, he became aware of a huge latent demand for differentially delivered experiential science content. In 2011, after providentially receiving a Rs.10 lakh grant from the BITS-75 Charitable Trust (established by BITS, Pilani), he developed Phyzok’s first videographed lesson.
Since then, over the past five years Sahu has focused on popularising the flipped classroom model — a pedagogy in which the traditional classroom lecture and homework format is inverted. Classroom lectures are viewed at home while class time is devoted to exercises, projects and discussions based on videographed lectures. “For our first client — the Mumbai-based R.N. Podar School — we videographed 240 classroom lectures for flipped learning. In 2014, we were invited by CBSE to create videographed IIT-JEE preparatory course material for the Central government’s Udaan programme under which selected girl students are tutored to write the IIT-JEE exams for admission into IITs and NITs. Of the 300 girls who wrote IIT-JEE the same year, 143 were admitted after five months of preparation,” says Sahu.
Direct talk. “Our objective at Phyzok is to use technology to create engaging content and learning solutions to help children grasp science and maths concepts quickly and easily. That’s how we have improved the flipped classroom pedagogy and also enhanced teacher training,” says Sahu, who was ranked among the ‘Top 10 Hottest Young Entrepreneurs in India’ by Businessworld (2011) and also awarded ‘The Star Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the 5th Indira International Innovation Summit in 2012.
Future. By the end of 2017, Phyzok is expecting a cash infusion of $5 million (Rs.33 crore), which it intends to invest in building robust tech platforms and expanding its reach. “Our target is to introduce 100 schools to the flipped classroom pedagogy. In the long term, we want to make education enjoyable for all of India’s 250 million school-going children,” says Sahu.
Wind in your sails!
Dipta Joshi (Mumbai)