Why We’re Building an AI Tutor for Every Child in India

Q1. What is your big goal with Teach to Earn?

Let’s not beat around the bush.
Our big, hairy, audacious goal is simple: every child in India should have access to a high-quality AI tutor.

Not someday. Not only rich kids. Not only kids in fancy schools.
Every child. Everywhere.

If you believe education determines destiny (and it does), then denying children access to good learning tools is the quietest form of injustice we tolerate.

Q2. Why AI tutors? Aren’t teachers enough?

This question assumes teachers and AI are competitors. They aren’t.

India has:

Too few good teachers

Overcrowded classrooms

A one-size-fits-all syllabus

Zero personalisation

AI tutors don’t replace teachers. They amplify learning by offering:

24/7 availability

Infinite patience

Personalised pacing

No judgement, no fear, no embarrassment

A child can ask the same “stupid” question a hundred times. The AI won’t roll its eyes. That alone is revolutionary.

Q3. What problem are you actually trying to solve?

The real problem isn’t marks.
It’s that schools don’t teach children how to learn.

Most students:

Memorise instead of understanding

Chase marks instead of mastery

Depend on teachers instead of thinking independently

We want students to become self-directed, lifelong learners.
That skill matters far more than any syllabus.

Q4. Why do you keep talking about autonomy and agency?

Because learning without autonomy is obedience training.

Real learning happens when:

Students choose

Students explore

Students fail safely

Students follow curiosity

Autonomy builds confidence.
Agency builds responsibility.

If a child never learns to take ownership of learning, they will always be dependent on someone else telling them what to do next.

That’s a terrible preparation for life.

Q5. What is Apni Pathshala and why did you start it?

Ideas are cheap. Reality is expensive.

Apni Pathshala is our real-world laboratory—a community-based digital learning space where:

Children learn using computers

Adults supervise, not “teach”

Learning is self-paced and interest-driven

AI tools are used daily, not theoretically

We didn’t want PowerPoint decks.
We wanted proof on the ground.

Apni Pathshala allows us to test what actually works for Indian children—across ages, backgrounds, and learning levels.

Q6. Why did you build your own computer—the ApnaPC?

Because asking children to learn seriously on a borrowed smartphone is absurd.

Phones are:

Distracting

Unsafe

Designed for consumption, not creation

The ApnaPC is an education-first computer, designed specifically for Indian students. It:

Keeps children safe online

Tracks their learning journey

Encourages deep work, not scrolling

Gives students ownership of a real tool

If we want children to build skills, they need proper tools—not hand-me-down gadgets.

Q7. What is Eklavya and how is it different from other AI tools?

Eklavya is our AI tutor, inspired by the original self-learner.

It is designed to:

Ask better questions, not just give answers

Encourage thinking, not spoon-feeding

Adapt to the student’s level

Support learning in an Indian context

Most AI tools are content machines.
Eklavya is a learning companion.

Our goal isn’t dependency on AI.
It’s independence through AI.

Q8. Why are you running so many different projects? Isn’t that confusing?

Only if you look at them in isolation.

All our projects serve one mission:

Help students become independent learners.

Apni Pathshala → learning environment
ApnaPC → learning tool
Eklavya → learning guide

Different pieces. Same puzzle.

We experiment across multiple models because India is not one market. What works in one context may fail in another. Learning what doesn’t work is just as important.

Q9. How do you plan to make this affordable at scale?

Affordability isn’t an afterthought—it’s the design constraint.

We are exploring:

White-labelled ApnaPCs

Subscription models

Community-shared resources

Corporate partnerships

One powerful idea: encouraging corporates to gift ApnaPCs to blue-collar employees.

Not charity. Not CSR theatre.
But long-term skill building—for employees and their children.

That’s how you break intergenerational cycles.

Q10. Is this just another EdTech startup?

No. And frankly, that’s the point.

We are not chasing:

Vanity metrics

Buzzwords

Short-term exits

We are building public-good infrastructure for learning.

Slowly. Iteratively. Transparently.

If India wants a future-ready generation, we must stop outsourcing thinking and start designing systems that trust children to learn.

Why does this matter now?

Because children don’t get a second chance at childhood.

If we wait for the system to reform itself, we’ll be waiting forever.

So we build.
We test.
We learn.
We improve.

One child. One computer. One AI tutor at a time.

That’s how real change happens.

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