Teachers, school leaders, and administrators with the NagaEd team during LEAP’s final phase in Kiphire. (Photo Courtesy: NagaEd)
Kiphire, April 9 (MExN): In a remote school on the eastern edge of Nagaland, a teacher has begun using an artificial intelligence assistant on WhatsApp to help her students revise Science concepts after school hours. Nobody asked her to. She chose to.
That quiet, voluntary act of initiative encapsulates what the Learning Enhancement and Accessibility Project (LEAP), a three-year digital education initiative in Kiphire district, set out to achieve when it launched in June 2023.
On April 9, NagaEd and the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Kiphire, convened an annual orientation training and certification ceremony marking one of the final milestones of LEAP before the project concludes in June 2026.
Kiphire sits in the easternmost reaches of Nagaland, bordering Myanmar, and is among NITI Aayog's Aspirational Districts — regions that have historically faced concentrated development challenges.
Its schools have long contended with unreliable internet connectivity, limited teaching resources, difficult terrain that isolates communities, and a persistent gap between what the curriculum requires and what classrooms are equipped to deliver.
What LEAP Did
Backed by NITI Aayog's Aspirational Districts Programme and implemented in partnership with the Kiphire District Administration, NagaEd, and Central Square Foundation, LEAP brought curriculum-aligned digital learning in Mathematics and Science to 15 schools, government and private, across Classes 9 and 10.
All 15 participating schools were provided 5G routers and internet connectivity. An interactive learning management system carrying Maths and Science content, developed specifically for the Nagaland Board of School Education (NBSE) syllabus and aligned with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, was deployed across institutions.
More than 35 educators received structured training and sustained support including refresher sessions, blended learning demonstrations, one-on-one troubleshooting, and direct access to subject matter experts through a dedicated WhatsApp channel.
To address connectivity disruptions, offline graded-test booklets were introduced to keep students on track. A gamified leaderboard was deployed to sustain student engagement. LEAP also introduced a “Prerequisites” approach — short digital lessons designed to strengthen students' foundational knowledge before new syllabus topics were introduced, allowing teachers to focus on deeper instruction rather than revisiting basics.
The Numbers
Over three years, LEAP reached over 1,200 students and more than 35 educators across 15 schools. Platform engagement grew by 155% within a single academic session, from 7,370 minutes in April 2025 to 18,836 minutes by February 2026, driven primarily by teacher-led usage.
Survey data indicated that 72 to 75% of educators expressed willingness to adopt digital learning independently, while 40% reported measurable improvements in student understanding. Early indicators also showed improvements in quiz performance and student confidence following the introduction of the Prerequisites approach.
What It Leaves Behind
As LEAP concludes, NagaEd is ensuring Kiphire's schools are not left without resources. Offline learning materials, pen drives loaded with graded tests, additional online content, and LIVI AI, a WhatsApp-based AI teaching assistant, are being handed over to educators so that learning can continue independently, without reliance on external project support.
“LEAP was never about placing technology in a school and calling it transformation. It was about sitting with the teachers and students of Kiphire, understanding their aspirations, and building something that genuinely served them,” said Kevisato Sanyu, Founder, NagaEd.
Voices from the Ground
Temsuwati Longkumer, NCS, Deputy Commissioner, Kiphire, said the continued collaboration between implementing partners and the district administration had been key to sustaining momentum over the project's three years.
Takatemjen Pongen, NCS, EAC, Kiphire, described Year 3 as reflecting “a maturing of systems on the ground,” adding that LEAP demonstrated how effective coordination between schools, administrators, and implementation teams could lead to meaningful improvements in the education ecosystem.
Teachers who participated in the project spoke of tangible change in their classrooms.
“The learning pace of my students changed a lot with the help of the online content,” said Asela Rothrong, Proprietor and ITeS Teacher at Saramati View Modern School, Kiphire.
Gracy Sangma, Science Teacher at Loyola Higher Secondary School, Kiphire, said the availability of curriculum-aligned digital content and assessment tools had greatly enhanced student learning outcomes and made her teaching more effective.
Wapangrenla Imchen, Graduate Teacher at Government Higher Secondary School, Kiphire, said the school planned to continue using LEAP's resources in alignment with NEP 2020, describing the digital platform as “resourceful for both teachers and students.”
Looking Ahead
With schools now transitioning from supported implementation to independent use, equipped with digital infrastructure, trained educators, offline resources, and AI-assisted tools, LEAP's model has moved beyond deployment to sustained adoption.
As NagaEd's Sanyu put it: “When a teacher in a remote village becomes a champion of digital learning, not because she was told to, but because she chose to, that is the kind of transformation we set out to achieve.”
LEAP is not so much ending as it is handing over.
The Learning Enhancement and Accessibility Project (LEAP) is a three-year initiative running from June 2023 to June 2026, supported by NITI Aayog's Aspirational Districts Programme and implemented in partnership with the Kiphire District Administration, NagaEd, and Central Square Foundation. It covers 15 schools in Kiphire, impacting over 1,200 students and more than 35 teachers across Classes 9 and 10 in Mathematics and Science.
