Drawing on more than a decade of working with schools across India, Abdul shares powerful stories of resilience, creativity, and fearless experimentation. He discusses how Indian educators are shifting from traditional, exam-led models toward skills, employability, and learner-centered approaches — often with limited resources but unlimited imagination.
This episode is a reminder that educational transformation doesn’t begin with technology. It begins with mindset, courage, community, and the belief that teachers and students can shape their own future.
Key Themes in This Episode
India’s shift from exam-heavy systems to skills-focused learning
Resourceful and creative EdTech use in low-connectivity contexts
Multi-curriculum schools offering CBSE, IGCSE, and IB under one roof
Teacher empowerment, professional development, and culture change
How students build confidence, resilience, and initiative
Rural digital literacy led by children themselves
Mindset-first innovation: solving challenges without waiting for perfect conditions
Global employability and India’s growing international education ambition
Why Listen to This Episode?
This conversation is essential for educators looking to rethink assumptions about access, innovation, and barriers. Abdul reveals how Indian schools — from elite urban academies to rural villages with no Wi-Fi — are innovating through creativity, culture, and fearless problem-solving, not expensive technology.
Listeners will gain inspiration on:
What global education systems can learn from India’s approach to possibility and experimentation
How to build learning cultures where students are confident, curious, and unafraid to try
How teacher empowerment fuels sustainable innovation
How resilience and creativity can overcome infrastructure limitations
Who This Episode Is For?
Ideal for:
School leaders and policymakers
EdTech founders and digital-learning teams
Teachers seeking new pedagogical inspiration
International education advisors
Anyone interested in global innovation, teacher culture, and equitable access to learning
Full Episode Description
When Abdul first visited India in 2012, he encountered a country rooted in traditional exam-focused education yet filled with teachers hungry to grow, learn, and collaborate. Schools ranged from overcrowded classrooms with minimal resources to elite institutions offering world-class facilities. But across this spectrum, one thing was unmistakable: passion and curiosity.
Over years of returning to India, Abdul watched a transformation unfold. Schools began emerging where students could choose between CBSE, IGCSE, and IB — sometimes all taught by the same teachers, who switched curricula with remarkable agility. Students were encouraged to pursue global skills, join aviation or engineering programmes, and explore personalised pathways toward employability.
A striking shift, he notes, is the rising student confidence without arrogance — learners in grades 4–10 presenting to ministers and boards, asking fearless questions, and owning their learning journeys. In many classrooms, the fear of “getting it wrong” simply doesn’t exist. Instead, resilience and exploration are embedded into the culture.
Rural Innovation with No Wi-Fi
One of Abdul’s most powerful stories comes from a remote village deep in a rainforest, where students were given devices despite having no internet access at all. Instead of seeing this as a barrier, children used every available offline feature — cameras, screen readers, accessibility tools, animation apps — and even taught their parents digital literacy. Those parents were later employed in local data centres, despite living in mud huts.
This is the essence of India’s educational innovation:
Not waiting for ideal conditions, but creating opportunity from what exists right now.
A Culture of Possibility
Whether in urban schools partnering with global industries or rural families unlocking new employment possibilities, India’s classrooms reveal a mindset that challenges global assumptions about what innovation requires. Creativity, courage, and community — not connectivity — are the driving forces.
Philippa and Abdul close the conversation by recognising India’s fast-growing influence in global education, predicting that the country’s blend of resourcefulness, ambition, and learner-focused practices will position it as a major force in EdTech and educational transformation.
Philippa Wraithmell is an education and digital-learning strategist based in the UAE. As the founder of EdRuption and Digital Bridge, she leads work on digital wellbeing, innovation, and evidence-informed practice. As host of The EdTech Podcast, Philippa explores how technology can elevate teaching, learning, and equitable education across the globe.
Abdul Chohan is VP of Learning at Showbie, a global education advisor, former chemistry teacher, academy principal, trust CEO, and founder of a free school in the UK. He has worked with governments and schools worldwide, supporting digital transformation, learning culture, and teacher development.
#291
Fearless Innovation: Lessons from India’s Classrooms with Abdul Chohan
Subscribe on : iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music
Episode Overview
In this episode of The EdTech Podcast, host Philippa Wraithmell speaks with Abdul Chohan — VP of Learning at Showbie, former chemistry teacher, school principal, CEO, and international education advisor.
Drawing on more than a decade of working with schools across India, Abdul shares powerful stories of resilience, creativity, and fearless experimentation. He discusses how Indian educators are shifting from traditional, exam-led models toward skills, employability, and learner-centered approaches — often with limited resources but unlimited imagination.
This episode is a reminder that educational transformation doesn’t begin with technology. It begins with mindset, courage, community, and the belief that teachers and students can shape their own future.
Key Themes in This Episode
Why Listen to This Episode?
This conversation is essential for educators looking to rethink assumptions about access, innovation, and barriers. Abdul reveals how Indian schools — from elite urban academies to rural villages with no Wi-Fi — are innovating through creativity, culture, and fearless problem-solving, not expensive technology.
Listeners will gain inspiration on:
Who This Episode Is For?
Ideal for:
Full Episode Description
When Abdul first visited India in 2012, he encountered a country rooted in traditional exam-focused education yet filled with teachers hungry to grow, learn, and collaborate. Schools ranged from overcrowded classrooms with minimal resources to elite institutions offering world-class facilities. But across this spectrum, one thing was unmistakable: passion and curiosity.
Over years of returning to India, Abdul watched a transformation unfold. Schools began emerging where students could choose between CBSE, IGCSE, and IB — sometimes all taught by the same teachers, who switched curricula with remarkable agility. Students were encouraged to pursue global skills, join aviation or engineering programmes, and explore personalised pathways toward employability.
A striking shift, he notes, is the rising student confidence without arrogance — learners in grades 4–10 presenting to ministers and boards, asking fearless questions, and owning their learning journeys. In many classrooms, the fear of “getting it wrong” simply doesn’t exist. Instead, resilience and exploration are embedded into the culture.
Rural Innovation with No Wi-Fi
One of Abdul’s most powerful stories comes from a remote village deep in a rainforest, where students were given devices despite having no internet access at all. Instead of seeing this as a barrier, children used every available offline feature — cameras, screen readers, accessibility tools, animation apps — and even taught their parents digital literacy. Those parents were later employed in local data centres, despite living in mud huts.
This is the essence of India’s educational innovation:
Not waiting for ideal conditions, but creating opportunity from what exists right now.
A Culture of Possibility
Whether in urban schools partnering with global industries or rural families unlocking new employment possibilities, India’s classrooms reveal a mindset that challenges global assumptions about what innovation requires. Creativity, courage, and community — not connectivity — are the driving forces.
Philippa and Abdul close the conversation by recognising India’s fast-growing influence in global education, predicting that the country’s blend of resourcefulness, ambition, and learner-focused practices will position it as a major force in EdTech and educational transformation.
Podcast Host By :
Special thanks to Guests :
Subscribe on : iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music
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