academics
Parents Want Children to Learn With Joy—This Teacher Built a Robot to Make It Possible
Published: 13/09/25
Updated: 13/09/25
Whenever a parent sends their child to school, all they want is they should love learning. But for many rural schools in India, classrooms are still filled with old charts and dusty textbooks. They still don’t have the joyful and modern teaching children deserve. That’s where a physics teacher decided to make a difference. Meet Akshay Mashelkar, a physics teacher from Sirsi in Karnataka. He wanted to make a classroom where children enjoy their schooling.
A Teacher Who Dreamed Big
Akshay’s mom was a teacher in rural schools. He grew up seeing how students seemed bored with the traditional methods. Even classrooms had those typical printed charts and wooden blocks.
When the pandemic slowed down regular teaching, Akshay saw his opportunity. He started working on a robot that could talk to children and teach lessons. Sixteen months later, Shiksha was born. No, it’s his daughter. Shiksha is a humanoid robot built with love, creativity and a tight budget.
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Meet Shiksha - the Jugaad Robot
Shiksha looks like a schoolkid with plastic arms made from cricket stumps and pleated hair. She teaches nursery rhymes, alphabets, shapes and almost all the nursery curriculum in both Kannada and English. She even interacts with students as if she were one of them.
Shiksha was built with a budget of ₹2 lakh. This amount was mostly funded from Akshay’s savings. Shiksha is a true example of jugaad innovation. Cost-saving design choices made her affordable, and he plans to reduce the cost further to under ₹35,000 with support.
How Shiksha Brings Joy To Learning
When Shiksha walks into a classroom, she makes the environment energetic. Young children wait for her with excitement. They stop everything they are doing just to hear what Shiksha has t=for them today. Teachers say children treat her more like a friend than a machine. This has helped children lead to better learning.
Instead of sitting silently through lessons, children now answer back and ask questions.
Parent's Hopes Meet Innovation
Parents in Sirsi have seen their children light up like never before. For many, technology feels out of reach in rural schools. So when a robot like Shiksha comes to class, they see hope.
Moreover, teaching both Kannada and English has helped build a stronger foundation. Children have started talking about robots, something they didn’t even know about before.
One parent said, “My child couldn’t stop talking about Shiksha at dinner!”
What’s Next for Shiksha?
Akshay has plans to scale this initiative. He wants to make Shiksha more affordable and has a target cost of ₹35,000. He is also seeking funding support from NGO’s and Government.
He wants to expand it to more villages and districts. He is encouraging children to design their own versions of Shiksha.
Shiksha is an example of how making the classroom interactive can make a big difference in the overall learning environment.
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