Alohomora Education Foundation

A vast majority of students from low-income communities are not achieving their potential even after completing 12 years of schooling. Current solutions, including vocational training, aren't solving this issue as it doesn’t take into account the aspirations of our youth. 30% of the Indian youth between 15-29-year-olds are not in Education, Employment and Training.

Our work in government schools in Delhi & Gurgaon also validates this trend. Students don’t know their strengths and interests, resulting in poor choices after school. Moreover, with a lack of social capital and personal networks, they are unable to access the multitudes of opportunities available in the 21st century. A small percentage of students get the marks required to get admission into good colleges - the rest get into the negative spiral of demotivation and frustration.

Imagine a student good at sports entering the fitness industry instead of measuring his/her worth based on board exams results, or an analytical student taking up software development course rather than landing a call centre job that comes their way. This is the reason for our existence - empowering all students to pursue careers, aligned to their interests and aptitude.

Based on the USAID’s PYD (Positive Youth Development) framework, our holistic youth development program has been created in collaboration with subject matter experts from different industries like fitness, applied arts, software development etc. Our curriculum is hosted on an app (EkStep platform). Leveraging technology, we can ensure consistent program execution across classrooms.

Through the program, students gain confidence, an understanding of their strengths and interests, build exposure and foundational skills towards their career interests, and eventually, connect to relevant opportunities.

We also run an innovative fellowship for youth from government schools to develop their leadership and execute the program with our students, deepening the impact in the communities we serve!

Over the last two years, we have grown from being a two-member team to a 13 member team, actively building the leadership of 18 community youth as facilitators impacting 1530 students in 2018-19. Our presence is currently spread across 13 govt schools in Delhi and Gurgaon. We are expanding to 20 schools in Delhi/Gurgaon this year working with 2500 students and 36 community youth as facilitators.

In 11th Grade, 337 students across 21 batches organised and led Teacher-Student Samvaad in their schools leading to 41% students of those classrooms growing in confidence and building communication and interpersonal skills. At the midline - 9 out of 10 students reported an increase in self-belief.

43% of students scored above 60% in the digital literacy midline test- an incredible shift from our baseline of 7%. Our students are able to find relevant information for their careers independently. 287 students across 13 batches led ‘Information Melas’ in their schools leading to illustrate productive use of the internet.

35% of students are actively taking charge to pursue interest-aligned learning by completing career interest projects. The learning cycle they are a part of enabling them to not only hone their skills but also build an understanding of their strengths and areas of development.

Amidst all the data points, we witness numerous instances of overcoming personal barriers, acting independently, making opinions based on facts and having the self-belief to turn their aspirations into reality.