Continuation of Education and Holistic Development of School Children

“These last two years, children from my village and wadi did not have access to school books. As a result, even if we were interested, we could not study and suffered greatly. Therefore, we would really like your help in our education,” said Hemangi and Vipul from Pendhergol.

“I was in 5th standard when the lockdown was announced. It has been two years since and our school has not started. I want to continue studying and my parents are willing to support me. But I do not have access to study material and books. I believe, if we received a course or study material, it will help me greatly, said Yadnya More from Alyani.

Additionally, a pilot study by Population First, conducted to understand the issues of the students during the pandemic, identified that despite having mobiles, 78% of 572 students surveyed did not attend the online classes because 45% of those students did not have timely access to mobiles, 19% faced network issues, and 12% children found it difficult to grasp concepts during online classes.

Therefore, PF aims to provide access to education and holistic development to students under the context of COVID-19 pandemic in remote villages.

Objectives:

1. To provide class appropriate education for children from classes of 1st to 7th irrespective of existing facilities and amenities and lack thereof
2. To provide employment opportunity to youth returning to their villages as a result of reverse migration
3. To mobilize the parents, teachers and the community to involve in their children’s education and development.

Strategies:

A)     Workbooks/Adhyay books will be developed for the classes 1st to 7th that will assist the students to easily understand concepts and undertake self-study

B)     Mobilization and Training of Youth who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic to become paid teachers for these children. They will be trained by the Zilla Parishad school teachers.

C)     Mobilization of parents on continuation of children’s education, mobilization of community members like Gram Panchayat and School Management Committee (SMC) members on provision of infrastructure and space for the classes, monitoring of the classes, and maintenance of COVID-19 protocols. Similarly, Zilla Parishad teachers will aid in developing workbooks for the children.

D)  Holistic Education with focus on WaSH, health, hygiene will be extremely necessary post pandemic. Therefore, the students will be trained in these topics in addition to COVID-19 precaution and response.

The risk of increase in dropout rates among students from remote and tribal villages is higher due to the lack of amenities such as electricity, internet and consequently online education.

Therefore, this project aims to empower students by providing access to education:

a)      in the form of self-study workbooks

b)     ‘bridge’ classes conducted by educated and employable youth

c)      These classes will act as a bridge between the school and the students in:

• villages where schools have not opened up yet
• villages where schools have opened up but are irregular due to the ongoing pandemic like situation

d)     These classes will act as a complementary facility for students to continue with their studies

e)     In addition, to normal school curriculum, the students will also gain knowledge about Health, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene practices, all of which are extremely crucial to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

This project also provides an employment opportunity for employable youth who have lost their source of income during the pandemic. A total of twenty-five villages, 1,250 school students, 25 youth trained as teachers, at least 2,500 parents and 500 other stakeholders will be actively be part of this project