Learning Centres for Educationally Deprived Children

BARTIKA STATUS (Ongoing effort of Mission Bartika in West Bengal, India)

Mission BARTIKA, an initiative of SPADE, has met with considerable success in its endeavor to educate first-generation learners, with your generous help. We had been working with children of excluded communities who had no basic level of reading, writing, numeracy, and most significantly without any encouragement from schools, society, and home. They are all first-generation learners and we are trying to put them into the mainstream.

In 2018, SPADE started its first Supplementary Education Centre with a group of 45 tribal students in Punura, Puncha block of Purulia District to provide a facilitating wholesome environment to learn with compassionate teachers, access to learning materials, and a process where the learners feel interested to know.

Subsequently, two more Bartika Learning Centres have been set up at Maheshpur and Dharkigora villages of Purulia District, with the learners drawn from backward and tribal communities.

All centers are equipped with study rooms, necessary TLMs, whiteboards, libraries, online and offline topic-based supports, and teachers to teach and guide them in practicing the learning methodologies that foster observation, analysis, presentation, thinking beyond, and soon. The learners have free access to computers and internet provided at the center. Power backup inverters are installed at all schools to circumvent frequent disruptions in electricity, which are prevalent.

These learners also undertake sports, and Bratachari – a comprehensive program of physical, mental, and intellectual exercises, based on folk traditions, along with physical exercise, art, dance, drama, music, singing, and social service.

There is one active local Advisory Group, comprising community seniors, to ensure Community Participation and Ownership in the enrolment and retention of the learners, and in the overall management of the center.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

After joining our Learning Centres, these children are progressively attaining good results and most importantly, have “learned how to learn”.

They have now achieved computer literacy with internet surfing skills, and are very active in extracurricular activities – games, drama, quizzes, recitation, singing, drawing, and other things.

We aim to make these children reach college in the future and make a mark in society.

This is the beginning of a long journey for these deprived children as well as for us, and we are committed to continuing our effort till these excluded communities come out of despair and become active participants in the new world.

The awareness towards education has reached substantial levels in the villages where BARTIKA is operational, and the society where BARTIKA schools are situated.

The first batch of students who started their journey with us in 2018, in BARTIKA school in Punura village, who appeared in the school board exam (Madhyamik) in February 2024, have attained good results, half of them being placed in first division. They are now capable citizens aspiring to kiss the modern world. Achieving such success despite the challenges faced by our first-generation learners, all of whom are from the economically and socially deprived section of our society, is truly inspirational. This success highlights the incredible potential that exists within every student, regardless of their background.

Few students have received higher levels of certification in Bratachari dance.

We have also installed MagicBox in schools, a TV-enabled video course-ware from Computer Shiksha, where all courses like WORD, Excel, PowerPoint, Paint, etc are embedded in a TV-like device. For students, it is always easier to remember by watching videos than by reading a book. There are modules where students complete them to appear in tests, that lead to certifications. 

A vocational training center has been established in Purulia with help from all, including corporations, which will cater to a few of our passed-out children.

A well-furnished central library to cater to all school students has been set up to inculcate reading habits among the students and their community members.

EXISTING SCENARIO

The reported data on the status of Education of children in our country continues to be abysmal. (ASER REPORT 2023)

It shows that learning trajectories over these grades are relatively flat or the difference between learning levels is not very much, as far as basic mathematics is concerned. Low levels of foundational numeracy affect the ability of youth to tackle everyday calculations where they need to apply. So, it is with other subjects. About 25% of this age group cannot read Standard 2 level text fluently in their regional language.

The “illiteracy rate” in the 10 - 14 age group among rural S. C. / S. T. households in the sample is more than four times as high as the average for all children aged 10 - 14, 10 years ago.

Purulia, a district in West Bengal that has a large number of marginalized tribal populations, was one of the most severely affected areas in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the lockdown, the education scenario of the tribal children deteriorated drastically.

“The learning level of students of all classes from V to VIII is dismal. They can hardly write their names.” laments a teacher of one local government school.

FURTHER PLANS

The Funds raised through your donations will help us to establish a network of 20 BARTIKA Learning Centres in the deprived rural areas of all districts, with a training and research hub to maintain and upgrade the learning capability of the children and improve the pedagogy of teachers, along with libraries and skill training centers. A corpus of Rs. 50 Lacs is targeted and the targeted amount will help us to meet our plan for 2025 - 2026.

Our long-term plan for empowering these children is to:

• Establish additional BARTIKA schools.
• Upgrade and maintain operations of the existing schools
• Giving all students access to computers and the internet. This feature will help bridge the digital divide and open a world of books to the children.
• Make study rooms for those students who do not have space or atmosphere to study at home.
• Establish skill training centers and provide training to adolescents within the tribal and other deprived communities.
• Install solar energy panels for uninterrupted electricity supply to take care of frequent power cuts in these areas.
• Engage teachers well-trained in pedagogy to implement activity-based teaching and learning materials and processes (TLMPs) to ensure quality education for these children.