Only One Childhood; With 18 Months of Disrupted School Due to Covid, Indian Children Stand To Lose Their Future.

‘Studying at home has been really challenging as there are too many distractions and very little support. I really wanted to study well this year and get a better percentage. I dream of pursuing science in the future and I wish to reach a place in life where my parents are proud of me. I dearly miss school and I worry about my exams a lot.’ -Priya Soni, Grade 10, GHS Dhaushire, Ponda.

113 million children in India study in government schools. These children come from some of the most vulnerable communities in India wherein their parents serve as migrant workers, farmers and daily wage earners. For the past 18 months, while affluent communities have managed to transition to online learning, children from lower-income communities in India have had compromised or no formal learning. Further,  have had parents lose livelihoods and some have even lost parents and caregivers. With continued disruptions, schools may not reopen in a sustainable manner any soon. If we don’t intervene now, they stand to lose their future and will have no way to recover from these losses. Quality education is their only hope for survival.

There’s an invisible and long term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Bank predicts that India seeks to lose $420 billion in future earnings due to reduced learning levels as a result of school closures this past year. This crisis needs to be addressed at scale and fast- this is a large systemic issue that requires a systemic solution.

With your contribution to this fundraiser, we plan to take the following steps: 

•  Immediate: Enable students to become safety champions in their families and communities to ensure that Covid safety protocols are followed strictly. Enable younger children to have a sense of routine and catch up on their literacy and reading through ‘read alouds’ and storytelling. 
• In the near future: We are planning with the states regarding their strategy and capacity building that includes enabling leadership in the states of Goa, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh to adopt the "school readiness-to-re-open plan" so that they can continue engaging with learners through the pandemic and any other future disruptions. We are also working to provide support to high schools students for career awareness and readiness as they navigate the ever-changing job market.
• In the long term: We are focusing on setting mechanisms to track student abilities in reading and math as well as measuring and enhancing the career readiness of secondary students so the transitions from school to professional spaces is smooth. We are working with State governments to develop their school complexes as the site for quality assurance.

Immediate: 

• Children will have a sense of agency over their own health and wellbeing when it comes to Covid safety.
• Younger children will have a sense of community, joy and learning that they missed out on and this will support their learning and overall wellbeing.

In the near future: 

• Schools begin functioning at the earliest, either in person or through meaningful remote learning and Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura’s strategy to continue education for their students becomes resilient to future waves of the pandemic or other disruptions.
• High school students have a clear career action plan.

In the long term: 

• We are able to support the states we work with ensuring that student learning is tracked and improved and the quality of education is improved and maintained in a sustainable way.

A glimpse of our work so far:

In 2 years working with Goa, we were able to support them to improve the quality of 70% of the 824 schools prior to school closures. Hear from our stakeholders directly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOu6RyJhtiY  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BllQTzsszPY