Pragathi - Sponsor a child

According to a UNESCO report, India has the largest number of adolescent 'out of school' children. As per Annual Status of Education Report, only 42% of rural 5th standard children can read a 2nd standard textbook in their mother tongue.

Mainstream education system assumes that “All children are like machines who can learn a predetermined textual content in a predetermined time interval and in a predetermined way”.

But due to the lack of a learning environment in school and home, and because of a turbulent childhood, many mentally sound children are deprived of an opportunity to study in regular schools.

Rural underprivileged children, child labourers and school dropouts, dyslexic children, children who are unable to adjust to regular schools etc., form this group of opportunity deprived children.

Opportunity-deprived children are accompanied with an academic lag or inability to adjust to the strict regimen of a regular school and hence a child-centric alternative school is the need of the hour.

There should be:

• Admissions round the year, as a dropped-out child might regain interest at any point in time

• Abolition of grades- Flexible child teams based on knowledge, age and emotional acceptability of the child

• Congenial environment with due importance given to emotions. A happy mind will learn faster.

• Individualistic curriculum, taking into consideration the academic lag and ability to learn

• Evaluation: Regular informal tests rather than annual exams, as initially, memory-testing long duration exams will only instill fear

• 10th Standard: After individualistic training and when the child displays an ability to understand the syllabus, the child attempts 10th standard public examination.

Kaliyuva Mane was started in June 2005, with 14 children, out of which 4 were resident children.

• Since 2010, 49 children have appeared for 10th Standard examination in English medium, while 47 have cleared.

• 16 children have passed the coveted 10th standard examination scoring more than 60% marks.

• Out of 6 dyslexic children appeared, 3 have cleared the 10th standard. The rest could clear all the subjects except one.

• Every year, approximately 100 children complete their education in Kaliyuva Mane.