In Specific Under-served Geographies of Madhya Pradesh (Bijadandi Block in Mandla district Shahpur Block in Betul district) supported by H T Parekh Foundation
Eklavya is committed to work towards reaching education to all, especially to the last mile child. This vision has been our guiding light to resolve to work with children studying in government schools - both inside and outside the school structure. Children who study in government schools come from some of the most socio-economically marginalised and underserved families - children from the wage-labourer, landless agricultural labourer, dalit and adivasi families in remote rural areas. It is this population of children, and the teachers who teach them, that Eklavya strives to benefit through its field level interventions in education. Tribal children, especially girls, are specifically at the lowest rung of deprivation and need special attention.

Why working in Beejadandi and Shahpur?
1.    Difficult terrain: The public transport system is absent for most of the villages. This area has been deprived of availability and access to resources, service and facilities.
2.    No alternative option but government schools: As far as education is concerned, Beejadandi and Shahpur have a network of government schools among its villages. As the majority of children are enrolled in government schools, and owing to pandemic related financial stress, many more are returning to the fold of government schools.
3.    Lack of possibilities in employment: Both the blocks consist of low income tribal families that are primarily agricultural labourers and some are construction labourers.The financial constraints on the families do not allow them to invest much in the academics of their children.
4.    Childhood loss In the background of COVID 19
Due to increased financial burden on families, many young children had to support their parents on the farms, shops or brick kilns. This kind of social stress can be mitigated in the long run, only by investing in the education of the future generations.

The project Enabling learning in School and beyond (HT Parekh) aims to work at all levels from village to block on the following elements and disseminate our learnings to others in this sector. The project is in its first phase till April 22.

●    Mohalla Learning Activity Centres (MLACs): an accessible and comfortable learning space in the immediate vicinity of a primary/middle school for the child to continue engagement with meaningful and joyful learning experience
●    Technology Mediated Interactive Learning (TeMIL): The digital web platform (www.teysu.in) reaches children in their homes through smart phones. The platform has curated content on different subject domains mainly targeting middle school children (classes 5 to 8). The content and pedagogy in the three subjects – Hindi, English and Mathematics – is based on well researched methods and anchored by an experienced team of fraternal individuals. This helps students develop 21st century skills & tools, including an exposure to programing logic.
●    Engagement with government teachers and schools: Interface with the Mainstream Education system, engagement with the cluster, block and district level education structures.
●    Pre-School Engagement / Anganwadi / ECCE: Now that NEP2020 has included pre-primary education in the ambit of formal school system, this is an arena that needs to be engaged pro-actively
●    Bal Samoohas - Centres for Adolescents and Youth to Promote Creativity and Criticality: While structured learning within and outside the school is important, it is as important to provide avenues and channelize enormous energy that youth/young-adults hold. In this context Eklavya had evolved a model in the nineties in multiple geographies wherein middle and high school students became resource persons to anchor various perspective building and educational activities in respective villages.
●    Collation and creation of contextual teaching learning material using the local languages of both the region

➔    It is expected that these efforts will reach out to

●    1500-2000 primary school students through MLACs for foundational literacy, numeracy and EVS
●    300 upper primary & middle school students through phone based TeMIL for language, maths and science learning
●    100 middle school students through RPi access – for language, maths and science learning
●    It is expected that we will reach about 2500-3000 students/children through this effort directly.
●    In addition, there will be the following indirect beneficiaries:
➔    25 elementary school teachers in each geography, i.e. a total of 50 school teachers
➔    1500-2000 community members (parents, youth) across both geographies