LEARNING ENHANCEMENT PROGRAMME SUPPORTED BY INDIGO CSR INDIGO REACH

To improve the school ecosystem from Grade 3-10 in Bhopal and Betul districts of Madhya Pradesh

There have been several instances in the life of a teacher when he/she begins to teach a particular lesson later comes to know that the child wasn’t able to grasp the basic concepts of the previous grades. It is specifically seen in the areas of Language and Math where children happen to be in a situation of not being able to identify the alphabets or be able to do basic numeracy. The teachers are then caught in a fix, to continue with other children or to fall back and take the children who are unable to grasp the basics. More often than not the teachers take the first step, leaving the rest who continue to struggle even after reaching high school/higher secondary. Thus, this became an agenda for Eklavya to take up the initiative of working on the academic improvement of children and the entire school ecosystem as a whole, in a multi-prolonged manner. Moreover, it also made us realize that emphasis needs to be give for adolescent children in their co-scholastic areas as well.   

The project Shiksha Ki Udaan works with the whole school ecosystem and particularly with Grade 3-8 children who struggle with reading, writing and numeracy. The project has taken in more than 15 government schools of Shahpur block (Betul district) and more than 30 government schools of Berasia block (Bhopal district).  Even while being at the periphery of Bhopal, schools in Berasia region are as underserved as others that would be hundreds of kilometres away.  While in the Shahpur block, the schools are located in remote villages where most of the children come from the Adivasi families are devoid of economic and educational facilities. As Eklavya’s motto is to be able to reach out to the marginalized communities also, this project takes into consideration of these factors.
Under this project, we carry out:

• Improvement in reading-writing, and numeracy skills for about 6000 children
• Helping the students to understand and enhance performance in other subjects (Language, Math, Science, and Social Science)
• Improving attendance of students who are at the risk of dropout whose attendance is below 50 %
• Improving classroom atmosphere, teacher-student relationship, and teaching-learning practices in the targeted schools (working with teachers)
• Building social awareness, environment sensitivity, and providing guidance to further education/career choices for class 9 and 10 students
• To be able to build a collaborative and constructive community engagement with parent-teacher relation.

The Project inculcates the following features:
Learning Activity Centres (L.A.C.): which is set in the school premises or any other community place and takes in 35-40 children of Ankur level (slow learner or weak in class) considering the location accessibility. The L.A.C. would be run before the school time by the L.A.C. facilitators along with the support of Academic Field Support Persons (A.F.S.P.s) who would look into the academic as well as creating a link between all the stakeholders.
Immersion Summer Camps: Summer camps are held during the summer holidays to give children foundational skills.
Bal Sabha and Bal Panchayat are platforms for the children to share their learning, skills, and talents
Engaging with community through the active involvement of parents and other community members (Sarpanch, retired teachers, teachers posted in other places and  residing in village etc) in the various activities of  children at school and strengthening the School Management Committees (SMCs) by conducting their meetings at regular intervals with active participation of its members.