Sahayogi Shikshan Abhiyaan

THE CONCEPT

Sahayogi Shikshan Abhiyaan is a community-based initiative by Shantilal Muttha Foundation (SMF) to ensure continuity of educa- tion for primary school children amid COVID Pandemic.

ISSUE OF CONCERN

COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted every aspect of life like never before, especially the impact on children which is a growing con- cern. The pandemic has multifaceted implications on children – psychological, mental, physical, social and cultural. These effects are not limited to health and wellbeing but extend to many dime- nsions of children’s lives, their education, safety and poverty.

LEVERAGING OUR TRACK RECORD

With its programme namely ‘Mulyavardhan’, SMF has managed to make its presence in all the 67,000 Government primary ZP schools in Maharashtra. Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research and Training (MSCERT) approved MV programme and is implementing MV as their initiative since 2015, with technical support from SMF.

Under this programme, MSCERT and SMF together developed 9000 Government resource teachers, who in turn trained 1,95,000 primary teachers on Mulyavardhan concepts and activities. These teachers started conducting these activities in their classrooms with nearly 44 lakh students. To provide on-field support to the teachers, SMF has deployed a taluka coordinator in every taluka.

Leveraging on this track record of working with the community, including parents, teachers and students, at such a large scale for the last five years, Shantilal Muttha Foundation has launched a statewide community-based initiative ‘Sahayogi Shikshan Abhiyaan’, under which parents and the village community(together) are expected to take responsibility for continuing their children’s education by setting up a “Samaj Vidya Kendra” in their village.

GOAL

OBJECTIVE

To ensure continued educational engagement of primary school children, who are affected due to school closure because of covid, through parents and community participation.

1) To develop a community-level learning environment for constructive engagement
of children.
2) To increase the involvement of the community in the education of primary school children.
3) To ensure the social - emotional well-being of children

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

As a first step, SMF will conduct a campaign at the village level with the help of Sarpanch and SMF taluka coordinator and share the information about the programme.
Following the campaign, Sarpanch will conduct village-level consultations and meetings for setting up Samaj Vidya Kendra in their village.
They will set up a village taskforce for management of Samaj Vidya Kendra and identify 2-3 volunteers (Shikshan Sarathi), with a minimum of 10th class passed, to conduct learning activities with children.
The village task force will identify the place for conducting learning activities and define the operational details of Samaj Vidya Kendra such as working hours, a number of students, rules & regulations, maintaining social distancing norms etc.

5. SMF will train Shikshan Sarathi on content & pedagogy and how to use all teaching-learning materials (preferably in digital form) provided to them.

6. Shikshan Sarthis are expected to conduct learning activities with children with the help of available digital infrastructure like smartphone, TV, computer/ laptop etc.

7. SMF Master trainers along with Taluka Coordinators will train Shikshan Sarthis using technology (i.e. online methods).

8. SMF team and taluka coordinators will coordinate with Sarpanch and Shikshan Sarathis and provide the appropriate technical support, either in person or online as possible for smooth implementation of the programme.

CAPACITY BUILDING FOR SHIKSHAN SARATHI

SMF will appoint Taluka Coordinators at the Block Level and Master Trainers at the SMF Head Office Level for conducting capacity building programmes for Shikshan Sarathis.
Taluka Coordinators will be trained on various aspects of the initiative by MTs. TCs, with support from MTs, will then train Shikshan Sarathis and work in close coordination with them on the ground and provide necessary support and guidance.

CONTENT BEING DELIVERED

Based on the experience of developing content for the Mulyav- ardhan programme, SMF has developed simple, user-friendly teaching learning materials that can be used with children by persons with minimum training. The content for this project will include the following:

Audio songs, stories and conversations
Some selected Mulyavardhan activities
Few simple activities to promote listening and speaking
Guidance booklets

FUNCTIONALITY OF THE SAMAJ VIDYA KENDRA

EXPECTED PROGRAMME OUTCOMES

1. Improved foundational Marathi language skills in alignment with curriculum specifically listening and speaking

2. Strengthened social-emotional skills among the children specifically abilities of self-expression
a. Improved abilities of self-management, staying calm and avoiding impulsive behaviour

b. Improved skills of critical thinking

c. Raised abilities to show responsible behaviour in practising self and social hygiene

3. Increased community participation in their children’s education, before and after the opening of schools.

EXPECTED PROGRAMME BENEFITS

This community-based initiative will have the following benefits:
1. Developing a conducive learning environment for primary school children at the village level.

2. Meaningful engagement of children through joyful, interesting, child-centred activities, aligned to the curriculum. It will help to bridge educational gaps sustained during school closure. Also, this will help children to cope up with the trauma they faced due to lockdown.

3. Children will acquire better socialisation skills and other soft skills as they get an opportunity to interact with each other by following social distancing norms.

4. Parents and community members are expected to gain knowledge and interest in education-related matters, which will help them contribute to children’s education after the reopening of schools.

TESTIMONIALS

TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION

SMF has gained rich experience in the effective use of technology in programme implementation for over the years now. With its in-house professionally qualified technology team, SMF developed a Mulyavardhan (MV) mobile application and used the same to collect real-time monitoring data. SMF leverages the existing technology platforms, namely Tableau and Salesforce, for data management and analysis.

Nearly 1.50 lakh teachers provided their feedback on the capacity-building programmes conducted, MV materials and student responses using Mulyavardhan App.

Additionally, MV learning materials, capacity-building materials and other audio-visual teaching-learning materials have been made available to all the teachers and headteachers through MV App.

Based on MV’s learnings, SMF has developed a technology platform that will provide timely support to Shikshan Sarathis to enhance the effectiveness of technology application in the implementation of Sahayogi Shikshan Abhiyaan. It aims to improve the programme’s effectiveness through periodic, online capacity-building programmes, interactive sessions and easy availability of various teaching- learning materials.

Through these technological interventions, SMF anticipates the smooth implementation of the programme. SMF may also do technology upgradation as per the project requirements.