Akshara's Khelghar program provides children in rural Maharashtra with access to high-quality primary education in a contextual, creative & interactive manner. By bolstering a weak village schooling system, Khelgar gives young learners an educational grounding that overcomes socio-economic disadvantage and minimizes the urban-rural attainment gap. Akshara is the local social-impact initiative of UWC Mahindra College, providing community interventions to a community of 2500+ in the Mulshi valley.
Rural primary schools in Mulshi are mere replicas of urban schools, with no consideration to the rural context. Though the number of rural students attending schools is rising, there are huge gaps in learning outcomes and the weak municipal schooling system is not meeting their needs. Many of the children going to schools are first-generation learners and have no one to help them in studies at home. They are at the risk of dropping out of schools eventually, not achieving their full potential.
Khelghar program of Akshara aims to supplement the current schooling system by bridging the gaps in primary schools in Mulshi. The program focuses on contextual learning where concepts are explained using fun activities in rural context. In this interactive and fun learning environment, students discover meaningful relationships between abstract ideas and practical applications in the context of the real world; wherein concepts are internalized through the process of discovering and relating.
Akshara's decade-long experience in these communities supports research that shows returns on primary school education are higher than returns on secondary/ higher education. Children benefiting from early-year Khelgar interventions are highly primed to achieve positive educational outcomes in Akshara's middle (Setu) and secondary (Janeev) school programmes. With your support, Khelghar program will enable primary students to make the most of their potential in their rapidly urbanizing contexts.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
