Cityzens Giving For Recovery - Mumbai

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on children's education worldwide, leading to a learning loss for over 1.5 billion students. One of the main impacts has been the shift to remote learning, but many children from low-income families and marginalized communities have limited access to technology and the internet, making it difficult for them to participate in online classes. To bridge this gap, the OSCAR Foundation distributed 80 tablets to children, promoting digital literacy and helping children become future-ready. Personalized Adaptive Learning (PAL) software was used to monitor usage and improve learning levels.

Mohan (12) is an OSCAR beneficiary from Umlanayak Tanda in Karnataka’s Yadgir district. He joined OSCAR’s football and life skills programme in 2020 and has participated regularly since. He recently joined our e-learning tablet project which aimed to bridge the learning gap caused due to the pandemic. Mohan studies in the 5th grade, his mother is a farmer and his father works as a daily wager.

Mohan has a keen interest in English/Math and is physically active. He believes in finding a good balance between his studies and sport. Mohan’s coaches mentioned that he is a quick learner and developed his passing, dribbling and tackling skills with time. Mohan also attended life skills sessions on communication and interpersonal skills because of which he developed confidence and socialised with his peers.

Belonging to a small village, the pandemic had a profound impact on his education. Due to issues with access to the internet and smartphones, Mohan missed out on his education during a crucial stage in his academic journey. When we enrolled Mohan for the e-learning tablet project, his parents were very happy as they wanted their son to learn and catch up on his education. Mohan is very dedicated and uses the application for 4 hours in a week as per his learning schedule. He studies English and Mathematics which are key subjects in his school. Through his time using our tablet, he has made mistakes and learnt, developed a strong foundation of the subjects and has also increased his learning level much to the delight of our coaches and his parents. Mohan hopes to continue developing his learning levels and looks forward to playing football with OSCAR.

“Age is an issue of mind over matter, if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” -Mark Twain

The following story amply illustrates the aforementioned proverb. The protagonist of this story is Pramila, 45. She has completed her SSC exam for the 10th grade with the Maharashtra Board. She has many goals in her life, despite the impression that she is timid. Despite being a member of a large family, she is solely in charge of all household tasks due to which she was unable to pursue her dream of working. Hence, she made the decision of staying at home to look after the needs of her family.

Three months ago, she started coming to OSCAR computer class to drop off her daughter. She would wait around for her daughter to finish her class. She was invited to join the computer class one day by the computer instructor because she eagerly watched and observed every computer session that was held. When she learned about the opportunity and the confidence that someone had in her, she was inspired to seize the moment and accept admission. Even though she is unable to work in an office, she claimed that in order to help and guide their children, even parents must have a basic understanding of computers.

She has always been a very hardworking and committed student. She picked up many new skills, including Kiran's and Tux's typing as well as MS Paint, Notepad, WordPad, MS Word, and MS Excel. Kiran's typing and MS-Paint were her two favourite subjects to study. She initially struggled to understand the fundamental ideas, but eventually she began to pick things up and learn things quickly. She was very active. She also found ways to help herself learn English, including Google Translator. She created PowerPoint presentations, a calendar in Microsoft Word, and an Excel budget for monthly expenses. She also learned how to access mail and maps on the Internet, which are now essential parts of modern life.