Doorstep School - Keeping education moving

Doorstep School has always worked hard to break down the isolation, stigma and social exclusion faced by children at risk, to ensure they do not fall through the cracks of society, but the Covid-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges. 

Embracing Digital

The School on Wheels has been unable to go to the children during lockdown. Instead, with the support  of our wonderful donors, Child Action has been able to help Doorstep School to focus on immedate relief work (given the poverty levels within the communities the teachers work with) and to embrace digital solutions to continue education for at-risk children. 

The rapid and innovative response from the teachers working at Doorstep School involved setting up 104 What's App groups to reach 2076 parents with access to smart phones.  This enabled teachers to send age/level appropriate teaching materials such as educational videos and worksheets for children to use with the help of older siblings.

Over 3150 homework worksheets and 44 training and learnings sets were distributed in this way throughout April and May. Teachers know their students well and have provided one to one support for children to go through their homework at least once a week, either by telephone or through smartphone apps such as zoom and phoneshala.

Summer Teaching

Doorstep School will not take a summer break this year, and will instead resume classes that were cancelled during lockdown, to minimise the detrimental effect of the pandemic on the educational development of the children they look after. 

The attached report provides insights into the work that has been done so far during the Covid-19 pandemic and the plans for the next few months. 

• Report_Doorstep_School_19.6.20.pdf (PDF)