Project Report
| Jul 22, 2022
Gyantantra Udbhav Education approach for Developing Foundational Learning
By Capt. Indraani Singh | CEO & Managing Trustee
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Project Activity in progress
Education is a social good and implies that it has a positive impact on individuals and societies. Besides the fact that it provides ability to read and write, it is also an edifice to grow and develop in life and help the nation grow and prosper.
Literacy India has been providing education opportunities and reaching out to the children of underserved communities, migrants and the marginalised for past 25 years. Consistent efforts, particularly on imparting primary education for children severely impacted due to various socio-economic reasons, has been the forte of Literacy India. Literacy India’s robust education delivery solution, Gyantantra Udbhav (Digital Dost) is an intuitive educational software that facilitates academic learning at a student friendly pace but hastens the learning process of foundational concepts.
While the negative impact of COVID-19 on the education of children has been well observed worldwide, the long closure of primary sections of schools in India too has severely impacted the learning milestones and mental wellbeing of children. Literacy India has a robust solution to meet this monumental challenge. Not only do we have an intelligent educational software which focuses on individual learning capacity but also serves as a resilient and patient ‘teacher’.
Project “Gyantantra Udbhav (Digital Dost)” uses Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to innovatively address multiple problems associated with the accessibility and delivery of quality education including the following challenges:-
- It tackles and fills the gap created due to poor teaching level and lack of trained teachers
- Simplifies teaching learning methods even while teaching difficult concepts
- Motivates and attracts children especially of the economically challenged to attend school
This unique virtual teacher i.e. Gyantantra Digital Dost has been able to:
- Accelerate the learning process
- Raise reading ability of a student to an age-appropriate level
- Settle the student in an age-appropriate grade at the end of the intervention period
- Help students operate computers and use technology for academics
- Utilize the computer lab for various other educational documentaries such as on financial literacy, life skills workshops and other educative presentations.
Background of the Community, School and Social SituationSome of the most marginalised sections of our society may include the scavenger community, ‘
Dom’ community (who are involved in cremation ritual) and rag-pickers. Their children are highly vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, child labour, school drop-out and not-attending school, even when, under the Indian Constitution every child between 6 to 14 years has a fundamental right to education.
The Sastri Shiksh Sadan School in Liluah, Howrah area of Kolkata is located in the middle of the dumping ground, locally referred to as
Bhagar. This Hindi medium school is one window of hope for education of children of migrant labour, scavengers and
Dom community living around this area. A modest two storey building with some 10 rooms caters to the primary academic needs of the children of almost 5 km radius area. This is a unique school as it offers admissions round the year and caters to children of low-income group including those of vegetable vendors, rickshaw pullers, e-rickshaw operators, daily labourer, domestic maids and cooks and other vulnerable children, especially first-generation school goers and rag-pickers.
The Gyantantra Udbhav programme has been introduced in the school and children have found tech-based education as attractive and engaging. This digital and fun based self-learning academic initiative has not only help arrest the dropout rate among children but has also enhanced their academic quotient.Activities undertaken
- Regular learning classes held
- Pre- Test, Mid Test and Post test Conducted to monitor the academic improvement
- Home visits by Programme staff were organised regularly to track the growth of students
- Regular Parent Teacher meeting to strengthen the responsibility of parents in shaping the life of their wards and also to exchange progress of students.
Achievements & Impacts:
- Regular home visits and child tracking improved the student strength in school
- Parent-teacher meeting helped in curbing the absenteeism among students
- Parents appreciated the activities and became proactive to enrol their wards for academics.
- Children started enjoying and actively participated in art & craft and general knowledge-based quiz sessions.
- Logical thinking and analytical skills of students remarkably increased and students were able to link contents and descriptions to their benefit.
- Communication skills and technological savviness grew among the students.
- In order to motivate students Certificates were distributed to students.
Stories of ChangeName: Jagriti (name changed), Location: Liluah, HowrahJagriti (name Changed), 12 years oldis staying at Kumar , Howrah and studying in Grade IV at Sashtri Siksha Sadan Primary School. In December 2021, she joined the online teaching mode as the schools were closed due the COVID-19 pandemic situation. As a quick learner, she was able to adapt the interactive modules of Gyantantra Udbhav digital teaching programme. Making small but impactful academic progress she covered various sections of Maths, English and Hindi subjects.
Quick to complete her academic exercises in subject Hindi, be it,
Barakhadi, Matras, Word formation, Sentence formation,
Ling (Gender),
Kriya (Verb),
Paryayawachi (Synomyms),
Vilom shabha (Antonymns) etc. with ease and support of the digital interactive teaching module. Similarly, in English subejct she was keen to learn and complete her sessions on alphabets with phonetics, word formation, time and tenses and other basic concepts viz; “here and there”, “this and that” and formation of 4 and 6 letter words. Her academic facilitators and teachers were very impressed by her ardent desire to learn and succeed in academics. During her sessions on learning the concepts of Mathematical computation like Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, L.C.M, H.C.F, Fractions, Profit-Loss, Number systems and Decimal Numbers, she made slow but steady progress. From fear of English and Maths she converted to much love for English and Maths. Gyantantra Udbhav has not just helped her understand the basics of academic concepts but helped improve her academic scores.
During Pre-Test, she was an underperforming student with a pre-test score of 27% in Arithmetic and Languages. Post completion of the Gyantantra Udbhav Modules she achieved academic proficiency with a score of 67% in post-test and is happy to compete with her peers.An avid television buff, Jagriti is a self-taught dancer too, who has strong ambition to become a criminal lawyer and work for the protection of the rights of women and children.
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