Play Schools for 300 Slum Children

CASE STUDY OF RUCHIKA PLAYSCHOOL

Due to the covid 19 pandemic, everything is happening in online mode since 2 years. There is not a single person left in this whole world whose life is left uninfluenced by this disastrous scenario.  Some lives have been affected in calculated amounts and some beyond the scope of one’s imagination. For the office employees, especially of IT sectors it’s quite manageable but for the street hawkers, labours it was a time of despondent and starvation. Overall, all those sectors in which the works were possible in online mode have continued peacefully; same is the life for those who could afford the expenses of online mode to continue with their work or education.  But what about the poor slum children, whose parents struggle to make both their ends meet? Can they even think of having smart phones/tablets /laptops, wifi connection for making their child’s education possible.

This story is based on a child’s life with similar condition. It’s about a 5 year old lad Rajiv (not real name) whose parents are labours. They live in Kalpana medical slum. Both toil very hard in the scorching heat of the sun to make their child’s life better. But when the time came for taking a very important step for their child’s life, which was about his education, the pandemic was a great obstruction for them. It shattered their dreams as they had thought to enroll in some government school or some affordable private school. But amidst covid, they could very clearly see that in government schools, the teachers are unable to reach the children so education is not proper there. Additionally, he was a very sharp, intelligent, clever and smart, so they wanted his foundation will be so strong that he can excel in his future but now they could not do anything. In this dark and hopeless moment , one of our teachers reached to them after knowing about them and she said that they are not doing online classes as the slum people cannot afford it but they even have a better solution .  They will themselves come to the child following all the safety precautions and teach the child with proper social distancing. They agreed and from the very next day she came to his home and started teaching the child. He started understanding all the concepts and the progress was clearly visible in him. His parents were very grateful to the teacher as she helped them in a very difficult situation. They were very happy that their capable and prompt son could flourish with seven colours by the help of our teacher.

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This pandemic situation has affected everyone’s life, some drastically and some are slightly affected.  But technology has somewhat made our lives easier , in offices employees are doing their work from home online , people are buying their essentials online , students are getting their education through laptops or mobiles in  online mode  too.  But what about  the students in the slum , who  don’t have enough money to buy smart  phones  and attend the online classes ? What could they do in this dark and hopeless moment? This was the biggest challenge to our teachers. Though this task was difficult and somewhat impossible but our teachers have made it possible by adhering to the rules. They go from house to house and by maintaining social distancing whatever they can teach their students they teach. They make groups of 3 to 4 students , living in adjacent houses and teach them. The teachers even aware the students about covid 19 and tell them all the necessary measures they should take in this critical period to be safe. One of the teachers met Jitu’s (Not real name) parent and got to know their trouble. she got  the knowledge about his present condition , that it has been 1 year since he is sitting at home and  his education has stopped. Previously he was going to school near his house where, after lock down period they are neither doing online classes nor adopting any measure that would help the education of all their students possible. After knowing this , the teacher prescribed them to get their son admission in Ruchika Play School. They would provide him with the study materials and she would come in regular intervals and take his class.  Gradually ,after taking regular classes from our teacher he learnt something new each day  . He became interested in studies and even his parent could see the change in him. His parents were very happy as their son was finally continuing his path of learning.

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