Manjula is the only teacher in the school in her village in Banswara district of Rajasthan, India. She has been working with the school for over 8 years. The school consists of 51 students including 29 girls and 22 boys.
After Educate Girls completed its door-to-door survey in Manjula’s village to identify out-of-school-girls, they conducted community meetings among the villagers to make them understand the importance and benefits of girls’ education. Despite single-handedly taking care of her school and being extremely busy, Manjula made it a point to be a part of all the meetings.
Most of the villagers were against the idea of educating girls and sending them to school and hence did not co-operate initially. Manjula being an influential person in the village advocated Educate Girls’ work in her village which had a positive impact on the rigid mind set of the villagers. She not only worked actively with the field coordinator Vitthal in enrolment of out-of-school-girls but also joined hands with Renuka, our Team Balika (community volunteer) from the village in the implementation of Educate Girls’ learning curriculum called Gyan ka Pitara Kits in her school. Gyan ka Pitara (GKP) kits which translates to 'Repository of Knowledge' is an innovative tool used in school to make learning easier for children.
GKP kits consists of colourful, activity based tools focused on building micro-competencies in Hindi, English and Math for children in grades 3, 4 and 5. The GKP kits have been created keeping in view, needs of the most marginalised children and uses interactive methods such as games, stories, visual tools, flash cards, etc. The kit also includes multiple worksheets for individual practice which helped the staff and even the school teachers keep track of every child’s progress.
Benjamin Franklin has rightly said, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
Manjula is indeed grateful for the 3,000+ piece activity based pedagogy as she said that, “Being a teacher, I already feel there’s a huge responsibility on my shoulders to shape the minds and future of my students. It often gets difficult and tiresome to effectively manage a strength of 50+ students alone.
However, ever since Educate Girls’ Team Balika Renuka approached me to implement the GKP kits in our school, my work has become much easier. The activities in the kit have drastically improved the learning levels of the children. Even those students in my class who could not comprehend the alphabet earlier are now able to easily recognise letters and form words and sentences. Students have also started taking a renewed interest in studies and are more interactive in class!
I am thankful to Educate Girls' team for introducing such an interactive curriculum in classrooms and taking the initiative to implement the same!"
Learning should be an activity which nourishes the child’s intellectual, social and behavioural growth. We at Educate Girls (EG) believe in helping children to receive quality education apart from improving Enrolment and Retention of marginalised children in the educationally backward districts of India. In order to help children learn well and achieve higher learning outcomes, Educate Girls has partnered with a pedagogy and child psychology expert – Sol’s ARC to develop a curriculum which is an activity based pedagogy. The curriculum is implemented through learning kits called as Gyan ka Pitara (GKP) which translates to ‘Repository of Knowledge’. The GKP kit focuses on building micro competencies in English, Hindi and Mathematics for children in grade 3, 4 and 5. These kits are child friendly, context specific and sensitive to the needs of the most marginalised children and under-served children of India. The kit complements the conventional school curriculum and have helped to make the classroom stress free where children learn the basics of literacy and numeracy while having fun through games and group activities.
For the past twelve years, Mr. Manohar has been teaching at a school in Udaipur district of Rajasthan. As a teacher, he used to notice that the dropout rates were quite high and the children’s interest in learning activities were quite low. He mentioned that the childrens performance was poor in English and Math and eventually the attendance was hitting the lowest mark. Manohar was introduced to Educate Girls when the organisation started their program in the district. With the introduction of EG and its GKP curriculum in the school, he has noticed a tremendous increase in the level of interest towards learning among the children and this has ultimately improved the attendance and retention level of children in the school. Manohar has proven to be a great support to the cause. He actively participates in Educate Girls’ other programmatic activities which are conducted in his village.
Manohar remarks, “I have seen a massive change in the learning levels of the children in my school. Educate Girls’ Gyan Ka Pitara has many interactive tools and activities that help children learn more effectively. The best part about the GKP kit is that it’s very easy to incorporate in the regular curriculum, hence making my job much easier. The kit also contains worksheets that help me trackevery child’s learning level. More than 25 children have scored an A Grade in Hindi and Maths. Earlier, they used to face difficulties in learning English and thus lost interest in the subject. But now they are eager to learn new words every day! This has really helped to maintain regular attendance of children in school and I’d like to thank Educate Girls for their support.”
Like Manohar, many teachers in schools where Educate Girls operate have appreciated the benefits of GKP kits and supported their implementation for better learning outcomes.
The quality of education and low levels of learning continue to remain a major challenge in India. A study showed that although children are enrolled in school, they aren’t necessarily learning well.
Priyal* is an 11 year old girl from a village in Rajasthan. Both her parents are engaged in agricultural activities to earn and feed the family of 7. Being the eldest, Priyal was managing her studies along with the household chores. Gradually, the household work increased and Priyal became irregular in school which led to lower attendance and inferior learning outcomes and finally her name was listed as a “drop out”.
Educate Girls’ field staff identified Priyal as a school drop-out. Educate Girls’ Team Balika, Reena (Community Volunteer) visited her family to understand the situation better and it was observed that while Priyal’s father was quite rigid about his views on gender-role, her mother had a different concern. She said, “To sustain our family my children either have to look after the house or find odd jobs in the village. I am aware about the benefits of education and how my family can overcome poverty if my children are well educated. Priyal used to go to school but even in all these years she hasn’t learnt much. She is over 11 years old but cannot read or write. I don’t think she can study.”
After much persuasion, Priyal was re-enrolled in grade 2. It was a great opportunity for Reena to introduce Priyal with Educate Girls’ learning curriculum kits called as “Gyan Ka Pitara” (GKP)** which translates to “Repository of Knowledge”. These GKP kits are designed keeping in mind the needs of most rural and under-served children in rural India and they focus on building micro-competencies in English, Hindi & Mathematics. With the help of the GKP curriculum, Reena assisted Priyal in improving her basic concepts of numeracy and literacy.
Today, Priyal is enrolled in Grade 2 and is thrilled to be back in school with her friends! Priyal thoroughly enjoys learning the GKP activities in her class and is learning well!
*Name changed to protect identity of the minor
**Gyan Ka Pitara (GKP): Educate Girls partnered with Sol’s Assessment and Remedial Centre (Sol’s ARC), a pedagogy and child psychology expert, to develop the GKP curriculum. Curriculum is designed for 5 levels of learning (pre-literacy &levels 1-4) for children in grades 3, 4 and 5. Focus is on building micro-competencies in English, Hindi and Math
13-year old Gehna* belongs from a rural village in Udaipur district of Rajasthan, India. Gehna has been recently enrolled in Grade 3 of the Government public school in her village. Girls her age are studying in Grade 6 or 7. At first she was apprehensive to attend school, but now she enjoys every single day of it because she likes learning and playing with her classmates!
This was not the situation few months ago. Gehna was identified as an out-of-school girl (OOSG) by Educate Girls’ field staff during a door-to-door survey** conducted in her village. The field staff then spoke to her family and realised that they were adamant about not sending her to school. Gehna’s elder sister had never been to school either and her elder brother was already working in the fields to support the family. They argued that Gehna was too old to consider joining school now and that it just wasn’t right for girls her age to abandon responsibilities at home. Her parents were of the opinion that at this age Gehna should learn all about the household chores as very soon they will be looking out for a suitor for Gehna and she will be married.
The Educate Girls’ team did not give up and pursued the family multiple times. Educate Girls’ Team Balika (Community Volunteer) Manju tried convincing her parents by explaining the benefits of educating their daughter and the facilities provided by the Government for educating the girl child. After a lot of follow-up visits, Gehna’s parents finally agreed to enrol her in school.
Gehna struggled with catching up to the years she lost being out-of-school but she received a lot of support from Educate Girls’ learning curriculum which is implemented through ‘Gyan Ka Pitara (GKP)’ kits which is translated into ‘Repository of Knowledge’. Educate Girls’ GKP focuses on building micro-competencies of children studying in grades 3, 4 and 5 in English, Hindi and Math. The 3,000 piece kit is child-friendly, context-specific and sensitive to the needs of the most under-served and marginalized children in India.
Today, due to the combined efforts by Educate Girls’ staff and the school teachers, Gehna is catching up in her academics and is learning better.
Gehna's father is quite happy with the progress observed in her. He appreciates Educate Girls for helping him make this decision of sending Gehna to school. He shares, “I am not well-educated but now I am aware of how important education is for both girls and boys. I would encourage all the children in my village to go to school regularly!”
*Name changed to protect identity of the minor
**Door-to-door Survey: Educate Girls’ field staff and Community Volunteers known as Team Balika conducts a census like extensive activity known as door-to-door survey in the program geography that helps in identifying the exact number of girls who are out of school. Having identified the OOSGs, the staff persuades and convinces the parents of each girl to enrol her in school.
“Educate Girls' learning kit helped me realize the brilliant work they are doing”
-Dilip, Teacher at a Government Primary School.
Dilip, a teacher at a Government run Primary school in a rural village of Udaipur, Rajasthan was always interested in academics. After completing his graduation, Dilip worked as a police officer. However, his interest and passion for education brought him back to school – this time – as a teacher!
When Educate Girls’ field staff visited the school where he taught, he was told about how the organization helped with improving learning outcomes for children studying in grades 3-5. At first he refused, saying he didn’t need anybody’s help in his classroom. However, after some time he agreed as he thought the help provided by Educate Girls’ Team Balika (Community Volunteers) would be necessary as the schools had very few teachers.
He shares, “Despite being unconvinced, I allowed the Field Coordinator and Team Balika to support us in the school. I had a change of heart when I saw them use the Gyan ka Pitara (GKP)* kit which translates into Repository of Knowledge. I observed that the students were learning better and participating in class with a renewed interest. I realized what a good job the organization was doing. There are over 250 worksheets for each child at every learning level in the classroom. The learning material is easily understood by the children since it focusses on developing their basic skills in literacy and numeracy. Since every child gets a set of worksheets, no child is left behind.”
He also adds, “The support we received from the organization, especially in schools with less teachers, is helpful. Educate Girls’ GKP kits have helped increase students’ interest as well as attendance in class. I will definitely support Educate Girls in the great work they are doing in every way I can.”
*GKP: Gyan Ka Pitara which translates to Repository of Knowledge is a activity based pedagogy which focuses on building micro-competencies in English, Hindi and Math (Conducted for students in Grades 3rd, 4th and 5th)
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