Supplementary Learning Centres in Government Schools in Howrah

 
 

Quality with equity has been the driving force that has led us to take on different projects as we firmly believe that it is good quality education that has the power to liberate people from poverty born out of generations of discrimination and lack of opportunities. Last year, Vikramshila entered into a partnership with Mission Sunehra Kal of ITC initiative where they are working for the uplift of communities located around their newly set up factory – Joargori, Beldhubi and Kanduah gram panchayats through a multi sectoral partnership.While access has largely been achieved in the primary system, it is retention and completion that has now emerged has a major challenge. Closely linked to these issues is the problem of low learning outcomes among children from low income and non-literate households, who do not get any support at home.

Prolonged absenteeism further results in poor learning achievements. Poor learning environment in schools and inadequate instructional hours in spite of the mandate of 1000 hours a year in the RTE Act is mainly responsible for the learning crisis that afflicts our public education system. A sizeable number of students drop-out at the upper primary level when the learning gaps are widened beyond repair. Children need additional help to ‘catch up” – not by doing more of the same thing, but doing things differently. This is the idea behind the 15 Supplementary Learning Centres that have been set up in these 3 gram panchayats under this project.

Programme Strategies Implemented

Supplementary education spaces were created within government schools to ensure programme sustainability, improvement of school attendance as well as capacity building of school teachers for lasting impact

A school library was developed in each school to get better participation and involvement of the school as well as ensuring a higher visibility in the community

A Before- school learning support programme was envisaged to ensure better attendance in schools (children go into classes after the learning support programme)

Convergence with other ITC partners in the area was prioritized to increase impact, create a strong network and synergize efforts for improved results.