ranthambhor shiksharthi FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME
The Problem
School closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to complete disconnect from education for the vast majority of children.
- Well-intentioned but inadequate alternatives like community-based classes or poor alternatives in the form of online education, including mobile phone-based learning, have destabilized the education ecosystem. More than one complete academic year has elapsed in this manner, with little to no curricular learning in the current class.
- Equally alarming is the widespread phenomenon of ‘forgetting’ by students of learning from the previous class, a regression in their curricular learning. This includes losing foundational abilities such as reading with understanding, and performing addition & multiplication, which they had learnt earlier and become proficient in, and which are the basis of further learning.
For a deep-dive into the nature of the aforementioned losses, refer to the research paper by Azim Premji Foundation on the subject.
Key challenges to address, therefore, within the education ecosystem, especially now, are as follows-
- -Need to work on the foundational skills of children owing to the school lockdown from March 2020;
- -Untapped youth potential to improve the ecosystem of education in village communities;
- -Need to provide institutional support to local youth, especially women & girls, to explore their potential and thrive;
- -Need for an improvement in scientific temperament and critical thinking among children;
- -Children in government schools struggle to acquire key skills in English;
- -Need to improve participation of parents in school operations;
- -Limited focus on sports in elementary school.
Our Solution
The pandemic has resulted in a severe loss of learning and psycho-emotional growth of children. In order to mitigate these losses, and provide a safe and learning-conducive environment for children enrolled in nearby government schools, we seek to work with them by initiating a fellowship programme- Ranthambhore Shiksharthi Fellowship Programme (RSFP) for local youth. In 2021, this is the first initiative of its kind in the region!
We aim to work with government schools- their students, teachers and School Management Committees, by engaging the youth from associated communities. The programme aims to attain the following objectives –
- To help children learn at their age-appropriate levels;
- To support the school teachers to adapt child-centered teaching practices and improve quality of STEM education in their classrooms;
- To strengthen parents’ collectives so as to help them play a key part in the functioning of schools;
- To provide a platform to the youth to meaningfully give back to their communities through ensuring quality education for the children.
The RSFP aims to offer the year-long fellowship to local youth, who are currently pursuing higher education after class 12 and are motivated to contribute to their communities’ progress.
- They will undergo a capacity-building programme organized by Gramin Shiksha Kendra, pivoting our philosophy of education and child-centred teaching practices, that they can then implement with the children in their respective village communities.
- Selected through a robust screening process, the fellows will receive an honorarium and will be provided mentorship support to continue their education and/or avail career options as per their interests and potential.
- The fellowship will enable the fellows, and the children & parents’ communities they work with, to analyze their society, polity and educational institutions from a critical point of view.