Education Project at Pathardi

Spotlight on an L&T CSR education project in partnership with Light of Life Trust (LOLT).

L&T’s CSR team started the education project in October 2018 at Karanji cluster, Pathardi Tehsil, Ahmednagar District in Maharashtra State. In the last decade, this district has seen a few higher education hubs come up at Rahuri, Kopargaon, Shrirampur & Sangamner tehsils; despite that most rural children are unable to get enrolled in higher education institutes. We found it imperative to focus on and build the academic and overall capabilities of children from an early stage of secondary school to help them avail higher education and make themselves employable and fight the vicious cycle of poverty.

A baseline assessment was done to assess the education status for Karanji cluster.  Based on our findings two programmes were initiated in the project area.

Educate and Empower Program (EEP) was started across 3 schools. Its objectives were:

• To prevent school dropouts among children
• To improve academic performance of children in English & Mathematics by providing learning support in terms of education material, additional teaching by specially trained teachers and by involving parents in the learning process
• To enhance confidence, communication skills & self-esteem of children and develop leadership skills among children
• To channelize the energy of youth in schools and community by engaging them in activities/programmes leading to holistic development, through workshops, guidance sessions, Student Friendly Supplementary Education Programs (SFSEP) classes, vacation programmes, and a Bal kala Mahotsav.
• To address adolescent / academic / emotional issues faced by children through case work & home visits
• To provide counselling services to students to motivate continuation of education & to parents to support learning process
  
  

School Based Programme (SBP) was started in two schools. Its objectives were:

• To enhance capacities of School Management Committees (SMCs) through training imparted to the headmaster/mistress and teachers to improve quality of education in the selected schools
• To increase active participation of all stakeholders, including parents & villagers to assure a cohesive support system for completion of children’s education
• To raise interest among children towards education

These programmes covered students from 8th to 10th standards, who come from vulnerable, disadvantaged, and difficult family situations, and are at risk of dropping out.

A snapshot of the number of children impacted till date through this programme:

Regular impact assessment of the project interventions is done through regular intervals. The tools of ‘High School Personality Quotient’ and ‘2R’ (Writing, Arithmetic) are utilised by the project team.

Findings over three years show that there is a gradual development seen from year I to year III on all the traits measured.  A notable increase is seen in the scores on traits indicating Teamwork, Socialisation, Discipline, Self-sufficiency, and Warm heartedness. There is an increase in the Leadership and Creativity quotients of students.

Bicycle Support

Most students come from villages which are located at a distance from the schools they attend. The lack of any public or private transportation facilities makes these children walk long distances to attend school, due to which absenteeism is high, which becomes a barrier in their academic and developmental growth. So, we introduced Bicycle Support in FY2020-21, covering 146 students who were living more than 3 kms away from school.

Since the inception of the project, 100% of the children who appeared for the SSC exam passed out and some of them have continued their further education in academics and skill training.

Digital solutions

Due to the pandemic, in FY2020-21, the interventions, which hitherto were carried out in schools, were implemented through digital platforms. Our partner made use of innovative solutions such as Google classroom, centre-wise WhatsApp groups, forming of village-wise student groups etc. Despite the barriers and challenges, almost all the students participated in project activities including supplementary English & Mathematic classes, empowerment workshops, career guidance workshops. Parent meetings and teacher’s trainings were conducted at village level in small groups.

To ensure the programme’s sustainability, it was imperative to build capacities of teachers, parents and School Management Committee and Village Development Committee to handover the project to them in smooth manner.