Re-Invent to Reach Each Child
How have different educational organizations approached their work with children during the pandemic?
The pandemic required from all of us a great deal of resilience and innovation in order to continue the work that we had committed to do. Mr. Naga Prakasam Sir from NSRCEL had beautifully curated this conversation amongst 4 Educational organizations - I-Saksham, Mantra4Change, The Apprentice Project and Inqui-Lab. Some very pertinent questions were explored regarding digital access, the need for partnerships and the need to not just pause but reinvent one’s approach in order to continue our work with children.
Do listen into the conversation below - best heard from the speakers themselves!
If you’d like to catch specific sections, here are a few time-stamped excerpts.
Shravan, I-Saksham (@ 05:00)
Knowing one’s Core-philosophy and bringing holistic, implementable solutions via partnerships with orgs, parents, volunteers and siblings.
Being clear about your core philosophy and what drives you and your organization.
Any one strategy such as - parents, simple mobiles, libraries - may not be sufficient. Going beyond what you have earlier done (X) to now do (X + Y + Z) to overcome all delivery barriers.
Forming collectives of organizations to bring a more holistic solution to a child or community which may include education, health and other important aspects that cannot be ignored during the pandemic.
Collaboration with not only parents, self-help groups but also siblings who can have a positive peer influence on a child’s learning.
Usage of simple mobile phones and audio - dialogue in an engaging way for learning.
Not re-inventing the wheel but contextualizing and adopting the digital assets created by other organizations.
Sahithya, Inqui-Lab (@23:00)
Doing what we do best, revisiting our program portfolio and pursuing win-win collaborations.
With schools closed and limited B2C models, partnering with the government, organizations like UNICEF, TSIC, Quest Alliance to access children at home and continue our work, thus reaching 30,000 students in 2020-21.
In line with our vision, taking tough calls on our program portfolio: what to prioritize and what to pause, expanding our target age group to between 10-19 years.
Playing to our strengths of curriculum and intervention design while seeking partnerships for the other aspects including on-ground implementation partners in other states.
In the absence of digital access for every child, Collaboration with stakeholders such as teachers or youth volunteers who had assisted children in completing their problem-solving online course by lending their own mobiles.
Stories of student innovations during the pandemic and leveraging the resourcefulness of children: Sriram’s Project and Abhishek & team’s Multi-Purpose Bag for Agriculture. Treating them as an important and capable stakeholder.
Santhosh, Mantra4Change (@37:00)
Formation of collectives and investing in local community resources to take forward our work with children.
Bringing 25 organizations together as a collective to leverage each other’s expertise, understanding of local context in new geographies, access funding as a collective and amplifying one’s impact.
Leveraging storytelling and volunteer force to help children continue their education
Even if digital access is an issue, Leveraging the ONE phone in the village that is available. Training the volunteer on project-based learning, assessments such that they can provide access to 5-20 children each.
Like a person with a phone - what type of other resources within the village can be utilized or would be willing to help? Instead of an outside organization from a distance trying to remotely work, can we parallely also build something long-lasting in the community like cluster resource persons, anganwadis, community centres etc such that the community knows what to do and how to continue learning processes even in our physical absence.
Anand, TAP (@52:00)
Staying cognizant to the learning environment at home and leveraging Whatsapp.
Being aware that learning is a social and emotional process, how do we support children with this transition from school to home? How do we help create the right learning environment even at home?
Usage of gamification, mascots and habit building to help children stay engaged and learn.
Leverage the digital systems in the community or the house and the most used app: Whatsapp.
The team committed to learning new skill sets in order to support pivoting.
Considering the phone is not always with the child, creating a bot based system such that the child can access the content at “anytime”, even if the phone is home only in the late evenings.
Also utilizing a large volunteer base so that the child also has access to 1-1 mentoring and human interaction if and as needed.
Translationand Usage of regional languages for easier learning.
Gratitude to Mr. Naga sir, Jemy and NSRCEL for the rich conversation and cross-learning.
As an organization or individual, how have YOU re-invented your approach to continue your work with children? Do share with us :)