Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS)

Context

During August of 2020, the Government of Karnataka, based on recommendations by several organizations and experts initiated the Vidyagama program. At that point of time, teachers of Karnataka government schools who were involved in the people science movement started Vataara Shaales or neighbourhood schools to engage children from a locality in small groups.

Socio-Economic Profile

Children from rural areas of the districts of Gulbarga division.

Strategies

Teachers in a locality engaged with a group of children who were from the same community. Several strategies were used by the teachers, some distributed the activity sheets to the homes of the children, some sent it over Whatsapp, some spent time with the children everyday for a certain amount of time, developed activities that allow the teacher to assess the children using learning indicators, teachers also came up with project- based learning activities where a group of children from an area were given a task to do together, or some even did a consultation or collaboration with the children.

Numbers Impacted

In the 6 districts of Gulbarga division, there were around 33,000 Vataara Shaales that were running by August – September 2020.