A majority of Indian public school children cannot afford laptops or smartphones. Online learning is therefore not an option for them during the COVID pandemic. It has led to a large percentage of children from low-income families putting their education on hold. To address this problem, Asha for Education organized 65 mini-schools in the state of Tamil Nadu. Small groups of children attend mini-school in a teacher’s home, open-air terraces, libraries, and other public places.
=== Socio-Economic Profile ===
=== Socio-Economic Profile ===
+
The villages where our teachers come from and the places where we had a presence are mostly rural areas. In a small number of cases, we specifically selected Tribal areas with greater poverty and attendant problems.
=== Strategies ===
=== Strategies ===
+
* Decentralized decision making in terms of starting the mini-schools and keeping it running
+
* Designed a specific curriculum for the mini-schools focusing on conceptual clarity
+
* Emphasis on worksheets and activities as a way to deal with huge spread in skill levels
+
* Encouraged the teachers to learn from each other
+
* Focus on craft, PT, school functions etc. for all round development
=== Numbers Impacted ===
=== Numbers Impacted ===
+
Over 2000 children attend these 65 mini-schools running in more than 100 batches.
−
=== Read more about this intervention. ===
+
=== [[Asha|Read more about this intervention]] ===