Mobile Schooling

Updated on: Thursday, September 08, 2011

Save the Children, an NGO, which works for the development of underprivileged children, and AVIVA launched their collaborative project, Mobile Learning Centres. This concept aims to reach out to those children who do not have access to schools and institutions, and for various reasons have not had the opportunity to receive an education. These learning centres will go to different parts of the city and provide the necessary facilities to underprivileged children. The mobile centres come equipped with not only books, but also projectors, teaching staff, counsellors and community advisers among other facilities. “The main motive is to bring these children into the mainstream”, says Gaurav Rajput, from AVIVA.

AVIVA and Save the Children started working together from 2009, their first project being the Great Wall of Education, which was a book donation drive. “Now we had the books, but how were we to ensure they reached the children? That is when the concept of Mobile Learning Centres came up”, says Rajput. “Just providing the children with books was not enough, as they would need guidance and help to actually gain something from there. The learning centres take care of that need,” says Manabendra Nath Ray, of Save the Children. The children suffer various kinds of circumstances and they get severely affected psychologically, here is where the counsellor has to play a role. The community adviser deals with the people around the children, who also need to be aware that a child needs education, and they need to encourage the child. The city has been divided into parts, according to the number of underprivileged children in the area. The mobile centres will move from locality to locality and ensure that they reach out to the maximum number of children.

The target groups are the child labourers and street children. The learning centres hope to reach out to around 3000 illiterate children and integrate at least 1000 children into the mainstream formal education system. Along with education, this project will also take care of health and nutrition, protection and skill development of the children.

Mobile Schooling

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