Education
Poor learning outcomes
While India boasts of world class universities and institutes that produce noble laureates and CEO’s and senior professionals in prestigious places, the quality of available education for vast majority of Indians, who are the poor masses, remains absolutely abysmal and getting worse.
For example, while Indian authorities have consistently resisted the country’s inclusion in international comparisons of student achievements, studies such as Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2009 (only year that India participated) ranked students from Government schools 72nd out of 73 countries that participated, outranking only Kyrgyzstan. Student performance in all subjects – mathematics, science and reading – were consistently near the bottom.
While the country’s resources and attention has been fixated on the urban elite, the poor has been left with token attention.
The RTE (Right to Education) Act of 2009 made enrolments in primary schools available to all children, but the quality of learning remains abysmal. The Government of India approved the National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy in 2013, but the internal performance measurement has not shown any visible improvement.
At Calcutta Rescue, we meet the dual challenges of motivating the slum children (and often their parents) to come to school as well as helping them to reach their maximum potential. Most times, these children are the first in family to set foot inside a school. Our challenge is to make schools not only a place for learning, but also a setting for development of social skills through various extra-curricular activities. We also provide children with 2 meals a day, school supplies, uniforms and transports when needed.
Our objective is to complement the education the children receive in public schools through individual homework, group assignments, basic computer skills, and vocational training. With this approach, we are able to leverage the state funded facilities as well as reach out to maximum number of students with our limited resources and train them to pursue a productive career.
In some of the slums where CR operates, our surveys report the following
1.
High levels of illiteracy with only 59% of over 18 year old never having attending school.
2.
Pressure to earn, do household chores, get married and general lack of parental guidance are reasons for not attending school
Lack of appropriate skills and job-readiness
Economic forecasters predict that India’s economy will climb to the world’s third largest in the next decade, surpassed by only the U.S. and China.
However, despite rapid economic growth, unemployment is rising as the country’s level of skill intensity and modern education is not at par with the demands of a technology-driven economy.
Extra-curricular Activities
Extra-curricular activities such as sports, singing, dancing and drawing are important to the overall child’s development. Studies have shown that student who participate in extra-curricular activities:
1.
show a marked improvement in grades
2.
are better team-players & therefore more employment ready
3.
discover other non-academic skills that they can make a career out of
While Calcutta Rescue children may live in harsh environments, where alcohol, drugs and physical abuse is common and where access to basic human needs like clean drinking water, toilets and electricity is difficult, it is CR’s strongly felt belief that these children can succeed and realise their potential.
Calcutta Rescue runs two educational institutes, which provide love, care, support and a safe learning environment for Kolkata’s street and slum children. At our centres we do more than just teach. We know that in order to learn, children must be well fed, healthy, active and have the appropriate clothing and equipment – we try to provide everything the children need that they are not able to get at home or at their school.