The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted learning, life and livelihoods across the globe with India experiencing one of the longest school closures in the world. The sudden disruption took away access to schooling and opportunity for learning from children of all age groups. Against the backdrop of such challenging circumstances, Pratham’s journey in Kanker is an inspiring story of re-building—learning recovery among children and enabling livelihoods for youth and women.
Children read stories from their textbooks in a village in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district.
RE-BUILDING AFTER PANDEMIC
Kanker is a district in the Bastar division of Chhattisgarh in the heart of India. The onset of the pandemic in March 2020 meant that schools were closed and mobility of community members was severely restricted. Schools remained closed for almost the entire academic year 2020-21, briefly reopening for a couple of months in January 2021. Long school closures led to a sharp decline in learning levels of primary grade children. The uneven access to smartphones meant many children were left out of online learning in rural India.
In response to the lockdown, Pratham quickly pivoted from “teaching” children to “reaching” families who, in turn, could engage with children on a daily basis. Mothers and young volunteers, often siblings of primary grade children, were the strongest pillars of support in the community. Teaching-learning activities were sent via phone messages (SMS and WhatsApp) to volunteers and mothers. Simple word problems and engaging reading games were sent to all those who lived with or near children and interacted with them every day. Delivering content on both low-tech phones and smartphones was necessary as more than 15% of the families did not have access to a smartphone. The lockdown forced Pratham teams, which used to work directly with children, to explore new ways of staying in touch with children and their families.
Schools reopened in Chhattisgarh in July 2021 after the second wave of COVID-19 eased. Pratham teams, learning from their pandemic experience a year earlier, first collected contact numbers of mothers, youth and community members who could support children during any subsequent lockdowns. Barely after 20 days of running learning camps, schools were again closed in August because of rising COVID-19 cases. Due to such frequent closure of schools in the 2021-22 academic year, youth in the Kanker communities came forward and actively worked with children in grades 3-5. Pratham team members trained the youth on Teaching-at-the-Right-Level (TaRL) methodology to strengthen foundational skills of children in reading and math. Often young volunteers were older siblings, who were studying in Grades 9 to 12. In every hamlet within each community, young people willingly supported younger children. Even though learning levels had dropped to an all-time low, the volunteer-led classes limited further learning losses by fuelling the process of learning recovery.
When schools reopened at the start of the 2022-23 academic year, Pratham’s field team focused on ensuring that children returned to school in stabilizing attendance.
The aim of Pratham’s Hamara Gaon program in villages of Kanker (and other parts of the country) was to ensure basic foundations of learning for all children in the elementary school age group over a period of three years. Core teaching-learning practices in school were based on Pratham’s well-known teaching-at-the-right-level (TaRL) method and also involved mothers and youth in supporting children’s learning in the community. Each Pratham team member was responsible for five schools and communities. A 30-day learning camp was run with Grade 3-5 children in every school in the 430 communities of Kanker.
In 2021, hardly 10% of the approximately 3,500 children in the Grade 3 cohort could read a “story” or a Grade 2 level text. Close to two-thirds of the cohort could either read letters or words and one in 10 children could not even read letters. The TaRL-based learning camps tremendously helped in the process of students’ learning recovery. Children’s learning levels steadily progressed over successive years in 2022-23 and 2023-24. After multiple learning camps with the same group of children, approximately 85% of children by Grade 5 could read text at “story” level (Grade 2 level). Primary grade children, who couldn’t read in the first year, steadily became readers with less than 100 days of in-school instructional inputs of TaRL over a three-year period. Support from the community continued with volunteers actively supporting primary school children in their hamlets while mothers worked with younger children at home with easy-to-do learning activities. The steady and sustained learning progress over the years is a testament to the multi-year effort of Pratham teams in each of these locations.
Pratham teams in Kanker mobilized the youth for action in several ways. A Raspberry Pi device with internet access was installed in each of the 430 communities of Kanker. A Raspberry Pi is a small, affordable and versatile computer developed by the Raspberry Pi foundation. Young volunteers in the community were excited with the availability of new internet-enabled devices. Pratham offered digital courses like digital literacy and job readiness for “learning for life”. Pratham believes that when a person (“instructor”) puts in time and effort to help a child learn, then learning opportunities should be made available for the “instructor” as well. This initiative is called EfE or Education for Education program in Pratham. The main idea is to encourage participation of volunteers by offering short, digital courses in return for their support for children’s learning.
More than 1,200 youth in Kanker completed short duration courses for digital and job readiness over two years. Pratham team members also spread awareness about the residential skilling courses offered by Pratham’s Vocational Training Centre in the neighboring district of Dhamtari. Over the course of four years, more than 800 youth of Kanker enrolled themselves and completed certified courses of hospitality, electrical, welding, and nursing (general duty assistant), and more than 83% of them have been placed full-time in companies in Chhattisgarh and neighboring states.
LOOKING AHEAD
Over a period of two to three years, the joint and consistent efforts of schools and communities, young volunteers, mothers, children and Pratham team members enabled significant learning recovery in the villages of Kanker. Beyond the immediate success of recovery, the foundations of learning built and the social fabric created in this process have positioned these communities in Kanker as hubs for lifelong learning. The “Hamara Gaon” initiative not only ensures basic literacy and numeracy for primary school children but also brings in ownership from parents, families and youth. This strong foundation can now be a launching pad for “learning to learn” not just for children and youth but for everyone in these communities who want to explore the world around them.
Here are some recent examples of different directions that the next stage can take: Foundational learning among primary school children in these Kanker villages is strong. As they transition to middle school, they are well-prepared not only to engage with their curriculum and textbooks but also to explore beyond traditional classroom learning with curiosity and openness.
A STEM-inspired project based, learning-by-doing program to create awareness about environment and climate change, known as Hamari Duniya, was an instant success among middle/upper primary children and teachers in Kanker. Hamari Duniya has now been scaled up to 200 other locations of Hamara Gaon across the country. An innovative English learning program called Angrezi OK Please was also received well by children in upper primary schools as well as by Pratham’s own staff.
Pratham has bridged the gap between India’s youth and access to opportunities for livelihood by introducing vocational training through community camps for beauty, welding and nursing (general duty assistant). Community vocational training camps received overwhelming support from community members who arranged for low-rent premises, among other facilities. Pratham’s Second Chance program was introduced in Kanker to help school dropouts, especially women, complete Grade 10. More than 80% of the learners of the first cohort passed the board exam and are now encouraged to pursue higher education and participate in local livelihood opportunities.
Hamara Gaon began with the goal of achieving universal reading and math for primary grade children and has gradually evolved into a longer run initiative to improve lives of children, youth and women in these communities. Kanker and Dhamtari have become pivotal hubs for Pratham’s mission to build future-ready communities, where every child, youth and woman is equipped with quality education for lifelong learning and opportunities for livelihoods. Pratham looks forward with anticipation and excitement to see how far Kanker communities can go in coming years in building communities that deeply value and actively support learning for school, work and life.
Annexure
Pratham’s Strategic locations in Chhattisgarh: Kanker and Dhamtari have evolved as strategic locations for Pratham in the last few years. Kanker has a large presence of education programs, such as Hamara Gaon and Second Chance, whereas Dhamtari has a large vocational training centre in Kurud and two other blocks. Learnings from both locations feed into the larger program strategy for Pratham.
Fig. 1: Map of Kanker and Dhamtari marked with Pratham’s education and skilling programs
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– Siddhesh Mhatre and Gaurav Sharma
Siddhesh Mhatre leads operations for Pratham’s Direct Programs and Gaurav Sharma is the State Head for Pratham’s programs in Chhattisgarh.
PS: This write-up has been published in its original form without any editing or alterations. Any grammatical errors, typos, or stylistic variations are preserved to maintain the authenticity of the author’s work. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the individual authors and do not reflect the views or positions of the organisation.
