Every Child in School and Learning Well

Image source: klp.org.in

As a kid, I always saw a distinction being made between Government schools and the Private schools. While most Government schools were looked down, the Private ones were known to be schools that not just educated the children but made them prim and proper individuals. That always made me wonder what happened to those kids who went to the Government schools. Were they not going to be prim and proper individuals?

The gap was wide and bridging the gap was another big task, while the English medium students could speak English at the speed of lightening, most faltered at their own mother tongue languages.  As I grew up, so did my questions and yet I found no answers. I knew of groups and associations that helped Government schools but I wasn’t sure if those efforts were enough.

While reading some blogs and articles over the internet I read about Akshara Foundation, a NGO actively working in the field of education. At that instance, I thought it was nothing extraordinary. Weren’t there plenty of such organizations that were doing similar work? I very well knew there were. However, as I read more about them I realized that they were apart from most other such organizations because their focus was not just education but it was pre-school and primary education.

The most innovative thing this I saw here at Akshara Foundation was a concept known as Karnataka Learning Partnerships. This concept was put forward with a view of the future. Time and again we hear people mention in their speeches, essays, writings that the country will stand strong and tall only if its citizens are well educated and literate. There are plenty of schools run by the Government in the state of Karnataka, but then who ensures that the students enrolled there are actually learning.

Talking numbers, over the next 20 years India will be adding one million people to the workforce every single month. This means that kids need to be well equipped with the knowledge and ability to compete in a different world and adapt to new technologies and opportunities - else they will be stuck with 19th century job skills in the 21st century. We cannot deny the fact that the country’s demographic dividend won’t translate into demographic capital unless proper measures and pro-active action is taken.

The immediate question that followed was by whom? How? When? Is there a possibility to make the entire ecosystem of schooling be made more vibrant? Can the infra-structure be alive and functioning on the ground? Can the process of policy-making be a more informed one? Can there be accountability for ensuring that children learn? All these questions were answered by the Karnataka Learning Partnership which was set up in 2006.

What does KLP do? Karnataka Learning Partnership is an open web-enabled platform set up with the objective of bringing together stakeholders into driving change in our early childhood as well as primary education system – the right stage to lay a strong foundation. KLP had an Akshara-conceived incubation in 2006 in Bangalore, where it has since grown, been fine-tuned and adapted in the context of government schooling in Karnataka.  KLP’s online space is available to all stakeholders who have a commitment to better schools and better education.

In the seventh year since its inception KLP has managed to make a difference in the lives of many children across Bangalore, Hubli and Dharwad. The aim is to - "Prepare, Not Repair", to give school-readiness skills to 3-to-5 year olds.

Read more about KLP here. 
Now you can do your bit and make education better for these kiddies. How?
Take a look here http://youtu.be/BQBsAjlBTHw

She Sinner…..

image source: societyfeedsthehydra.com

Standing on the banks of death,

She waited for death to come.

Waves of memories ran down,

Her eyes wet and body numb.

Looking back she sighed and heaved

Life had had its way.

A saint she was not, a fact she knew

She had nothing to say.

A pompous and well-heeled life she walked,

Filled with arrogance and vanity she led.

Superior she called herself above all,

Egotism and pride she crowned in her head.

As her life swayed with riches,

Her avarice grew.

Breaking the barriers of humanity,

Her conscience she has slew.

She attempted to find love,

Yet she lusted for life.

In search of affection and passion,

She gusted and strived.

A temper to scald a numerous hearts,

Grew inside of her.

It was a vice she knew it well,

Which laughed louder than her.

Her personality smirked and sneered with gluttony,

She happily lived with the sin.

Her scruples told her otherwise,

But she was living to win.

She lived with the best of everything,

Yet she yearned for more.

Greed, bitterness and jealousy,

She was steeped in envy to the core.

Riches and affluence gave her comforts of life,

An easy existence she had found.

Her mind and body were now inept.

As Indolence and idleness had found a breeding ground.

Now as death embraced her in its arms,

She felt no itch, no regret.

She was a sinner then, and so was she now,

Experiencing her life’s sunset.

- Nimisha Shirodkar

The prompt was given by Rohin Bhargava as a part of a writing exercise.