Page 68 - Education World September 2021

Special Report

path and opting for the development
sector.
T HE TRIBULATIONS faced

by urban social activists
in rural outbacks are for-
midable. They include
official hostility, public indifference,
widespread illiteracy, pervasive pov-
erty exacerbated by the Covid-19 pan-
demic which has taken a grim toll of
lives and livelihoods countrywide (32
million infections and 4.37 lakh fatali-
ties). A large number of individual/
corporate donors have stopped spon-
soring education programmes citing
pandemic-related financial difficulties.
For instance, Anil Pradhan, was in the
middle of constructing a school in his
village in Odisha when the pandemic Rural children: bypassed by 21st century pedagogies and innovations
struck, upending budgeted funds flow.
Similarly, Shrivastava’s mission “While the world is celebrating in- lakh children in ten states through part-
to upgrade the quality of education novations in online education during ner NGOs with content translated into
dispensed in the Sukma-Dantewada the pandemic era, rural areas that we Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Marathi.
region has suffered a setback because are associated with barely registered 5 Sujata Sahu’s 17000 ft Foundation
of prolonged closure of schools. The percent digital penetration. In many introduced the Tablet in Every Hamlet,
National Sample Survey Organisation’s difficult geographies of India, online a unique digital learning progamme for
2017-18 household survey estimates teaching is a nonstarter,” rues Shrivas- areas without electricity and mobile
the number of out-of-school children tava. Clearly, the 16 months’ closure of connectivity. Roughly 1,000 Android
in India (6-17 years) at 32 million. The schools countrywide has undone much tablets were distributed to children
pandemic, warn experts, will double of the work done during the past two- to take home which enabled them to
this number if schools don’t reopen three years to improve rural education continue their studies at home during
soon. Ten million girls in India could standards. Covid. Similarly, Pradhan has set up
drop out of secondary school, accord- While the pandemic has made the innovation labs in several government
ing to a Right to Education Forum pol- extraordinary efforts of rural educa- schools in Odisha and is all set to col-
icy brief. Children have dropped out tion evangelists more difficult, par- laborate with ISRO (Indian Space Re-
of the school system countrywide, and ticularly in the remote hinterland, search Organisation) for a simulated
have been forced into early child mar- many have devised innovative solu- satellite mission.
riage, inducted into the labour force, tions to maintain children’s learning Unsurprisingly, a multiplying num-
and trafficked and forced into prosti- continuity. Lokesh Kalal and Ashish ber of edupreneurs and social activists
tution. Shrivastava have mobilised clusters of including the individuals cited in this
Malnutrition levels have also hit volunteers to teach children in small feature have transformed into local
alarming levels. The India Child Well- groups while maintaining strict Cov- education heroes and saviours of rural
being Report 2020 of World Vision id-19 safety protocols and are providing India’s children — abandoned by the
India, a Chennai-based NGO, says the daily worksheets in various subjects. government — for providing them op-
pandemic has placed 115 million chil- These worksheets have benefitted 3.5 portunities to break out of the vicious
dren countrywide at risk of severe mal- cycle of poverty and illiteracy. Their
nutrition. Moreover, several reports efforts have already yielded results
including an Azim Premji University The 16 months of schools and many children who would have
study estimate the learning loss suf- closure countrywide has derailed are now thriving under the
fered by children because of schools nurturing guidance of unsung heroes
closure — only 4 percent of rural house- undone much of the work planting seeds of literacy, numeracy
holds have access to computers as com- done to upgrade rural and hopes of a better future. They de-
pared to 23 percent in urban house- education standards serve official and social respect and the
holds — at around 80-90 percent. support of all right thinking citizens.

68 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2021