100-day school a boon for dropouts in Vidarbha

Children of Melghat region in Vidarbha are now equipped with education to fight malnutrition. Thanks to Maitri, an NGO, that has been extensively working to bring quality education to the children in this region.

The NGO has started 100-day school for dropout children, a pilot project to teach language and mathematics to the kids. There are 42 children in this school of which 31 are girls.

While talking to DNA, a volunteer, Vaishali Kanaskar, said, "While working with them we realised that these children were not only malnourished, but also didn't have access to the outer world.

Although, there are zilla parishad-run schools in the area, these children haven't been able to reach there. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, is a distant reality for them."

We are working in 28 villages in the area. We conducted a survey of dropouts in the area and selected Chilati village which is one of the remotest villages, she said. The project was launched with the intention of teaching basic skills and concepts to the children. If they can learn language, they will be able to communicate with the world better. Similarly, mathematics is needed in everyday life, Kanaskar said.

"The dropout rate was high as many children worked at farms or stayed home looking after their siblings. Funds and infrastructure were in place, but the real challenge was to convince the parents to send their children to the school. After a lot of efforts, we were successful in convincing them. Today the parents come to us to admit their children," she said.

The 100-day school project was successfully implemented for the children of sugarcane farmers' in the tribal region in Raigad district by Jnanprabodhini. We designed our programme on the same lines, she said.

The school is a residential one, and children between 8 and 12 years of age are enrolled in this school. There are four groups - Ku, Mu, Math (bamboo) and Cipna (Sagwan) - above standard I. The students are allowed to go home every fortnight for one and half days, she said.

"We realised that these children are open to learning new things. We keep evaluating the children, and promote them from one group to another,'' she said. The project started on December 10, 2011, and will conclude on March 3, 2012.