Under the Quality Education Sustainable Development Goals - 4 (SDGs), as set by the United Nations (UN) Child help Foundation, is implementing multiple programs to ensure that every child receives quality primary education. Our grassroots-level efforts are nationally recognized. CHF's volunteers are working harder so that the benefits of our initiatives trickle-down deeper into society and more people benefit from it.

We believe that education is one of the most important aspects of development for an individual, which in turn results in the nation's development. For the past decade, CHF has been supporting students through many ways - like by giving scholarships, providing educational material, constructing clean washrooms in schools to decrease the drop-out rates, giving healthy food to the students, and by improving the infrastructure of the schools in rural and inaccessible areas.

One such initiative is the Center for Excellence (CFE) Program. Started in the year 2019, this program's pilot project is being carried out at Palghar, Maharashtra's Sakhare Ashram Shala, which is a residential school. Here, students from poor, tribal communities from neighboring villages come and study at the school. The school has a hostel-like facility for those who come from far-away villages.

How it all began:

In the year 2018, a baseline survey was done in the Sakhare Ashram School where it was observed that the school’s board result was 80%. Hence, Child Help Foundation decided to initiate a project called “Center For Excellence” for the students of class 10th, where extra coaching was given for English, Mathematics and Science subjects.

The marks received in the 10th standard are very crucial in the lives of the children that decide their destination and future streams of life; CHF appointed specially qualified teachers to teach Mathematics, Science and English to children from Sakhare Ashram Shala located in Palghar District. The Sakhare Ashram Shala is a government Aided School. These children belong to tribal communities with no access to quality education. The Center for Excellence Programme follows the teaching methodology, which focuses on the board exam perspective and gives practice sessions resulting in the students earning maximum marks in their board exams. Apart from what is being taught during school hours, the faculty under CFE made the students study for extra time. Gradually, the students started taking more interest in these subjects. Doubts were asked and thus, they became more geared and better prepared for their 10th standard board exams.

The Basics or the essential formulae are taught in the main subjects of Science, Mathematics and English that help them to solve real problems and give clarity on the concepts. In the survey conducted before the commencement of the academic session, it was observed that the students were not able to recite the English alphabet. The students had shown improvement in the fundamentals of the English subject in a months’ time.

The Taj Wellington Mews also donated 45 question sets of the previous year’s 10th standard board exams to the students at Sakhare School. They also gave writing pads and supplementary papers for the children. Previous year question papers are the most important and useful study material to get the complete idea about the 10th standard exam pattern. For the last few years, it was noticed that the question pattern of any competitive exam is nearly the same, so preparing for exams from the previous year's papers is very insightful. To help the children prepare with ease, the sets of question papers were also provided with their correct answers.

Outcome:

In the year 2020, when the board results were declared, the school extended their gratitude to the Child Help Foundation, as it was the first time that it had scored 100% results for the first time ever!

There were 43 students enrolled in the Center for Excellence Program who cleared their 10th exams with the highest scores in Mathematics, Science and English. The education of girl children has created equal opportunities for both girls and boys of tenth standards. From the past two years, the results showcase that CFE has had an impact on their performance in a positive way.

Tablet Distribution:

As a token of appreciation, tablet pc’s were given to 10 students as granted by a donor to Child Help Foundation. It was decided to contribute to students who had scored the highest marks in their board exams. Also, an interactive session on the importance of education was conducted for the students present. The School Authorities and the Children were very glad to receive the tablets as this will contribute towards their online education.

In 2021, the Motilal Oswal Foundation joined hands with Child Help Foundation for the CFE project to improve it further. With their support, we have been able to provide more facilities to the students.

Other Project Locations:

With the consistent success at the Sakhare Ashram Shala, Child Help Foundation decided to expand the CFE project to reach out to more students from neighboring villages. Thus, in 2021, we established well-functioning CFE models in the villages of Bhopoli, Murbaad and Vangani, in Palghar, Maharashtra.

Currently, the number of beneficiaries in all our project locations are as follows:

India’s education scenario does not provide an equal ground to all students. Educational institutions with good infrastructure are the only ones capable of providing a good academic experience to its students. This educational divide has increased with the pandemic.

With schooling becoming online, the rural areas with lack of infrastructure were unable to impart the necessary education to the students. Thus, the students who are already lacking behind their urban counterparts, were only demotivated to continue studying. This has been a major reason for children dropping out of schools. The lack of theoretical and vocational training among them would further lead to unemployment, leading to a decelerated economic and social development and growth.

Initiatives like CFE are the only way out of this maze. Let us know your thoughts on this initiative and what we can do to improve this further!