VIEWS India

Educate Girls

Empowering children through education

EDUCATION

VIEWS has been working to provide quality education to adolescents and children from marginalised communities to help them become good citizens and succeed in life. Our gender-conscious learning ecosystem at the community level has facilitated the return of several adolescent girls to mainstream education. Learning opportunities coupled with skills training have empowered the girls to escape from child labour and child marriage and move ahead for a better life.

Children’s learning centre

Disadvantaged and vulnerable children from Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), migrant and fishing communities residing in urban slums and rural hamlets of Odisha are being provided quality education through the Children’s Learning Centre established by VIEWS. Trained teachers impart education to these children through activity-based learning and games making it an enjoyable experience for the students so that they look forward to coming to school every day. The teachers also provide awareness on child rights, right to education, personal health & hygiene in the community to encourage parents to continue sending their children for education and to decrease the dropout rate. VIEWS has promoted mothers’ groups and been conducting regular parents-teachers meetings. It also makes effort to enroll students in government schools so that they could access mainstream education.

Remedial classes for dropout girls

VIEWS works in urban slums of Bhubaneswar with migrant families working in the unorganised sector. The parents who mostly work as construction workers, municipality sweepers, housemaids, etc. get busy earning a livelihood leaving behind their children to fend for themselves. Our team works with these children to generate their interest in studies. We target dropouts, especially the girls who have discontinued education to stay back at home to raise their younger siblings and do the household chores when their parents are away for work. Our team creates opportunities to engage with these girls and motivates them to explore their fullest potential by providing them with the right support, education and resources for employment and entrepreneurship. 

Resource centre for adolescent girls

The first resource centre for adolescent girls established in the Shikharchandi Nagar slum of Bhubaneswar was a successful project, prompting us to replicate the model in other areas. The idea was to create a space for the girls to interact and learn. Equipped with modern information technology facilities and a library with relevant resource materials, the centre is a place that can be easily accessible by girls. The space aims at involving young girls in different informative and educative training sessions and discussions with the help of rich audio-video content to renew their interest in higher education. Skill trainings, life skills and computer education helps them to be job-ready. Special sessions on networking, business planning, financial literacy and creativity are also provided to boost the entrepreneurship skills among the girls. Efforts are made to address the educational deficit in high schoolers and dropout girls through remedial classes for existing high schoolers as well as those who have dropped out of school. Admission assistance and all required support are extended to the students to ensure their retention in school.  

Digital literacy centre:

Adolescent girls from underserved communities in Odisha who do not have access to education and opportunities to develop employability skills are provided computer education through Social Capital Credits model. As per this model, students can earn the credits by mentoring or tutoring two younger children, thrice a week that they can redeem for KidsWhoKode Digital Literacy classes. This is achieved through the learning centres that we have helped set up, which are equipped with laptops and low-cost tech solutions such as the Raspberry Pi, libraries and digital literacy trainers. Digital literacy is also being promoted among youth and PWDs, through six Digital Literacy Centres in urban slums and rural areas. More than 600 participants from Class 8 to Graduation have completed the digital literacy programme course. 

Career counselling and life skills education

Due to lack of awareness on career options and life skills, most of the teenagers face problems in choosing the right careers and acquiring life skills to live in the changing environment. VIEWS conducts training on career counselling for youth to choose the right path for a bright future.    

Schools for children with disability

VIEWS in collaboration with the Odisha Association for the Blind has been running a model school for the visually impaired students in Bhubaneswar. This school has classes from 1 to 8 and is managed by trained teachers who, besides regular subjects, are also educating the students on music, mobility, digital literacy and personal health & hygiene for the overall wellbeing of children with visual impairment. 

Inclusive education for visually impaired

Children with visual impairments face disproportionate challenges in learning and by the time they reach college, they are significantly under-represented in science, mathematics, and other disciplines. In the schools for the visually challenged in Odisha, students continue their struggle to learn not only without sight but also without textbooks. VIEWS has been developing audiobooks from Class 6 to Post Graduation for the students as per the state curriculum. Our team has been establishing audio libraries at schools, providing training to teachers, parents, and students on the use of audiobooks, uploading audiobooks in the national library SugamPustakalya and addressing the needs of the visually impaired students through a dedicated helpline. VIEWS is a member of the DAISY Forum of India (DFI) and gets technical support from EyeWay for help desk services.

Life skills education

A life skills education training model including topics such as self-awareness, decision making, menstrual health, sex education, avoiding early pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases is imparted to students.