Community led initiative must be promoted to address post-covid classroom challenges for children

Bureau,Odishabarta

Bhubaneswar:The government must move beyond the digital divide to address learning gaps among school-going children who have been left out of education since the last one and half years. Also, Mission Chatasali can be adopted or supported as an after school strategy by the government to address the cumulative learning loss of the children to ensure equitable educational outcome among children, said CSOs in a press conference during the launch of Mission Chatashali in Bhubaneswar.

Mission Chatashali is a community led education initiative which is being implemented by Atmashakti Trust in association with Odisha Shramajeebee Mancha and Mahila Shramajeebee Mancha, Odisha and it will cover 5 lakh children from 89 blocks of 17 districts in Odisha with the help of 25000 Shiksha sathis.

What if we do not intervene?

We need to introspect that the learning deficit cannot be filled once schools are reopened. It will take years for children to attain class-appropriate learning levels. So, if we do not facilitate an after-school programme for children to bridge their learning gaps, slow learners will develop no interest in the learning process. Many of them may not come to school, which is one of the major causes of rising drop-out cases.

Therefore, there is a need to have an after school programme for children and are launching ‘Mission Chatashali’ which will cover 5 lakh children from Odisha. It will not only work as an alternative learning platform for children but also will serve as a sustainable education model looking at our socio-economic and geographic diversity and a large representation of children from Tribal, Dalit and other marginalised community learning levels among children.

How workable is this model (Mission Chatashali)? How will it help the community address the learning gaps of children?

Mission Chatashali initiative is a cutting edge solution in terms of bridging learning gaps, addressing the social and emotional needs of children and promoting equitable educational outcomes among children.

It is a community-led initiative where parents and community members take charge of the programme. This will be a supplementary platform rather than a substitute for the government schools.

Mission Chatasali focuses on local talents, local resources for local development. The volunteer teachers will be from villages, the resources required for running this campaign will be raised locally through the support of villagers. This will promote community ownership and volunteerism which is much needed to sustain the initiative.

The SMCs, PTAs and other local bodies will be activated and then they are more likely to take up their roles for children’s education as per the Right to Education Act.

We are also using the government’s Ujjwala module apart from our module so that learning outcomes can be measured.

This will be a low-cost initiative for the government to adopt as local volunteers can be engaged to teach children with the existing school infrastructure.

Children at this juncture, require our support to transit back to normal life and be able to continue their education with a renewed hope and aspiration. Therefore, we urge the government to consider people’s demand to adopt/replicate Mission Chatashali, to overcome the digital divide in Odisha’s post-Covid classrooms.