The formation year of a child plays a significant role in building his personality. Along with family a lot of other factors add to the child’s cognitive and mental development. Besides good school buildings, innovative teaching-learning experiences, exposure to the happenings around the world, using English with comfort, choosing the career of your choice by being well informed…. All these are a part of every child’s school life. Right? Well. Not entirely so. At least not for every child. What we take for granted in the premier schools in cities, is a distant dream for children in rural settings.
There is no dearth of talent and capability in the village children. If there’s anything lacking, then it is a level playing field with their city counterparts. Providing equity being the underpinning vision, Neeta Gupta and Garima Tandon founded Bridge the Gap Foundation in 2017.
BTG supports the public education system in Hingna block, Nagpur and in a short span of a few years, BTG has impacted more than 500 rural children. The primary goal of BTG is to offer quality education to rural children through personalised and practical learning. The children who once did not even know that there is a method other than rote learning, are now filled with curiosity and participate actively in class discussions. Initiatives cover early childhood to higher education, collaborating with communities and partners for a supportive rural education ecosystem.
The first program is the Early Childhood Education Program with an aim to give the preschool children exposure to the skills needed to match up to the city schools. The curriculum delivery is specially designed in a holistic way, keeping in mind Play, Speaking, Reading, Writing along with curiosity and logical thinking. Qualified psychologists are called to the centre to assess the children and identify any learning difficulties the children may have.
Then comes the ZP Primary School Support Program. It regulates basic foundational learning for 1st to 5th grade students. The curriculum transaction is specially designed for rural children to improve their literacy skills, numeracy skills, curiosity and logical thinking. Achieving academic proficiency in village children is the first step. Emphasis is laid on English comprehension and expression. Audio-visual teaching aids and hands-on experiments have a lasting impact on the learners’ minds. One instance is learning about nutrition. Children practically apply this concept by growing vegetables in the School Kitchen Garden. And not stopping at that, the same vegetables are used in the food they eat in the mid-day meal scheme!
Learn for Tomorrow centre is an after school program for children above class 6. It focuses on skill building, self-development and social awareness. Weekdays are used to consolidate their academic concepts through practical learning and one-to-one guidance. Saturdays are all for personality development. Music classes to create an appreciation for fine arts, short films to Educate the students on various social & global issues and give them a window to the world, Quality Circle Time sessions to aid emotional growth and perspective. Sports, library resources, Inter-house competitions, theatre workshops, debates and field trips further boost leadership and teamwork. Annual events like Sports Day, Cultural Day, Food Festival bring their creativity and organising skills to the fore.
Senior students at the Learn for Tomorrow centre are given career counselling from renowned counsellors of Nagpur to help them make informed career choices. To keep up with the need of the times, Financial Literacy sessions provide knowledge on managing finances, Digital Literacy Classes Equip students with essential computer skills and discussions on Current affairs and regular reading of the newspaper keep them well informed. Confidence in spoken English has practically helped the youth in their selection in prestigious jobs by clearing group discussions and interviews.
The Mobile library project takes the Books on Wheels to Sawangi village, aiming to encourage reading and cultivate reading habits among rural children. Besides initiating the children to reading story books, the BTG volunteers play word games, GK quizzes and also take them around the world virtually through informative short films.
Not limiting the endeavours to children’s development, an enriching ecosystem is being created by identifying the educated adults in the village and equipping them with the required skills and knowledge for teaching the children. BTG has taken up this challenge of training them in theories of education, latest teaching methodologies and assessment techniques.
In the past year itself, BTG conducted Art Workshop, Dance and Theatre Workshop, Summer Volunteering program in collaboration with city schools, Astronomy workshop, and a number of outdoor excursions, thereby combining learning and fun. The impact is there for all to see. The team of BTG teachers visits the villages and meets the parents to inform them about the ongoing practices at the BTG centre. Once ignorant about the importance of education and regular attendance, now parents are enthusiastic to know about their child’s progress.
The village ecosystem is developing by leaps and bounds through Green Initiatives which include using eco-friendly materials for construction and annual plantation drives planting at least 200 trees each year. So far, BTG has impacted children in 7 villages, 5 Anganwadis and 4 ZP schools and 1 Learn for Tomorrow centre in Sukali, Hingna. BTG welcomes all like-minded individuals and organisations to join them in this venture to provide support at the grassroots level.