Author: Smile Team

Building an effective education system for a world after Covid-19 needs to include a collaborative stakeholder engagement and customized solution for all target groups. It is pertinent to note the plethora of challenges that Covid-19 has brought to the fore since March 2020– a digital divide, gender-digital divide, and quality of training. Even before Covid-19, India’s education sector was already trailing with an insufficient number of teachers, quality of teachers, an ecosystem for training teachers, setting the ground for a digital education model. Students were at the receiving end of these sectoral issues.

For educators across the world, the pandemic has been a quintessential adaptive and transformative challenge, a challenge with no predefined guide, but in the Indian context, the trouble is deep-rooted in the lack of innovative digital infrastructure for connecting students, teachers, parents, and institutions on a single platform. While there is an immense focus to find a solution on one end–students–there is less emphasis on teaching the teachers.

Dialling it back a step, the infrastructure for education, sufficient budgetary allocation and quality of education and pupil-teacher ratio (30:1) were key issues of the sector. These resulted in warped primary education which created a domino effect for high education, students coming out of the higher education system also lacked the desired technical and managerial competency and skills and are often found unemployable.

A study by Smile Foundation showed that 43.99% of surveyed children had access to smartphones and another 43.99% of students had access to basic phones while 12.02% do not have access to either smartphones or basic phones. A total of 56.01% of children were found to have no access to smartphones, the study said. 

There is no such study or assessment on teachers’ understanding of online education, online examination and online evaluation. This again needs to be looked at with various sub lenses–the urban-rural, socio-economic and gendered lens. The teachers are also new to the pandemic. They have no prior manual to function in this new world order. There are two ways to map the gap, a feedback study by parents or an online evaluation check for teachers. Either route will help the education sector define the problem.

At the moment defining this problem means keeping a check on education success matrices in India. Over the past few years, we have tried to curb the drop-out rate, increase enrolment in schools and also worked on improving basic education. All these indices do not paint a pretty picture. A complete digitisation in the education industry has made upskilling in technology-use a prime necessity for teachers.

A few challenges have been identified by a study conducted in Uttarakhand. It revealed four categories of barriers that are faced by teachers during online teaching and assessments. Under home environment settings, a lack of basic facilities, external distraction and family interruption during teaching and conducting assessments were major issues reported. Institutional support barriers such as the budget for purchasing advanced technologies, a lack of training, a lack of technical support and a lack of clarity and direction were also reported. Teachers also faced technical difficulties. 

India is committed to achieving Sustainable Development Goals within the next decade. With the clock running, the sector needs swift action to train the teachers. This means there should be a robust collaboration between private and public institutions. The current teacher education system should include technological advancements, child-psychology and development, issues related to health, safety and nutrition of children. Teaching-learning and child development should go hand in hand.

The solution seems to be training the guru for a future that is already here. The solution won’t be one size fits all. It will need a collaborative and inclusive approach by think tanks, government, ed-tech startups to understand the current efficiency level of teachers and then provide solutions to upskill them.

(The writer is the Co-Founder and Executive Trustee of Smile Foundation)

The current teacher education system should include technological advancements, child-psychology and development, issues related to health, safety and nutrition of children.

Building an effective education system in a beyond Covid-19 world needs to include a collaborative stakeholder engagement and customized solution for all target groups. It is pertinent to note the plethora of challenges that Covid-19 has brought to the fore since March 2020 —- digital divide, gender- digital divide, and quality of training.

Even before Covid, India’s education sector was already trailing with insufficient number of teachers, quality of teachers, ecosystem for training teachers, setting the ground for digital education model. Students were at the receiving end of these sectoral issues.

If we solely focus on the impact of Covid-19, we will be at the risk of downsizing the problem in Indian context. However, let us look at the Covid-19 impact before we access the reforms required in the sector. For educators across the world, the pandemic has been a quintessential adaptive and transformative challenge, a challenge with no predefined guide, but in the Indian context, the trouble is deep rooted in lack of innovative digital infrastructure for connecting students, teachers, parents, and institutions on a single platform. These while there is an immense focus to find solution on one end-students —- there is less emphasis on teaching the teachers.

Defining the problem holistically

Dialling back a step, the infrastructure for education, sufficient budgetary allocation, quality of education and pupil teacher ratio (30:1) were key issues of the sector. These resulted in warped primary education which created a domino effect for high education, students coming out of the higher education system also lacked the desired technical and managerial competency and skills and are often found unemployable.

Enter Covid-19

An in-depth study conducted by Smile Foundation titled- Scenario amidst Covid 19 – On ground Situations and Possible Solutions, identified digital divide. The findings of the study showed that 43.99 per cent of surveyed children have access to smartphones and another 43.99 per cent of students have access to basic phones while 12.02 per cent do not have access to either smartphones or basic phones. A total of 56.01 per cent children were found to have no access to smartphones, the study said. This gave us a baseline assessment of the digital divide. Further Smile Foundation suggested customised solutions for covering students with smartphones, with basic phones and with no phones.

There is no such study or assessment on teachers understanding of online education, online examination and online evaluation. This again needs to be looked at with various sub lenses- urban-rural, socio-economic and gendered lens. The teachers are also new to the pandemic. They have no prior manual to function in this new world order. There are two ways to map the gap, a feedback study by parents or an online evaluation check for teachers. Either route will help the education sector define the problem.

Why is there a problem?

At the moment defining this problem means keeping a check on education success matrices in India. Over the past few years we have tried to curb the dropout rate, increase enrolment in schools and also worked on improving the basic education. All these indices do not paint a pretty picture, Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018 reported that more than 50 per cent of class V students could not read and comprehend text prescribed for class II students. All these efforts would further derail if teachers are effective and efficient in the online model. A complete digitisation in the education industry has made upskilling in technology-use a prime necessity for teachers.

A few challenges have been identified by a study conducted in Uttarakhand. The findings revealed four categories of barriers that are faced by teachers during online teaching and assessments. Under home environment settings, a lack of basic facilities, external distraction and family interruption during teaching and conducting assessments were major issues reported. Institutional support barriers such as the budget for purchasing advanced technologies, a lack of training, a lack of technical support and a lack of clarity and direction were also reported. Teachers also faced technical difficulties. The difficulties were grouped under a lack of technical support, it included a lack of technical infrastructure, limited awareness of online teaching platforms and security concerns. These barriers need to be identified across states with specific problems.

Empowering teachers by effective training

India is committed to achieving Sustainable Development Goals within the next one decade. With the clock running, the sector needs swift action to train the teachers. This means there should be a robust collaboration between private and public institutions in bringing up to speed the quality of teachers. The focus should be a “go to” programme for teachers for revamping their skills throughout their career. The current teacher education system should include technological advancements, child-psychology and development, issues related to health, safety and nutrition of children. Teaching learning and child development should go hand in hand.

Solution seems to be training the Guru for the future that is already here. The solution won’t be one size fits all. It will need a collaborative and inclusive approach by think tanks, government, ed-tech startups to collaboratively understand the current efficiency level of teachers and then provide solutions to upskill them.

In India, the scope of development programs for children’s ideal care and upbringing, especially for the vulnerable and underprivileged section is very broad and a lot needs to be done to bring a conducive ecosystem for implementing progressive initiatives at multiple levels. A collaborative approach is key, involving the Government programs, Corporates’ CSR initiatives and Social / NGOs for ensuring comprehensive life-changing care for children, including, nutrition, health, education and basic rights. There are thousands of orphans and poor children in the country who don’t have any facilities or basic amenities for sustenance and are deprived of the rights. There are many such NGOs in the country which are not only giving children a roof to live in but also making them self-reliant for the future through education, nutrition and overall development initiatives.

Here are few of the NGOs, who are working towards child care development:

Miracle Foundation India: Miracle Foundation India is a non-profit organization that works towards bringing life-changing care to orphaned and vulnerable children. With a multi-faceted, collaborative and community-based ‘Child First’ approach, Miracle Foundation India ensures that all these children are educated, healthy and safe. As part of its commitment to education of vulnerable children, Miracle has ensured enrolment of 100% of their children in school, following which, students go to college. To ensure continuity in education for children in childcare institutes (CCIs) as well as those who have been sent back home, Miracle Foundation India has increased application of technology online classes/live streaming of sessions/use of smartphones, i-Pads, etc. From taking care of their school needs to providing them skill training and career counselling for a bright future.

Smile Foundation: Smile Foundation provides education to thousands of children from Class I to Class XII running across 23 states. The foundation found that about 56% of Indian children lack smartphones. In this scenario, amidst Covid-19, they are providing possible solutions to access education. Smile Foundation has been tirelessly striving to achieve. Through intensive programmes based on education, healthcare, livelihood and women empowerment, we work towards bringing positive and long lasting change in the lives of children and their families.

Bhumi: Bhumi is one of India’s largest independent and youth volunteer non-profit organisations.

Bhumi was founded on August 15, 2006 by a small group of friends with a strong passion to change society today and build a better India for tomorrow. The organisation provides youngsters a platform to serve the society and bridges the gap between the educated and the uneducated.

Our volunteers educate and mentor children from orphanages, slum and village community centres across the country to give them a better future, which will benefit them as well as our country. The learning experience is mutual – our volunteers gain perspective and the experience to mould themselves into tomorrow’s leaders.

The Akanksha Foundation: The Akanksha Foundation was started in 1991 with a simple idea – To deliver a high quality education to each child, no matter his or her background. Since 1991, Akanksha has grown from an organisation of student volunteers to a professional institution with over 700 staff, teachers and volunteers with a mission to provide educational opportunities to less privileged children.

Smile Foundation has highlighted how its intensive interventions through project ‘Sampoorna’ in Banaskantha district of Gujarat, brought about a remarkable change in the health outcomes of adolescent girls. The project was supported by Pepsico Foundation. The ground-breaking comprehensive nutrition enhancement program for 1,000 adolescent girls from 10 villages in Block Amirgarh, District Banaskantha, Gujarat, increased consumption of IFA, de-worming and multi-vitamin tablets, substantially increased Hemoglobin levels in adolescent girls and created positive outcomes in their Body Mass Index (BMI).

As far as Hemoglobin levels were concerned, due to the project intervention, the incidence of severe to moderate anaemia fell from nearly 78 per cent to around 34 per cent. There was a considerable turnaround in the consumption of multi-vitamins and Iron and Folic Acid supplements as well. While the consumption of IFA tablets went up from 14.3 per cent to 47.9 per cent, consumption of multi-vitamins increased from 15.10 per cent to 44.4 per cent and consumption of de-worming tablets increased from 6.35 per cent to 7.24 per cent.

There was a remarkable improvement in the BMIs of the adolescent girls as well. The percentage of underweight girls decreased from 70.2 per cent to 13.8 per cent and those with normal weight increased from 29.5 to 86.1 per cent. The project outcomes were shared by Smile Foundation in a virtual session with the theme- ‘Sustainability in Nutrition Intervention for Adolescent Girls’

The event on January 22 was attended by eminent personalities such as Dr. Sumantra Pal – Economic Advisor, Ministry of Women & Child Development (Government of India); Manisha Chandra – Secretary & Commissioner, Women & Child Development (Government of Gujarat) and panellists from various development partner organizations.

Praising the work done under the project, Dr. Sumantra Pal, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India said,” It is commendable how the project has been able to deliver and initiate behavioural change despite challenges, especially due to the pandemic. Nutrition in adolescent girls is a critical subject, cutting across various SDGs. We congratulate Smile and Pepsi Co. for their efforts to promote behavioural change and steps to reduce anaemia in young girls.”

Congratulating Smile Foundation, Ms. Manisha Chandra, Secretary & Commissioner, Women & Child Development, Government of Gujarat, said,” I would like to congratulate Smile for wonderful efforts in the sector. The success stories shared today inspire us to replicate the project in other parts of Gujarat. The Sampoorna Project works in tandem with SDG-2, but the SDG2 is the basis for achieving all the other goals, therefore the learnings shared today become extremely important for us.”

Mr Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder, and Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation said, “In the Sampoorna project, more than the improvement in the haemoglobin levels of 1,000 adolescent girls, it is the awareness and behavioural change we have been able to trigger in them, their families, and the larger community that I feel is our biggest achievement. This is so evident when you hear the girls talk, in how they conduct themselves. The project gave them an opportunity to not just step out of their homes, but also break the social barriers that had prevented them from truly utilizing their potential. They are now confident and outspoken. They are informed and aware of their food and health choices. They have become financially independent; many who had discontinued their education, have opened up to learning again. I remember our project coordinator sharing that together, they even prevented two child marriages from happening. These little victories are no less important, in fact, they are more so. And this is what we are celebrating today – Real Work, Real Change, which incidentally also happens to be our motto at Smile.”

Juhi Gupta, Head – Sustainability PepsiCo India, Foundation said, “Winning with Purpose continues to remain at the heart of PepsiCo & so does the focus on safe water, nutrition & other development needs for the underserved communities. We are happy to have partnered with Smile Foundation on this project to address the nutritional needs of the adolescent girls which continues to pose as a major challenge across the Country. It’s encouraging to see the positive outcomes achieved through improvement in haemoglobin levels and adoption of better nutritional habits by the target cohorts- this truly has been a great partnership and a memorable journey.”

Project ‘Sampoorna ’was introduced in 2018 to make a difference to the status of women’s health with Smile Foundation as the implementing partner and PepsiCo Foundation as the donor under their CSR initiative. The project was formulated after a baseline study, conducted by Smile Foundation to assess the nutritional status of adolescent girls (14 to 19 years) in the region, revealed that 78% of adolescent girls were anaemic (varying from mild to severe), with 50% girls being moderately anaemic and about 13% being severely anaemic. The survey also revealed that only 17.6% were attending school, with most respondents (49%) dropping out of school after Class 6 or 8. The study further revealed that around 84% of the respondents have never consumed any multi-vitamin or iron-folic acid supplements, and most of them having no awareness of anaemia or ever having checked their anaemic status.

India carries the highest burden of the disease despite having an anaemia control program for over 70 years. Covering 1,000 women from 10 villages in the Banaskantha district, the project has been designed as a pilot program for addressing the prevalence of anaemia among girls. The project tries to introduce behavioural changes regarding proper dietary practices, and help improve nutrition quotient, while also empowering the girls with livelihood capabilities.

Source: https://thecsrjournal.in/csr-smile-foundation-and-pepsico-highlight-milestones-achieved-by-project-sampoorna-in-gujarat/