SILVER LINING
Education in the Time of Covid
For every dark cloud there is a silver lining

As Covid has swept across the planet like a raging storm; everyone has been impacted.

At Aasraa we have risen to the challenge of educating our slum and street children while schools are closed. These children do not have access to laptops, tablets and smart phones.

We have created a model, based on a grid mapping system, to not only reach our children and continue their education, but to significantly raise the level of education they receive.

We have called this program ‘Silver Lining’

Aasraa’s mission is to provide opportunity to marginalized children through education to break the poverty cycle; to level the playing field. We have designed a blended learning program to raise the education bar for these slum and street children… and deliver it!

They have taken to it like little ducklings to water.

THE PLAN

On a grid, we mapped our children and created small clusters based on location.

Using a ratio of 8 children to a dedicated education phone, we raised funds through our wonderfully supportive donors and bought tablets and smart phones.

Three learning zones were established and teachers were mapped, based on subject and class level, to match these zones.

These education specific smart phones (Ed Phone), assigned to each cluster, combine online classes, education apps and tutorials with teachers. Printed education material to reinforce these concepts taught online is distributed, collected and marked each week. A combination of on deck and off deck activities keep the children engaged throughout the week.

THE TRAINING

A massive exercise was undertaken to train our teachers to use this blended learning program; to teach online, to use education apps, and respond to children’s queries online.

Technical training was essential as well as online lesson planning to use on this new medium of communication with the children.

Delivery of concept online and ensuring a child’s ability to understand it. Reinforcing concept with education app which is both audio/visual and interactive.

EDUCATION APPS

The new generation of education apps is a quantam leap ahead of previous programs. Aasraa focus on using technology as a tool for education had stagnated slightly due to the quality of material available online. Covid has marked an incredible leap forward in quality, delivery, and assessment. 

We have the new generation of education apps; interactive and fun, using a child imagination and increasing retention, able to assess individual children’s progress and record it.

THE DISTRIBUTION

A responsible adult had to be found and trained to handle and charge each smart phone. 

The outreach team researched each cluster to pick the most responsible adult in each. 

Each designated ‘Keeper of the Ed Phone’ had to be given basic training to turn on, charge and use. One of the main challenges to this plan is to keep the Ed Phone in working order and making sure that it is charged for battery and updated for data usage.

THE IMPACT

2400 children at Aasraa will remain in education!

Technology and the cluster model of the Silver Lining program will ensure a much better quality of education. The analogy is that we have created mini smart classes all over the slums of Doon. In theory, our slum children via the medium of online education, can be receiving the same quality of education as a child at Eton… theoretically. This is our chance to start levelling the playing field. If Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, surely we can win the war on illiteracy.

AASRAA TRUST

Mailing Address: 119/1 Vasant Vihar, Dehradun 248006

Uttarakhand India

Contact Phone: +91-9045056991

Website: https://aasraatrust.org/

Email: aasraa@aasraatrust.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aasraa.trust/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AasraaTrust

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aasraatrust/

To Donate online :

https://aasraatrust.org/donations/

Indian Donations

Account No : 50100228857353

IFSC Code : HDFC0001399

MICR: 248240004

SWIFT Code : HDFCINBB

Branch Address : Ballupur Chowk,

Uttarakhand 248001

Foreign Donations

Aasraa Trust

FCRA Account number: 1711476559

SWIFT Code: KKBKINBB

IFSC : KKBK0000153

Branch Address : Kotak Mahindra Bank,

Ground Floor & First Floor

Foreign donors-  https://www.savethechild.org/aasraatrust

Aasraa is a vetted organization by Global Giving. Support our programs-

www.globalgiving.org/projects/street-to-school-mainstreaming-street-children-1/


For private circulation only

Aasraa Trust

119/1, Vasant Vihar, Dehradun
India

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