EDUCATION   FOR   UNDERPRIVELEGED   CHILDREN

Free Afternoon Schools – A Movement for Social Transformation

Sponsor & Innovator : Kerala Public Schools and K S M S , Jamshedpur

Background

• With 1.67 million out – of – school children, India is placed at the bottom four in terms of the number of children out-of-school, just above Nigeria, Pakistan and Ethiopia, as per a recent study by the UNESCO. Most of these children are from the margins of society
• Government intervention alone cannot alleviate this giant problem. Reasons are many – Lack of Infrastructure, Lack of Facilities, Lack of Teachers, Lack of Monitoring Mechanism and Lack of Quality.
• Education is the Precursor of Development. It roots out Social discrepancies and Economic Exploitation.

The Solution – Free Afternoon Schools

• Reuse of Campus and existing facilities of schools during the idle Hours
• Provide Quality Education absolutely Free of Cost and thereby making Education Accessible to all
• With over 1.3 million schools in the country, collectively, we can make a huge difference

Our Success Story

• Target Beneficiaries – Underprivileged Children living in the surrounding slum areas of our schools
• Number of Afternoon Schools – 5
• Number of Students in Current Academic year – 4060

           –  51% of the total students girls

                        – 30%  Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribes

                          -35% Other Backward Community

                          -20% minority community

                         -15% general



• Where And When The Schools Take Place?

In the premises of the English medium schools when it is free
2:00 pm to 5:30 pm on week days and from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm on Saturdays




• Classes we offer and medium of Instruction?

The Entry Point is Std. I, while uppermost class is fixed considering the availability of infrastructure and facilities of the concerned School. This may be up to Std. VII or even Std. X. The Medium of Instruction is Hindi.



• How do we mainstream these children?

After completion of uppermost classes, the outgoing students are helped in getting admitted to other schools for further education. Students appearing for Matriculation are allowed to sit in NIOS examination completely free of cost.



• Source of Fund?

Fund generated from the Schools Fees of regular English Medium Schools (Mother School) is the only source



• Replication:

Inspired by our success story and motivated by the District administration, four more English schools other than us in Jamshedpur  run Afternoon schools taking the total beneficiaries to around 7500.

Our Project has previously been recognized by Vijaya Gujaral Award and widely appreciated by Unicef and World Bank Teams.