|
PROJECT TITLE: Engaging and empowering parents in rural India to build school readiness and foundational literacy and numeracy in their children, age 3 to 6 years, and bringing with it a practice of children 'learning to learn'.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION (Summary):
Over a 4-year period, in collaboration with NGO, Gyan Prakash Foundation, the project will focus on an identified group of 8000 rural parents, to improve school readiness skills of their children entering Grade 1. This will be achieved by:
1) Bringing a parental mindset shift from resistance and abdication to teaching, to taking ownership of child 'learning to learn'.
2) Enabling the parent with an App (Learning Navigator) on her smartphone, adapted to the local context and language, that supports understanding and effective delivery of engaging activities for the children.
3) Sustaining this transformation by orientation of the ecosystem in the village consisting of
- the formal village council, called Gram Panchayat
- the supervisor and workers of the Government Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
The main objectives of the project are:
1) Empowerment of parents through mindset shift that is captured qualitatively.
2) Improving school readiness in rural preschool children entering Grade 1
ROJECT DESCRIPTION (Details):
The project will be implemented in 333 Anganwadi centers, across 4 years, in 4 subdivisions (Blocks) of Pune District, Maharashtra
BENEFITS:
8927 children from rural villages of Pune district will benefit from the program and enter formal school with improved FLN and school readiness skills. The program will empower 8000 parents through a mindset-shift to build the 'learning to learn' approach in children, bring the joy of learning, develop a growth mindset and lay foundation for success in the child's academic journey.
Total (at the end of 4 years):
No. of Children benefitted= 8927
No. of Parents trained and supported= 8000
No. of Anganwadi workers trained= 333
A. 8000 parents of preschool children will be trained on an easy-to-use App-
Learning Navigator, which will be made available on their smartphones.
B. The Learning Navigator app has play-based videos for parents in their local language, to build developmentally appropriate milestones (such as Cognitive, Physical, Socio-emotional) including FLN (such as Language acquisition, Pre-math skills, Number sense) in children. Parents will be rostered on the app and will be given their unique id and password. Parents can watch the video through the App, at a time convenient to them and conduct those activities with their children using materials available at home.
C. 40 Anganwadi Supervisors and 333 Anganwadi workers (teachers) will be trained on the same app. Anganwadi supervisors and workers will regularly follow up with parents on their use of the app and collect their feedback. Gyan Prakash Foundation (GPF) will also train Anganwadi workers to activate and effectively conduct monthly meetings with parents (knows as Mata Palak Samitis) to disseminate information on child development and monitor the progress of the project with parents.
D. GPF will engage with the local village council (Gram Panchayat) and leverage the Gram Sabha (Monthly village council meeting with the local community) to develop a community movement and sustain the project by encouraging parent involvement in child education.
GPF will play the role of monitoring the progress of the project. The Learning Navigator App dashboard will help in tracking the number of direct beneficiaries using and benefiting from the program. GPF will gather evidence of the impact through qualitative and quantitative measures.
Gyan Prakash Foundation (GPF)
GPF, a non-profit based in Pune, has been working in rural primary government education in Maharashtra since 2012. GPF has worked on improving learning outcomes and school readiness for children entering grade 1 through its parent engagement in Early Childhood Education and Development program since 2017. GPF's program, in the past 5 years, has improved FNL and school readiness of children ready for grade 1 by empowering parents.
Budget : Each school year budget for Program, Training, personnel and ravel expenses
2023-2024 $11,335
2024-2025 $12,468
2025-2026 $13,715
2026-2027 $15,086
Total $52,604
| 
