Agrasar Bachpan
Our Approach
We run community based learning Centres where we enhance the education attainments of children who are out of the mainstream school system. The goal is to bring them up to age-appropriate levels so they can join the formal school system. Agrasar focusses on the holistic development of the children enrolled in its learning centres, building a strong foundation for life-long learning. The teachers facilitate skill development to enhance children's personalities, their academic performance, and their outlook towards the future. The centres work in close partnership with the parents, to ensure their support in encouraging their children and reinforcing learning at home.
Garima Sahni
Program Lead
garima@agrasar.org
Children from underprivileged communities do not go to schools due to lack of opportunity, accessibility or motivation. We are trying to create opportunities and instill a love for learning in them. With your support, we are determined to reach out and develop life skills and enhance learning attainments in children who are at risk.
Our Impact
How We Do It
Community Mobilization
Need- assessment is conducted to understand the optimum location for a centre.
Home visits, one to one counseling sessions, community meetings, street plays, etc. for spreading awareness
Interested and eligible children as well as their parents are invited to the centre to understand the systems and processes and fill up the application form.
Children in the age group of 5 to 12, who do not go to schools due to various reasons, with a household income of less than certain region-wise threshold are enrolled into the program.
Child-Centric Learning
A child stays at the centre for about a year (depending on the learning capability of the child),in which they are taught through a curriculum that focuses on experential and peer learning to reach their age- appropriate learning levels. It also includes Life skills like – personal hygiene, self awareness, social expression, cognitive ability, creative thinking, co-exist in collaboration, problem solving, managing emotions. We work towards development of foundational abilities and strong affinity for continuous formal education in students and their parents.
Curriculum Development and Teacher Training
The program has been designed to follow a ‘child-centric approach’. The teachers are trained in facilitation skills, group-learning theory, use of Teaching-Learning Materials, and other principles/methods of effective learning. There is an active involvement of parents in learning process.
Co-curricular initiatives
The program has been designed to follow a ‘child-centric approach’. The teachers are trained in facilitation skills, group-learning theory, use of Teaching-Learning Materials, and other principles/methods of effective learning. There is an active involvement of parents in learning process.
Community Engagement
Keeping parents involved in the process of education is one of the main pillars of Agrasar Bachpan. Parents being the influencer in quality as well as consistency of education are engaged at various stages through parent-teacher meeting, inviting them in the classrooms, participation in festivals and other events held at the centre.
Continuum of Support
- Govt.
- Pvt – RTE
- Fund (Crowdfunding, Individual donors/sponsors)
Consistent follow up system is created to support the students after mainstreaming. Children attending government schools face various issues on a regular basis which leads to dropping out eventually- counselling and support is done to tackle this.
Our Impact Philosophy
Even though we understand that designing scalable interventions is important, we do not believe in targeting numbers. Whenever being asked the question - "How is it going?", our team members would normally talk about students and people - successes achieved or challenges being faced in particular cases. We also try to be fair and objective in communicating about 'impact' to all stakeholders. e.g. you would often hear us mentioning that - "Around 20% of the youth who come to our Employability Centres would have gone in similar jobs had they not joined us. Therefore, we need to find even better avenues of placement." We would also talk about children who we were not able to mainstream. We share our successes as well as challenges so as to attract people and organizations in our journey who mean to make a "real impact".
Tidings from the field
This Independence Day, we celebrated the power of courage, truth and development in communities we work with and in the nation as a whole. The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Gurugram, Mr. Narender Singh, graced the occasion and appreciated the efforts of children, their parents and our team for their role in nation building.
Across all our Learning Centres, the teachers gave extra classes, did counselling of the parents and the children, met the Principals of the schools which were identified for getting our students enrolled, made sure that the students appear for the admission process along with their parents, ensured that they have all the required documents and went to the school with them at the time of admission.
Due to the combined efforts of the teachers, the students and parents, around 100 children from Agrasar Bachpan have been mainstreamed this year in formal schools, both Govt. and Private, in Gurugram. We are expecting a few more to get enrolled in schools in the next month.
We celebrated World Environment Day with the students by planting some seeds.
The children wanted to see their 'plants' grow, before they leave for their respective villages in their summer holidays which start from the 15th June.
So our teachers bought 'jaun ke beej' (Barley seeds) and the children were happy to sow the seeds.
Now they are excited to closely observe their plants' growth for next 10 days.
Our Students
Rukhsana
Read Story
Suhana
Read Story
Radhika
Read Story
Rukhsana
Rukhsana is a bright little girl. She got enrolled in the Agrasar Bachpan centre in the month of May, 2015. During initial few months in the centre, she mostly came without having any bath and wearing unclean clothes. She had also been highly irregular in centre. In Agrasar Bachpan, the teachers have made it compulsory for the children to take bath in the morning, brush teeth and wear clean clothes. The idea is to break old practices and inculcate new habits through motivation as well as practice. While other children were learning well, she always lagged in terms of discipline and personal hygiene. The team spoke to her mother and found out that her mother had completely neglected her. The neighbours told the team that she leaves early in the morning only to come late in the evening. Her father is an alcoholic and is never home. Rukhsana is completely on her own for most of the day and play in the neighbourhood. Under such circumstances it was unexpected of a five year old to take care of herself. The team counselled her mother and it took consistent, rational as well as emotional conversations for her mother to listening give equal importance to child along with the work. Slowly, things started improving. Rukhsana started coming in time with a proper bath. She also started wearing clean clothes. She aspires to be a doctor and was mainstreamed into the 1st standard of Happy School, Sikanderpur Village this year in April and has been promoted to the 2nd standard in 5 months.
Suhana
A quiet girl of 10 years old, Suhana lives in a small rented accommodation in Islampur village of Gurugram, along with her younger sister and parents. She has an elder sister as well who is married and stays in her native village. Suhana’s family moved from their village in West Bengal to Gurugram 5 years back, in search of better livelihood opportunities. Before getting enrolled in Agrasar Bachpan last year, she had never studied in any school. She could not even hold a pencil properly, let alone writing alphabets. But this dedicated girl has shown immense growth and learning in past one year. She picked up the basics of her subjects so quickly that even our teachers were surprised at her grasping power and sharpness. She has a very neat and beautiful handwriting. She was always the first one in the class to answer the questions and always did her homework on time. Her parents are very keen on educating her. They could not give this opportunity to their elder daughter due to their tough circumstances, but are now very firm on their decision to educate Suhana and her younger sister. They have even reduced the frequency of visiting their native village as the studies of the children suffer while doing so.
Due to this bright girl’s dedication and willingness of her parents to send her to school, she got admission in a very good private school this year. She not only impressed the Principal in the interview but also passed the written test with good marks. As we talk to her now, she says, “ School jaana bahut accha lagta hai. Class mein mazaa aata hai. Maine apna saara Holiday Homework bhi khatam kar lia!”
Radhika
Radhika is a bright 6-years-old girl, living in a small rented accommodation in Hari Nagar area of Gurugram, along with her younger sister and parents. Radhika’s family moved from their village in Bihar to Gurugram 3 years back, in search of better livelihood opportunities. Before getting enrolled in Agrasar Bachpan last year, she had never studied in any pre-nursery or nursery school. But Radhika’s mother made dedicated efforts to teach her at home.
Her father is a vegetable seller, so he didn’t have enough money to send her to school or afford tuitions. She started coming to our learning centre last year. Since then, she has shown tremendous growth and learning. After going home, her mother still used to teach her and help her with her homework. In case she missed coming to our centre even for a day, her mother used to call up the teachers to inform them about her absence. Her parents have been very supportive and have always shown keen interest regarding her education.
Radhika also used to pay full attention towards her studies and has been one of our most sincere students. She always used to complete her homework on time. She also has an artistic streak as she likes to draw and paint in her free time and she is very good at it. She always asks for different varieties of colors and paints from our teachers as she likes to experiment with them!
Radhika got mainstreamed in a private school this year in Upper Kindergarten. She is still coming to Agrasar Bachpan Learning Centre for remedial classes so that she copes well with her classroom studies. Now she comes to our centre with even more enthusiasm and often tells us stories from her school. She has made new friends there and is quite happy about it. Her parents are also very happy about her admission in a formal school. It is because of her and her parents’ dedication; and our teachers’ efforts that she reached her age-appropriate learning level and got mainstreamed in a private school within an year of her enrollment at our learning centre