Education
GRAVIS is actively working to promote education in the villages of the Thar Desert as it is one of the main pillars of sustainable development and key to people’s self-reliance and economic security.
Access to primary education continues to be a challenge, especially for girls because of acute poverty, the absence of adequate infrastructure at schools, the need to spend hours together fetching water for the family and other household and agricultural chores. Also, schools are often very far from the communities making it difficult for young children to access them on a daily basis. Quality of education is also a concern with a lack of human resources and limited availability of good quality training as well as teaching materials. Other factors such as poor health and nutritional status of children also impact educational attainments.
The above factors are majorly responsible for high dropout rates and low literacy levels in villages where GRAVIS works. Although the government education programmes to provide elementary education are ongoing but unfortunately their reach is very limited to the far-flung areas. Educating the villagers of the Thar requires many innovative strategies as girls and other marginalized groups of minorities or tribal communities face additional challenges as they experience many oppressive cultural norms which restrict their mobility.
Access to primary education continues to be a challenge, especially for girls because of acute poverty, the absence of adequate infrastructure at schools, the need to spend hours together fetching water for the family and other household and agricultural chores. Also, schools are often very far from the communities making it difficult for young children to access them on a daily basis. Quality of education is also a concern with a lack of human resources and limited availability of good quality training as well as teaching materials. Other factors such as poor health and nutritional status of children also impact educational attainments.
The above factors are majorly responsible for high dropout rates and low literacy levels in villages where GRAVIS works. Although the government education programmes to provide elementary education are ongoing but unfortunately their reach is very limited to the far-flung areas. Educating the villagers of the Thar requires many innovative strategies as girls and other marginalized groups of minorities or tribal communities face additional challenges as they experience many oppressive cultural norms which restrict their mobility.
Primary Schools
GRAVIS has set up primary and middle schools in the remotest regions of Thar. Over the years, a number of GRAVIS schools have been handed over to the government or to the local community and are running successfully. In our schools we educate all children, no matter what economic background, caste, religion or gender they are from and we also ensure that 50% of our students are girls. Every school established, works towards building a holistic curriculum including sessions on hygiene and sanitation, health check-ups, nutrition awareness, basics of computer, environment, peace and collaboration. A greater focus is thrusted on encouraging enrolment of girls. Children are provided with opportunities to participate in exposure visits, sports and art events as well as supported with nutritious meals to achieve high student retention rates.
Outreach Programmes
As a part of our effort to provide education to children, we run a number of outreach programmes for students and parents. Parents believe that their children’s time would be better spent helping in agriculture work or other duties rather than going to school. As a regular practice our team members visit their homes to discuss options for their children. We play games with children and involve parents as an attempt to show parents the value of education for their child. Ideally, parents will choose to enroll their child in the nearest education center after the meeting.
Village Education Committees (VECs)
GRAVIS understands that the holistic development of children is also dependent on the stakeholders involved including the local community. Thus, the local communities are involved in our education programmes through the formation of VECs. The VECs closely monitor the day-to-day activities of the schools, manage the community’s education fund, support the school teachers, oversee the distribution of teacher’s salaries as well as secure food and other materials needed for the effective functioning of the schools. Decisions regarding the future plans of the school such as links to government funds and schemes, as well as educational topics and approaches, are all made by the VECs. GRAVIS ensures 50% of all VEC members are women to ensure female participation.
Teachers’ Trainings
We build capacities of our teachers to maintain and improve the quality of education in our schools. Teachers are regularly trained by a variety of our resource persons to continuously upgrade their knowledge and skills.
Bicycle Scholarships
Teenage girls wishing to continue their education beyond primary schooling have to travel long distances to institutes providing higher education. For this very reason they drop out. In order to bridge the gap between their homes and secondary schools, GRAVIS initiated bicycle distribution to girls who wished to study further and donates bicycles to students who wish to attend secondary schools.
