Asha Programs

Mini-Schools

During Covid times, when all the schools were shutdown, Asha took the early call to revive education to children through running mini-schools. Shutdown of schools for primary children caused enormous loss of education as well as all the other social growth that occurs thanks to schooling. Virtual education through video conferencing was a non-started for most children from poor families. Even for children who were going to costlier private schools, this mode of education didn’t achieve much in terms of teaching/learning.

With more than 80 teachers, sitting idle in rural areas, we initially engaged the teachers in content work. We started seeing the effect of the closure of schools on the lives of the children. Further, we realised that the children and the adults were pretty much freely moving about within the villages and additional spread will not happen due to controlled small schools within the villages where our teachers come from. As early as June 2020, we started our first mini-schools. We had a meeting on June 1st with all the potential mini-school teachers and discussed the ground-rules with them. Then the first mini-schools started operating on the 3rd. By the end of that week about 15 mini-schools were already operational. By the end of 2020, about 50 mini-schools were running. Just before the schools reopened by Nov 2021, we had more than 65 mini-schools running serving more than 2000 students.

Asha Chennai's Mini-Schools

Mini-Schools

At a Glance

65+ Maximum number of mini-schools
100 No of batches run
2,000+ No of students attending our mini-schools
75 No of teachers engaged in the mini-schools.

Program figures reported in November 2021.

Mini-Schools

How did they Function?

Safety

The mini-schools were held in small batches in well-ventilated areas in the same villages where the children and mostly the teachers too lives. Children wore masks, followed social distancing practices, and washed their hands frequently.

When the spread of Covid was high in a specific area, we closed down those schools. At the end of the period, there was not a single infection among the children and couple of teachers who did get infected, got infected due to participation in events outside of their schools.

Quality Education

Asha has developed a well-rounded curriculum for the mini-schools including art, crafts, outdoor games, and computer games, in addition to regular subjects such as Math, Science, English, and Tamil. Asha Kanini, a homegrown software that includes some of the world's best online and downloadable content is used effectively by well-trained Asha teachers. We quickly evolved a process for the teachers to report progress against curriculum of the mini-school batches and we even conducted assessments during that time.

The resources required for these mini-schools like paper, sketch pens, black boards, worksheets etc. were constantly distributed by the coordinators at these locations. The teachers laptops also required service which our system admin and coordinators managed.

Dedicated Teachers

Asha Chennai had employed about 80 teachers in remote rural villages to run our regular program supporting about 100 public schools. With these public schools being closed, we were leveraging them for our mini-school program. These teachers had BE/BSc/BEd/MCA/MEd degrees, and had an average teaching experience of 5 years, were well trained, were passionate about helping underprivileged children and showed tremendous commitment - they often used their homes to run the mini-schools.

Running their own schools, convincing the parents and other villagers about the safety of these schools and keeping the schools running took enormous energy and they used every bit of their contacts with the community to enable this venture to succeed. Most of the teacher’s own children and children in their family also studied in their mini-schools. The whole program would have been a failure without their whole-hearted participation in this.

Mini-Schools

Geographies Covered

Mini-school community in Thiruvallur

Thiruvallur

39 mini-schools
Mini-school community in Thoothukudi

Thoothukudi

11 mini-schools
Mini-school community in Thiruvannamalai and Villupuram

Thiruvannamalai / Villupuram

10 mini-schools
Mini-school community in Chennai

Chennai

5 mini-schools

Mini-Schools

Impact

At a time when all the schools were closed and the alternative of virtual learning was for most part a non-starter, Asha ensured the continuity in education in the villages where we had presence.


Media Coverage

The mini-schools were covered 3 times in the Hindu.

1. https://chennai.ashanet.org/news/2020/11/the-hindu-cover-asha-chennais-mini-schools/
2. https://chennai.ashanet.org/news/2021/05/hindu-open-page-article-on-school-closures/
3. https://chennai.ashanet.org/news/2022/01/hindu-covers-asha-chennais-organisation-response-to-covid/

Asha Chennai Mini-Schools: Learning in the Villages


How was Education Upheld?

TBD - A separate report about the assessments during and after the Covid break that shows how education was upheld.

Testimonials

TBD – The testimonials embedded within the videos given in the beginning can be separated out and shown here.

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Cost

Mini-schools: 65+
Mini-school batches: 100+
Number of students: 2,000+

Program figures reported in November 2021.

Total budget for 6 months: ₹ 33,15,000

Click here for the full budget.

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  • Mini-Schools for Educating Underprivileged Kids during COVID

  • Asha Chennai mini schools rescue rural primary education during Covid-19 pandemic

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