Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A group of social activists in the city has launched a campaign to bring back children from the marginalised communities into the educational mainstream by encouraging them to take exams offered by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a catastrophic impact on the education of children of all socio-economic groups, both in the urban and the rural areas. The closure of schools for almost two years has created a learning gap which may take years to fill up.
The situation is worse off with regard to children from de-notified, nomadic, Adivasi and minority communities. The dropout rate among school-going children was already very high among these communities and the pandemic-induced gap has meant that scores of youngsters have bid a permanent goodbye to schools and education.
"Their life is a perpetual struggle. They have to work hard to secure two square meals a day. In such a situation it is too much to expect them to care for the education of their children," says Shivani of Muskaan, a city-based NGO which has been working among the members of the Pardhi, Kanjar, Gond, Kalbeliya, Nat and Muslim communities in and around Bhopal for more than 25 years.
The pandemic has turned the situation even more serious. The activists associated with the NGO said that they realised that it would be very difficult to persuade these children to rejoin the regular schools. "So, instead, we decided to encourage them to appear in the 12th class examination conducted by the NIOS. It would give them a minimum educational qualification without having to give up their work to attend schools," Shivani says.
Teams from the NGOs visited the localities dominated by these communities, including Gandhi Nagar, Nishatpura,. Sabri Nagar, Berkhedi in the city and villages in the Berasia tehsil and Sehore and Harda districts to identify such students. They organised events to convey their message. "We conducted scientific experiments, introduced them to simple tricks to solve arithmetic problems and read out interesting stories to rekindle their interest in education," says Hemant, another activist of the NGO.
The NGO's efforts have led to more than 50 teens from these communities filling in the forms for the class 12 examination conducted by the NIOS. And what is even more heartening is that half of them are girls.
What is NIOS
The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) earlier known as National Open School is an autonomous institution under the Union Ministry of Education. Established in 1989, it runs Secondary and Senior Secondary academic programmes as well as certificate and diploma courses in various vocations through distance education.
