Education may take a pause.....but Learning continues

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The pandemic is exposing inequities—kids not having internet access or a quiet space to study or their basic needs met. It’s amplified things by putting their families in more dire circumstances in terms of unemployment and food insecurity, conditions that can hamper students’ willingness and ability to learn and to succeed in school. We worry that under these and remote learning conditions the number of children who don’t finish primary school might increase.

We are also worried that the learning requirements, not just for would-be dropouts but for all students, are being diluted. So even if a student graduates this year, under present conditions they’ll have reduced learning.

Since ARCH has a wider reach out to the students from less privileged section under various educational initiatives, it is even more important for us to step up to take our cause even further. One side where we wish to ensure every child is connected to any/some form of learning, the other side we ponder on how do we follow all the rules of social distancing and the laws around epidemics while continuing to serve our students.

We are rapidly building a new paradigm of interaction with our students, teachers and parents in phase manner :

Community level intervention to ensure every child we can reach to is connected with the learning

Switching to digital learning platforms where possible

A novel initiative by ARCH Foundation

iLearn, an initiative by ARCH Development Foundation, is committed to address and overcome problems of child labor, forced school dropouts, lack of interest, and low self-esteem. We aim to change this belief by building blocks for a better and brighter future through education and selfdevelopment.

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Expanding Learning Beyond classroom

The closures of schools have likely to widen the learning gap between children from lower-income and higher-income families. School closures in response to COVID-19 have shed light on various social & economic issues, including digital learning, food, insecurity, and homelessness. The impact is more severe for disadvantaged children and their families, causing interrupted learning, compromised nutrition, childcare problems, and consequent economic cost to families who could not work.

As per the rapid assessment done by ARCH in 100 schools where we are operational since past three year, it was realized that many students are not going to come back even after the school reopens. Students from 8th to 12th grade are more vulnerable to drop out due to their usefulness at home and work sites. ARCH has committed itself to support their education and ensure their safe return in the school after the school reopens and fully operational.

Village – Lilora Nagar

Number of targeted children – 53 children from 8 to 14 years Main Occupation – Labour at construction site/agriculture The future of our country rests in the hands of our children. It is the responsibility of each of us to carve a better future for children in
India. Lilora Nagar is a small village, near Vadodara that has a student population of 53 from 8 to 14 years. These children were pursuing education at the modest local school up to Grade 5 until the lockdown. The main challenges faced in this area are a high school drop- out rate after Grade 5 especially with the girl child, rampant child labor at construction sites that dissuades them from pursuing education and high substance abuse, even amongst women and small children. iLearn is a program that was successfully launched in Lilora Nagar and in a short period is making waves with its positive impact.
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Village - KamrolVasahat – Gujarat

Number of targeted children – 45 Children Main occupation – Agriculture Educate a girl and she will change the world. It is with this spirit that ARCH launched iLearn at KamrolVasahat, a quaint village located in Vadodara that has only one school up to grade 5
with a modest strength of 45 students. This area shares a history of having only 3 girls who have completed grade 10 so far as girls stop studying after Grade 5 to avoid traveling 3 km to a nearby village to attend middle school. Marred by problems of working in the fields, the majority of children are engaged in agricultural activities to support their family income and young girls mostly take care of their siblings and pursue household work. iLearn is a ray of hope to better the lives of these children, especially the girl child by creating a platform for continued learning, access to better opportunities, and looking at life from a new point of view.
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Patiyapura – Vadodara

Total number of students – 45 from 3rd to 8th grade Main occupation – Vegetable vendors When talking of pre-requisites for digital learning we often refer to smartphones and the internet, completely taking for granted the need for electricity. Patiyapura
a small basti located near Laxmipura, Vadodara has a different tale to tell. With no electricity in the area, the 45 student population of Grade 3rd to Grade 8-ers work all day to support their families and spend Rs. 20 each evening to re-charge the mobile phone of their parents enabling them to study at night. A small cluster of 30 to 35 households, each family owns a small battery that they spend Rs. 60 every two days to charge for basic facilities. The nearby corporation school is struggling to keep the drive for education alive amongst these students but is faced with meager resources and the risk of spreading the coronavirus. ARCH launched iLearn in Patiyapura by training a volunteer from the community who has been closely working with students to retain their learning level, build new enthusiasm, and instill creativity through interesting activities.

We are also exploring the possibility of installing a solar panel in the basti with the support of our donors.
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Switching to digital learning platforms where possible

When India announced closing of schools due to the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, ARCH needed to rapidly rethink the delivery of its extra-curricular science programme for the students from 6th to 10th grade.

With our quick assessment we realized that out of 120 schools we are working with across states, only ….students from …schools have access to online platform. This gave ARCH a window of opportunity to reach out and engage a large number of students in various learning program. As ARCH adopts the online meeting platform Zoom in partnership with various organizations and experts, a priority was to adopt the pedagogy to ensure students would engage and participate in experiments and learner-led discussions.

Series of workshop on Memory and Learning Technique

Good memory is a bottleneck with even the brightest of the students. We all know that as we get older, the memory bar keeps on shrinking. However, it was fun to discover that having a go
d memory is not a God gift, but it is an art that can be developed. Through our series on accelerating memory techniques, our trainer Ms. Deepa Goyal helped our teachers to not only learn that art but also using it as education delivery in a way that students will never forget........
A simple but effective technique of imparting difficult phenomenon, concepts, science, or economics principles need not be memorized hard but can be easily remembered if presented in a story form. Read more

Science Theatre - Part 5 - Surface Tension

Total workshops - 16 ?Total Outreach - 684 students Workshop on surface tension was like a magic trick for our young scientists.. Science is important not only because it tries to explain the world to us, but it also helps us develop our minds. An experiment using mat
rial available at home is opening new doors for our children to explore more and more within the boundaries of their home.
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Science Theatre - Part 4 - Rolling Friction

Number of workshops - 9 Total Outreach - 383 students What is rolling friction? What is the difference between rolling friction and static friction? There are many more such questions answered by our experts during science theatre workshop on rolling friction.

Our science workshops make the scientific learning more engaging and trigger curiosity among kids. Instead of telling them about the facts, laws and theories, every child gets an opportunity to perform the experiment at home and their excitement and wait for the next session keeps us on our toes to bring new ideas…
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Science Theatre - Part 3 - Capillary action

Number of workshops - 23 Total outreach - 990 stude
ts
Capillary action is fun and magic for children and it is apparent from the excitement kids air when the experiment is done...Science Theatre started as an idea and a thought that “Practicality is Everything.” From the thought started a series of fun experiments that are helping children think beyond what is taught, to explore beyond what is available. On the other hand, the students’ enthusiasm is infectious. They always seem to be excited about the prospect of doing something new every week. For us, the best reward is when they ask us - 'when are we meeting again' Read more

Workshop on Vedic Maths

Maths phobia is prevalent across the world in students, teachers, and even parents! So at ARCH we believe - if there is a system which helps make Maths fun – it would be beneficial to everyone. ARCH launched a series of online workshops for teachers from Government/aided schools w
ere they are exposed to the various useful methods and techniques of Vedic maths. The first workshop of the series was launched on 13th September where 43 teachers from across different states participated. We received a wonderful feedback from the teachers who now feel that they can train their students better in mathematic skills.
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Science Theatre - Part 2 - How to make Electromagnet at home

Total workshops - 17 Number of students - 648 students There is no limit to what you can do with Science and the children absolutely love it. This week our students from different schools investigated the properties of Electromagnets. They created their small elect
omagnets and experiment with ways to change their strength to pick up more paperclips. Discussing ways that engineers use electromagnets in everyday applications was the high point of the activity. We are thankful to L&T Technology Services who are one of the partners to take the joy of learning at the doorstep of the children.

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Online Science Theatre - Part 1 - Bubble Workshop

Total workshops - 26 / Total outreach - 890 students Bubbles, a truly fascinating scientific phenomenon that evokes joy in everybody. The delightful memory of blowing and chasing bubbles on a cool summer day is etched in every child. ARCH launched online Science Theatre by
rganizing bubble workshops which were an instant hit and popular among students and teachers. ARCH has organized more than 8 bubble workshops so far reaching out to 400 plus students, an exciting hands-on learning experience for children to learn the science behind bubbles and art of making bubbles right from scratch, with household materials. The program aims to inculcate a scientific approach to a joyful activity. Through this program, children were exposed to different tools to channel their creativity in the process of making bubbles. Read more

Think Before You Click – A webinar on Cyber Security

As the world is moving towards digitalization we, at Arch, strongly believe that Cyber Security is an essential life skill for everyone. 21st-century citizens need to use their discretion on what kind of personal information can be shared on the internet. Through iLearn we conducted an interesting k
owledge-based webinar on Cyber Security and You. With an enthusiastic audience of 120 participants dominated by parents and teachers, we had Mr. Rakshit Tandon, a cybersecurity evangelist and TedX Speaker along with Mr. Mayur Bhusavalkar, a cyber security specialist and investigator with the Gujarat Police Department spearheading the learning. Our objective was to orient parents and teachers about the importance of creating awareness amongst children about maintaining cyber-hygiene and digital safety.
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I can with iLearn - Exploring realms of career possibilities

Since May 2020 iLearn has addressed the ‘i’ part of learning by encouraging digitalization of education. We have organized 5 online career counseling sessions for over 800 students and parents of government-aided and trust-run schools from Grade 9th to 12th, guiding them on new-age caree
s in the field of Science, Commerce, and Arts. With a plethora of new avenues opening, we brought a host of counselors, students from IIT Bombay, and industry-led mentors who touched upon various mainstream careers as well as Diploma and non-specific courses related to entrance exams. The aim was to empower the students to identify the factors that influence their career development and help them make career decisions in line with their interests and personality that fosters a zeal for higher education, career development, and confidence-building. Read more

+91 8238009635

arch@archfoundation.in

iLEARN

Education may take a pause.....but Learning continues

Your small donation can make a huge difference…Be a part of the problem solver

A novel initiative by ARCH Foundation

Expanding Learning Beyond classroom

Village – Lilora Nagar

Village - KamrolVasahat – Gujarat

Patiyapura – Vadodara

Switching to digital learning platforms where possible

Series of workshop on Memory and Learning Technique

Science Theatre - Part 5 - Surface Tension

Science Theatre - Part 4 - Rolling Friction

Science Theatre - Part 3 - Capillary action

Workshop on Vedic Maths

Science Theatre - Part 2 - How to make Electromagnet at home

Online Science Theatre - Part 1 - Bubble Workshop

Think Before You Click – A webinar on Cyber Security

I can with iLearn - Exploring realms of career possibilities

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