Asha for Education

ISW is playing a truly commendable role in running these education centers, mainly by encouraging and inspiring the underprivileged children by adopting non-formal and very innovative approaches.It tries to present learning as a worthwhile endeavor to the students, many of whom have very little incentive to attend otherwise. All the teachers in the training centers are extremely motivated and admirably trained either by the "Barefoot Teachers Training Program" run by Loreto School, Kolkata or have been groomed by ISW themselves.

The Institute of Social Work (ISW) is an NGO based in Kolkata, West Bengal, which works to provide better opportunities to underprivileged women and children. ISW started with a group of young and enthusiastic social workers in 1978 who wanted to work for the socio-economic development of the underprivileged sections of the society, focusing especially on the women in these communities. The Institute operates a number of centers imparting formal and non-formal education to children and vocational training to women. Two of these centers are located in Kidderpore and Barasat. Asha-Cornell has been funding these two centers for the past nine years, and the program has blossomed with an increased number of students and an expanded curriculum.
The school at Khidderpore is in the heart of the slums in Kolkata's dock area. It has three sections: a tailoring school for girls, a coaching center for girls in middle and high school, and a non-formal education center for school dropouts. It also provides vocational training in food processing and baking to adolescent girls.
The Barasat center has formal classes from nursery to class VIII. The school currently has nearly four hundred children in classes from nursery to eighth grade and follows the syllabus prescribed by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education though not formally affiliated with the Board.
The Chella center is set-up to stop school drop-outs and child marriage.
According to ISW's research, the parents of the children of served by these projects work in various occupations that provide meager incomes, such as vegetable vending, casual labor and rickshaw pulling. Of the children who attend these schools, more than half are girls. Many students who attend ISW schools receive little academic help at home and find it difficult to continue their education in other schools. Through its dedicated and highly involved teachers ISW provides an environment for drop-outs from other schools to remain in the educational system, and encourages them to continue their education. ISW keeps students engaged through extra curricular activities like dancing, singing, art, craft, and sports.
ISW works actively in the field of women's rights which complements its work in education. ISW's major asset is its dedicated teaching staff: four at Khidderpore and fourteen at Barasat. Teachers visit homes in the area to meet with parents and discuss the importance of education. Their initiative and persuasion has helped bring in children into the education system who otherwise might not have had access to even a basic education.