Asha for Education

Project Brief: This project runs a pre-primary school for kids in the Balia District of West Bengal.
Project Type: Pre-Primary (description)
Primary Focus: children of dalits/tribals (description)

Secondary Focus: girls

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact:
UIUC

Status: CURRENT
Project Steward: Rashmi Bhuwania
Co-Steward: Monalisa Sen
Project Partner(s): S Pal
Project Address: Balia Gram Unnayan Samity
Village Balia
P.O. Bahirkhand
Bahirkhand, West Bengal 712405
Tel: 03212 242283
Stewarding Chapter: UIUC

Balia Gram Unnayan Samity (BGUS) is an NGO working in the Hoogly district of West Bengal for the social and educational upliftment of the villagers. Asha is funding their pre-primary schools and coaching centers that benefit children from 10 villages within the range of this project. These efforts are largely aimed at improving the quality of education and preventing early drop out amongst children in these poor communities, by instilling school going habits in children (through pre primary schools) and providing additional support to the students attending Government schools (through the coaching programs). BGUS also runs a book bank that lends text and reference books to students. In addition to this, BGUS supports other development activities in the region related to healthcare, farming practices, professional training etc.

Project Scope for Asha:

+ Seven pre-primary schools in ten villages for 303 children (Age: 3-6)
- Learning & teaching material
- Teachers salary
- Nutrition
+ Coaching program for ~ 260 children (Age: 6-12)
- Learning & teaching material
- Teachers salary
+ Book bank for ~ 400 students (Age: 15+)

Significance:

The children need a friendly and accessible introduction to education and schooling in a rural area that has a 30% literacy rate and where there hasn't been a tradition of school-going. The schooling provides an introduction to reading and familiarity with numbers and instills a love of learning. Without pre-primary education and preparation, a number of children find the step up to government primary schools an insurmountable barrier - a large proportion of these children are of illiterate parents who are unable to prepare them for primary school.
In addition,the coaching program helps students from economically weaker sections of society to cope up with the school work and compete with students from affluent families who can afford private tuitions or have educated parents to help them with their school work.
BGUS also operates a book bank that lends text books to students for the academic year. This program is very popular and benefits students even outside the project area of BGUS