Case Study-Moms

In the block of Biswa there is a village named Aspur. This village is a part of the H-Learning program run by Pratham Education Foundation. There are basic facilities in the village to survive but a dearth of education. Due to unstable economic conditions of the families, parents prefer to take their kids to the farms to work than sit at home and study or go to school. Education is not a common practice at Aspur.

 One such family is of Chandrasekhar. He resides outside the village to work at a silk factory and earn for a family of five. Two of his kids dropped out of school at an early age. Only one of the four siblings continue to study and recently moved up to Class 6. The youngest kid is 6-year-old and shall be sent to school soon. The kids and their mother take care of each other while the father continues to be the sole bread winner of the family.

When we started our mobilization work in the village to invite mothers and their kids to attend the ECE Mela Chandrasekhar’s wife, like the other women of the village was reluctant to attend. Owing to their illiteracy and economic condition, the villagers refuse to pay attention to education and rather look for earning avenues sooner than later. We somehow managed to coax her to attend the Mela along with her 6-year-old kid and gave her a reminder on the day of the Mela as well.

 Alas! She arrived at the mela with her kid with eyes full of anticipation and a face of innocence since this was the first time she stepped out of the house to go to a place related to education. She stayed a while as the ongoing activities caught her interest. Finally, it was time for her son’s assessment. He performed at each activity as instructed to while she stood behind him, not blinking till she teared up. After the assessment, our team members took her to the collection booth and explained to her in local accent how she can educate her child at home without books. We even mentioned to her how she can use objects as simple as fruits and vegetables to teach her kid to count. She was impressed to know that sitting at home she can teach her kids the basics of life without books; just by signing to him or reciting local poems and stories.

    During our follow up session, we went to her village to question her and her neighbors of the progress and were elated to learn that she is using the materials provided by Pratham to learn and teach her kids the basics. She even spread the word in the village about us and our work at the village. Now she and her son know to count to 100 and recite the alphabets in order. Such success might sound petty to the rest but to us this was a stepping stone to do good in the rest of the village and nearby villages and also change the mentality of people towards education.