Poverty has an influence on sectors like education, because of the dependence of the families on the income from agriculture and related practices. As a result, children in Chitradurga have to rely on formal educational institutions like government schools for their needs and it is not economically feasible for them to seek help from other mediums. In this scenario, children from these underprivileged communities find themselves in a disadvantageous position with respect to their peers in other towns and cities. Thus, they find themselves in a situation that also limits their future opportunities.

An informal educational initiative is needed to supplement the formal schooling system and to improve the quality of education among the poor underprivileged children of the village, GRAMA curated a 9 months long project ‘GYANODAYA’ to help these children of Challakere village. Its focus areas involve language/communication skills, computer skills and homework support. The human quotient of involvement in this initiative is of utmost importance for the success of this initiative. It involves different stakeholders like children, local teachers etc and consideration of their mindset and grievances is of prime importance for the success of this initiative. The main focus is to improve the quality of education in the children in villages without intervening with the formal schooling system.

Need for Informal Education System

The literacy rate of Karnataka is 75.36% and that of Gopanahalli village is 70.04%. Still, the kids in the rural area are not doing as well as their urban counterparts. After interacting with some school going kids in Gopanahalli village, GRAMA found out some gaps in the existing education system of the public schools, they can be found below:

• Teacher Absenteeism
• Lack of subject appropriate teacher
• No homework support from family

To help such children to come at par with their urban counterparts, GRAMA ran a pilot Informal education school in Gopanahalli village. They focused on improving their language skills and computer skills. They also gave them homework support and encouraged children to continue with their education. This project did show some positive impact but it was short-lived as GRAMA didn’t continue with it because of the paucity of funds. Hence devising a model to take this initiative further and make it sustainable and replicable and we came up with GYANODAYA.

Informal Education System initiatives

Here, the basic idea of the initiative was to improve the quality of education with the rural unprivileged children of the Chitradurga district. This model has been named Project ‘GYANODAYA’ and aims to develop basic employability skills in these children. After studying and interacting, with the children it was identified that due to the poor infrastructure, lack of adequate parental support and several other reasons, these children lagged in 3 major areas in comparison to the other children of their village who are enrolled in private schools. The mission statement of this project is “To improve the quality of education in rural areas in order to bring the students at par with their urban counterparts”. GYANODAYA model is a replicable and sustainable one, well-laid plan spread over nine months with details of syllabus, plan of action and online monitoring mechanism.

The key characteristics of this initiative are as follows –

• The project is to be piloted with the children of villages in Chitradurga District over a period of 9 months- from June to February (keeping in consideration the final exams and summer vacations of the children)
• Keeping in consideration the census data of 2011 and the average population growth in India, it aims to benefit a batch of 240 children over a period of 9 months. To maintain the efficiency in the delivery of lectures, the children are split into 3 cohorts of 80 children each.
• It aims to build 2 skills i.e. communication and computer skills and provide homework support to the children who cannot access private tuitions for them

1. Enhancing the children education system and supplementing the formal education system
2. Improving competing skills in rural children
3. Focusing on girl child

Grameena Abhivruddi Mathu Adhyayana Kendra, better known by its acronym GRAMA, is a not-for-profit working in the development sector since its inception in 1989. GRAMA was registered under the Indian Trust Act, 1882 on 12th July 1989 (No.29/89 dated 12.07.1989). GRAMA, which means ‘village’ in Kannada, has concentrated on the empowerment of rural women and the structural alleviation of poverty in rural areas of Chitradurga and Tumkur districts in Karnataka. GRAMA’s core strength is building People’s Institutions including Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Tank Users Groups (TUGs), Village Watershed Management Committees, Village Farmers Committees, etc. to enable informal and self-sustainable institutions with the active participation of womenfolk.

GRAMA is present and active in several villages in Chitradurga district in the State of Karnataka and is executing various projects funded by different agencies. The projects are mainly on Natural Resource Management including NABARD Watershed Project, Sujala-2 RIDF (funded by NABARD based on the guidelines of World Bank-funded Sujala-1), Organic Farming, etc. It continues to focus on Institution Building, Informal schooling, Microfinance, Capacity building and research activities relating to Dry Land Development are other major activities.