Help Us Improve Reading Skills Of 10000+ Rural School Students

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Do you know? World-wide 250M primary school children are unable to read... According to Pratham ASER test, 58% of class 3 children in India cannot read grade 1 level text.

We believe - "Learning to read early is critical, so that children can read to learn other subjects later on."

About Us: Since last two decades, Medak District Voluntary Agencies Network (aka Medvan) is working on child rights and women empowerment as key issues in the overall community development programs. We are a non-profit organization registered as a society.

Goal of this campaign: Help 12000 government primary school students in the state of Telangana - to strengthen their Early Grade Reading Skills of Telugu & English languages - by creatively blending the charisma of human passion with power & scale of technology.

Technology: Each school is given BodhaGuru NjoyReading Kit, a completely Made in India electronic learning toy with audio and activity enabled paper books. Each book is designed by pedagogy experts and helps students to learn & practice reading skills in a group mode shared within the school. There are different books to support students at various learning levels – starting with akshar/alphabets, simple words, Gunimtalu, words without matra, words with matra, short sentences, long sentences and so on. Each book starts with a moral based short story (or a rhyme, poem) followed by learning concepts and simple learning activities. An app is also given to volunteers to conduct reading test, extract usage data and share reports.

Human Passion: The teachers are trained on how to use the kit effectively within the classroom at the start of the program. Regular visits are done by our volunteers to the schools to support teachers on any issues and help teachers to use the technology in an effective way. A time-table is made to effectively share the kit across classrooms and various groups are formed within the classroom. On a day-to-day basis, a group of students (say 4-5 students) share a kit and sit around it. Based on the school teachers’ guidance, they place a particular book on the kit (say Gunimtalu book) and engage with it by pressing visual indicators marked on the book and learn in an engaging way. Additionally volunteers conduct baseline test and post test to measure the learning improvement & share feedback with the teachers. They also extract the usage data from the kit by connecting an app on their smartphone/tablet to the kit. This way money collected to usage hours to learning improvement can be tracked - to effectively measure the effectiveness of the program. Additionally we work with school management committees (SMC) to strengthen it and build the capacity of headmasters by connecting them with various expertise in the field of education and also build on the support received from the SMC group.

Experience: We are already running this program 160 govt primary schools in Sangareddy, Siddipet and Medak districts of Telangana. We are having a full 360 degree approach by working with head-masters, teachers, students and parents, with support from concerned government officials. We are getting very encouraging results from all the stakeholders and hence planning to scale-up the program in the same district(s) through this campaign.

Budget Break-up: To maintain the transparency and value the money and time given by the donors, here are the details about the present campaign.

We plan to work in 120 government primary schools in rural India (Telangana state - Sangareddy, Siddipet and Medak districts) and aim to reach out to approximately 12000 students in this school session year (2018-19).

The cost per each school is divided into following components:

Volunteer stipend and admin cost: INR 550 per month x 4 months = INR 2200 (Note: one volunteer shared across 40 schools in a given mandal)

Technology (kit, app): INR 7000

Fundraising Platform Cost (including payment gateway & taxes): INR 800 (appx 8% of the total money raised)

Total Cost Per School = INR 10000 (for this school session year)

Total number of Schools = 120

Total Budget Required = INR 10000 x 120 = INR 12 Lakhs only

Expected outcome: We expect schools extending their cooperation to adopt the program and teachers getting accustomed to a newer way of teaching using technology based learning. We expect minimum 15% improvement in reading skills of students this year - measured using standardized baseline and post program early grade reading test (comprising of letters, words, short sentences and paragraphs).

Cost-Value Analysis: We are following a very cost optimized model by doing resource sharing at all sides (one kit is used by group of students at a time and then shared to the next group/class, teacher training is done in a group mode at a mandal level and one volunteer is visiting multiple schools). Hence, our cost per student is coming at INR 100 for the first year (which has one time CAPEX as well as first time deployment challenges increases the OPEX). The kit is charged on a one-time basis and can be used next school session year also, which means the cost per student will come down dramatically in the next year (as minimal human resource cost may be required as teachers will get trained on the methodology). So, considering a total cost spread over a period of three years, we expect a budget of INR 150 per student will help us to significantly improve early grade reading skills.

Together, we ALL can improve quality of education by strengthening reading skills of these students. We look forward to your support.
Please feel free to contact us in case you need any more details.

Details for direct bank transfer / UPI

UPI: givetomedvan@yesbankltd (Copy to clipboard)

Virtual account name: Medak District Voluntary Agencies Network - Milaap
Account number: 8080811051139
IFSC code: YESB0CMSNOC

Click here to read the instructions before you make a bank transfer.

Press article of our existing program in Sangareddy district

Students with same learning levels sit in a small group & practice

A feedback from head-master about our intervention in the school

Volunteer conducting verbal early grade reading test

Group of teachers getting trained on effective use of technology

Group of students using the kit to learn and practice

Details for direct bank transfer / UPI

UPI: givetomedvan@yesbankltd (Copy to clipboard)

Virtual account name: Medak District Voluntary Agencies Network - Milaap
Account number: 8080811051139
IFSC code: YESB0CMSNOC

Click here to read the instructions before you make a bank transfer.

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Donated to this campaign via Paytm or bank transfer? Click here if you have not received an email confirmation from Milaap.

6th February 2019

Dear Supporters,

Thank you all for your wonderful support towards this cause.

I would like to inform you that the funds raised are used for improving the learning outcome of rural govt school students.

The Funds has been used in following activities :
1. Paying honorarium to the volunteers to conduct the baseline test.
2. Volunteers, post baseline, developed a strategy with the school administration to improve the learning levels
3. Volunteers follow up with school teachers in using the learning device.
4. Conducted mandal level meeting with teachers and HM's for developing strategy.

Thank you all! Please continue to share the campaign.

Regards,
Medvan

19th November 2018

MEDVAN Team would like to thank each and every donor for supporting our initiative in improving the quality of education in government primary schools.

We are glad to inform you the progress of the project, please find below the steps followed in achieving our goal.

1. As the first step, we have identified the schools in collaboration with the school department.
2. Post the selection, we have conducted the baseline test in the respective schools.
3. Test reports have been generated with detailed analytical performance of the students. The report is divided in three broad categories, firstly it is overall schools performance, second is class wise performance and third student is wise performance. This reports have been given to school administration in a event organised by Mandal level education officer.
4. The coordinators will visit the respective allotted schools and follow up with the schools HM and develop a plan based on the report.
5. The plan will be monitored by the Medvan Coordinator.