Abstract:

There are 260 million children worldwide that are out of school of which 60 million children come from India alone. While poverty and access is the main reason children not being in school, a big reason is that students do not feel motivated to learn because the environment is not supportive enough. We are in a severe learning crisis because a large percentage of students in elementary schools have not attained foundational literacy and numeracy. If action is not taken soon, India will lose more than 10 million students from the learning system and to illiteracy. (NEP2019)

Keeping this challenge in mind, the paper will focus on an education experiment in India that attempts to tackle this problem of academic progress and learning. Parikrma Humanity Foundation has been running 5 schools for 16 years and serves 2000 children from the slums of Bangalore where the total family income for five members is about $45 per month. These schools are free and have been addressing the needs of the children that prevent them from attending schools regularly and doing well. The model looks at a 360-degree intervention program by providing nutrition, total healthcare and family care, apart from a very high quality education curriculum. The model also recognizes that students need to be supported and motivated to complete their education and has an “e to e” program (from one end to another end). So scholarships are provided for higher education and mentoring and placements done for jobs. This experiment has been very successful with 96% attendance, less than 1% drop out, 98% students going to college and 100% graduates placed in jobs.

The paper will identify the four segments in the student’s development that are demotivating factors: the physical; the living conditions and neighborhood of the students, the biological; the health and energy condition of the students, the intellectual; understanding of world view and critical thinking abilities and psychological; levels of self esteem and desire to break the cycle of poverty.

The paper will present some longitudinal data of at least 10 years of tracking of students from age 5 to 15 that show the student’s academic progress in correlation with the entire family’s social stability and financial improvement. A study of how families are motivated to support the student’s education journey. How family support groups and self help groups have helped the family to do financial planning and become stable. This paper will also highlight the different motivation and support systems established to address gender issues and children with learning difficulties.

The paper will argue that just enrolling the children into school cannot solve the problem of educating the marginalized. Adequate measures have to be taken to support and motivate the students at all stages to ensure that the children feel good coming to school and learn with enthusiasm. What is most needed is for the school culture to be sensitive and nurturing so that at all times the student’s enthusiasm is not curtailed and joyful learning prevails. A sensitive school ensures that the entire school environment is empathetic and compassionate, which motivates all students irrespective of their individual challenges.

The paper will also present the best practices of this foundation so that it can be replicated in other regions and countries with similar problems.

Keywords:

Marginalized, psychological, 360-degree, e to e, intervention, motivation, compassion.