Door Step School (Non Formal Education)

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Door Step School (Non Formal…

Door Step School (DSS) was established in 1989, in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

DSS aims to combat illiteracy in communities of construction sites workers in Maharashtra.
The real estate boom in India has resulted in numerous construction sites in many of the major Indian cities. In Pune alone, there are over 1,500 such construction sites which in turn demands a huge labor force most often comprised of illiterate villagers from the neighboring states. These laborers and their families live close to the construction sites in labor camps or slums. Children from these families do not attend school due to factors such as poverty, accessibility to education and lack of motivation and as a result a large number of kids are left out of the formal school system.

From one of the surveys by DSS in Pune, an estimated 40,000 children at such construction sites had no access to education.
DSS believes that if a child cannot go to school, then the school should be taken to the doorstep of the child. DSS seeks to educate illiterate children at these construction sites through their uniquely designed programs so that these children can have the opportunity to be a part of the formal education system.

www.doorstepschool.org

Focus Areas :

Imparting non-formal education (NFE) to children of construction worker

Location: Maharashtra

Project status: Ongoing

Project lead: Tanuja Kadam

Objectives

The main objectives of DSS are:

To create basic literacy classes and inculcate good values for children of construction workers in the age group of 5-15 years

To impart education in basic hygiene, conduct health camps and health check-ups for these children.

To channel children in the NFE classes into the mainstream educational system such as municipal schools.

To engage and involve the parents of these children to achieve DSS’s objectives.

Key achievements:

From Jan 2009 to Dec 2009, over 4,100 children were enrolled in 30 construction sites

Of the children attending these NFEs, 200 kids appeared in equivalence exams conducted by Pune Municipal Corporation in February and April 2009 out of which 162 successfully passed the exam and were admitted to mainstream government schools.

Solution

DSS seeks to educate illiterate children of construction sites in Pune through their uniquely designed programs so that these children can have the opportunity to be a part of the formal education system.

Vibha-DSS Partnership

Vibha-DSS Partnership started in 2006 and Vibha has gradually increased its commitment to DSS since then every passing year.

Since the inception of this partnership, Vibha has increased its support of NFE from 10 construction sites in 2006 to 40 construction sites in 2020.

Vibha has also been involved in an advisory role with DSS. For example, DSS started scaling its operations based on recommendation from Vibha to expand their NFE network to cover as many construction sites as possible.

DSS has incorporated recommendations to create a larger impact, like making construction sites builders and parents as key stakeholders on children education, creating robust data tracking mechanisms, and receiving funds from different corporations for sustainability.

Project Partners’ voice:

“Vibha is supporting us in a big way. Today we are working with more than 75 constructions sites, out of which more than 30 are supported by Vibha…With the help of Vibha, we also started working with the builder communities, who give us space for running after school classes for migrant communities’ children….”

– Bhavna Kulkarni, Director of DSS, Pune