Kaliyuva Mane [Home for learning]
Divya Deepa Charitable Trust, Mysore, runs a free child-centric residential school, “Kaliyuva Mane” for the ‘Opportunity deprived children’. Established in 2005, the school believes in the philosophy, “School for Children, Not Children for School”.
In Kaliyuva Mane, food, accommodation, healthcare & hygiene along with child-centric education are given to all the children for free of cost in an environment charged with Love, Care and Empathy.
Issue: Dismal rural education and Opportunity deprived children
With 47 million children dropping out before upper secondary school, India has the highest out-of-school adolescents in the world. Mainstream education system work on the assumption that all children are like machines who can learn a predetermined textual content in a predetermined time interval and in a predetermined way. Is it true?
Child labourers & school dropouts, Children from rural BPL families, Children with turbulent childhood, Children who are unable to adjust to regular schools, Dyslexic children etc.., are deprived of an opportunity to learn.
Solution: A free child-centric school system
Opportunity deprived children accompany an academic lag and therefore cannot adjust to formal schools. Hence a child-centric alternative school:
Admissions round the year, as a dropped-out child can regain interest at any point in the year
- Abolition of grades: Flexible teams based on knowledge, emotional acceptability and age
- Congenial environment with utmost importance to emotions. A happy mind learns faster.
- Individualistic curriculum, taking into consideration the academic lag and the ability to learn
- Evaluation: Regular informal tests rather than memory-testing long duration annual exams
- 10thStandard: Child attempts the 10th standard public examination after he/she gains all the required basics and displays the ability to understand the syllabus
- Life-skill training: By the time the child pass out from the school, the child will be exposed to the skills like – Dairy, Cooking, Horticulture, Basic plumbing and electric work, Banking & Legal System etc..,
Impact: An alternative school model has been developed due to the intense research at the grass-root level in child education, which can be replicated by the stakeholders.
Child Education Metrics:
- Since 2010, 54 children have appeared for 10th standard examinations, while 52 have cleared
- Out of 6 dyslexic children appeared, 3 have cleared the 10th Standard examination
- Every year about 100 children pursue their education in Kaliyuva Mane
