Makkala Jagriti, Adugodi, Bangalore.

Feel• India has a huge school drop-out rate of 39%

(UNESCO report – 2006)

• In a major city like Bangalore, there were more than

50,000 school dropouts and 75,825 children aged 7-

14 out-of-school (as of 2006).

• We found some kids who have dropped-out of

school and a few others who are not regular in their

presence at school. We learnt about their problems

and have tried to find a solution.

• To understand their problems we went to their

houses, chatted with their parents and friends.

• We found that major reasons for school-dropouts are

– Economic conditions of the family

– Lack of interest in the curriculum

– Students doing part-time job resulted in missing too many

days at school

– Strict conditions in school get students to panic

What we ‘learnt’

Shalini..

Here is a girl named “Shalini”. Her friends told that “She is doing house keeping nearby”.

We went to her house. Her guardians were more supportive and kind to her. They also want her to go to school or learn something which will make her life better.

Shalini, a girl from Adugodi, is working as a House Maid. She has no parents. She studied upto 6th standard. We went to her home & we asked “Why you are not going to school?”. Suddenly she ran into the kitchen & started crying. Few minutes later we told that “We‟re not teachers.” After hearing that she came out of the kitchen & smiled at us.

On enquiry of why she is not going to school, she said that when she was in 6th Std, her teacher beat her & scolded her. We asked her to join the school again. But she refused. We asked Shalini to come to our center to learn about Computers and Arts. Her friends also told her about the centre, the arts and computer classes. She agreed to come to the centre.

About Shalini

• She knows how to use the computer. And you can see that she is painting something in Paint application at the first class itself.

• She speaks awesome English.

• She knows Crafting. And yes she knows to make “rasam” which she gladly agreed to teach us.

• Finally, we planned to join her in a school which is comfortable for her.

Shalini’s skills

Ganesha..• Here is a guy named

“Ganesha”. His friends

told that he is going for

wedding decoration

work.

About Ganesha

• Ganesha doing his 9th standard, as well as going for a part time job. Because of his work, he was regularly absent from school.

• We discussed with his mother regarding the importance of education. They are willing to send him to school but keeping in mind the economic conditions of his family he cannot drop out of his work either.

• We thought about providing him with vocational training like arts and hence told him about Makkala Jagriti. He also got excited about our computer classes and has started coming to the class.

Vocational Training to school dropouts

• We realized that some of our drop-outs have been out of school for a long time and hence would be difficult for them to cop-up.

• And some kids (like Basava …) are not interested in the curriculum.

• After discussing with the volunteers, we came up with the idea of providing vocational training to such kids, which will make their life better.

• Makkala Jagriti has various courses on arts, karathe, sports, computers etc.

• As a first step, we will give arts and computer training to the school drop-out kids.

Fun-based learning

• We also planned to introduce fun-based learning courses where we use some softwares like Tux and GCompris which has gaming like environments to motivate the kids to join school.

• We though we were going to „change‟ others lives

but we were transformed by this experience.

• We learnt the value of collaboration, listening,

sharing and caring.

• We realized that nobody other than their own friends

can imbibe in them the value of education and

learning.

• And we learnt that there is nothing more powerful

than to use one‟s abilities for the good of others.

How we were ‘Changed’

From Parent• We heard from Shalini‟s guardian, she said,

– We‟re very happy about Shalini that she‟s going to join a school

again. We were really worried about Shalini regarding her future. But,

after seeing those kids involvement from the center, I got a hope that

definitely Shalini will join a school & will continue her studies again.

The work does not end here. Its just a beginning…