North East Education Trust (NEET)

About NEET

North East Educational Trust (NEET) established in 2009 is a NGO registered as a public charitable trust in Assam, Guwahati.  NEET works with the mission of creating educational cultures that nourish autonomous, creative and critical thinker.

What: The main objective of North East Educational Trust is to enable children to be independent critical thinkers.

Why:   NEET works with the objective of enabling children to be independent critical thinkers so that they become rational autonomous individuals who make meaningful contributions both at an individual and societal level in all aspects of life- be it economic, social or political.

How: To reach its objective, NEET:

1. Conducts library-cum-language learning program in government schools: NEET conducts regular library sessions-cum-language learning program in government schools. This year, we started teaching English to middle-school children and Assamese to our lower primary-school children.
2. NEET’s community library-cum-learning center: NEET’s community library-cum-learning center is a space for children to work with their heads, hearts, and hands. Along with holding regular library sessions and organizing activities related to art, craft, dance, music, theatre, we started providing academic support to the children that come to our library regularly. On weekdays, we teach English, Math, and Assamese. On weekends, we organize read aloud sessions and other library activities and workshops on singing, dance, theatre, art, and craft.
3. Capacity enhancement of school teachers: We organize and conduct workshops for teachers, educators, and librarians to provide them with philosophical perspectives and pedagogical support in setting up vibrant libraries that encourage meaningful engagement with books and reading practices. We conducted a one-day exposure visit for schoolteachers to our Community library and demonstrated our library program.

Response to COVID

As a response to COVID, we had to re-imagine our engagement with our two major stakeholders: children and teachers-

• Online classes as a response to COVID: As a response to COVID, we conducted online classes to teach English to students of Class VI-VIII of a government school, Balikuchi Madhyamik Vidyalaya. The English SCERT textbook was taught through innovative pedagogy like read-aloud, story-telling, puppetry, role-play, and animated videos. These activities enabled the children to understand and discuss the text.
• Regular Interaction with School Teachers: During the period of lockdown, we had interacted regularly with our partner schools to offer our support in teaching both English and Assamese, and to resume the library program.
• Translation and development of curricular material and creation of online content: To create teaching-learning aids for our online classes, we have translated the stories in English textbooks and created worksheets that can be filled in by children. We developed videos on the stories in the SCERT English textbook in the form of read-alouds, storytelling, puppetry, role-play, and animated videos to help children understand and discuss the text.

Location

NEET’s primary location of work is in Guwahati in Kamrup District and in Nalbari District of Assam.

Plans for the next three years:

• To expand the reach of the school library program to 10 more schools, 4 in Kamrup (metro) and 6 in Kamrup (rural) districts of Assam across a period of next three years
• To set up and initiate 5 more library-cum-learning centers, 2 in Kamrup (metro) and 3 in Kamrup (rural)districts of Assam across a period of next three years
• Set up 6 classroom libraries where the schools where the school library program is functioning.

Start an informal pre-primary school by April 2021 for first generation learners who usually go to government schools without any formal education in NEET’s Community Library premises.