SwaTaleem

Supported by: Wipro

About SwaTaleem

Quality Education is still a privilege for a major chunk of our society. The chance of accessing it reduces manifold with each layer of existing structures of gender, caste or economic status. The seeds of the SwaTaleem were sown with intent to contribute to bridging inequality in society through quality education, focused on the learner’s needs. Our focus is to work with Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas to create thriving school communities for adolescent girls in India.

SwaTaleem Foundation is a not-for-profit Civil Society organization registered under Section (8) of the Companies Act in 2018.

Organizational Values

• Excellence with Humility: We are not there yet so we will work harder with excellence and humility.
• Collaborative Mutual Transformation: I am not to emancipate anyone or make anything/anyone’s life better. I will walk hand in hand and witness while ‘we’ transform ourselves in the process.
• Constitutional Values Based Education: Education is a transformative tool to live a life of dignity. Our preamble summates the vision for Education.

Projects

Currently we are working with 6 KGBVs (5 in Mewat and 1 in Panipat) of Haryana. We have a MoU with the Haryana government to work with all 30 KGBVs until 2024. For both locations, we run different programs.

We are working with girls of standard 6^th-9^th, principal, teachers and wardens in KGBVs of Mewat. Total number of girl students studying in these schools is 800. The total number of teachers is 20 and the total number of wardens is 5. Based on the assessments done in the collaboration of NCERT and later on individually, few issues were identified in the KGBVs:

• Language learning: There is a clear disparity in terms of Hindi and English Language acquisition. The disparity in English is higher than in Hindi. Majority of the schools don’t even implement any bridge course for them.
• Socio-Emotional Skills: Since the girls hail from underrepresented communities and have to negotiate for their dreams and continuing their education, it becomes important to work with them on socio-emotional skills.

Approach adopted in response to COVID

This year was spent completely as a response to COVID-19 more than anything else. Our regular operations were halted and we put all our energy into getting in touch with the girls we work with, just to ensure that there is some learning continuity for them. Strategically, we did not expand to any more schools this year. We launched programs of Parental Engagement, Digital Engagement, and IVRS as a medium for learning in response to COVID-19.

This year, again, we shall continue to work with same set of schools and only take up new clusters (one at a time) if we think we are ready. This year shall focus on:

1. Further strengthening our cluster + In School model (once things get back to normal).
2. Continue with the IVRS and Digital Program till the schools are not fully functional
3. Continue with Parental Engagement program even after things gets normal
4. Further strengthen our Core Areas: English as a second Language for Adolescent Girls, Gender, Socio-emotional Skills, and Middle School Science – Gender Curriculum.
5. Start building partnerships keeping the needs of our girls at the center and continue with strengthening of capacity of our Field Coordinators who are part of the community.
6. Raising Funds: We aim to build partnerships that support us in core areas while helping us garner resources as a reserve for at least a year.