Swatantra Talim

Supported by: Wipro

About Swatantra Talim

Swatantra Talim is a registered non-profit organization (certified under 12A and 80G of Income Tax Act) working in the field of alternative education in the interior villages of Uttar Pradesh since July 2013. The organization works with rural children in the age group of 6 to 16 years. Efforts are made to nurture their scientific temper through hands-on curriculum and contextual pedagogy.

Guiding Principle

On academic outcomes, children from under-resourced communities often lag behind in comparison to their higher-income peers. The persistent increase in this achievement gap over the years leads to lower school completion and low college attendance, which perpetuates into long-standing cycles of poverty. We are creating opportunities and experiences that foster scientific temper among children to prepare them for school and life.

Vision

Every village as a center of innovation and every child as an innovator facilitating social change.

Mission

To nurture scientific temper among rural children through contextual, hands-on curriculum and pedagogy.

Projects

The organization follows an approach that combines conceptual understanding, deep-dive and exposure, and real-life application that are essential to ensure real learning. Keeping this approach in mind, at various operating units (depending on the case), focus remains on the product and process innovation.

Currently, the organization runs one after-school learning center (the other learning center in Aashiana has been discontinued due to pandemic) in village Ramdwari, Sitapur district (90 kms. from Lucknow) catering to 120 children aged 6-16 years. The after-school learning center started in July 2013 with 40 girls. After constant work in the community, the numbers kept on increasing and now, there are 120 boys and girls with 10 community teachers.

Post the MoU with UP State Government, Swatantra Talim started working in 5 primary government schools of Lucknow district. As the pandemic emerged in March 2020, we took stock of the situation and started supporting 5 schools from Sarojini Nagar Block, Lucknow, district catering to about 30 teachers and 800 students. We kept supporting them and the teachers through our Khoj Dabba Extension program.

The organization serves as a content partner for a MoU with SBMA (Uttarakhand) and Plan India (Uttarakhand), where Khoj Dabba is running in 12 primary government schools of Khanpur Block, Haridwar district catering to 1,500 students and 55 teachers. In March 2020, due to the spur of the pandemic, the organization supported the teachers and the students through Khoj Dabba Extension program involving Community Youth Leaders (CYL) of the attached villages.

Plans for the Next 1-3 Years:

1. Creating a culture of ‘thinking’ in primary and upper primary government schools through maker-spaces, playful learning methods to bring holistic learning
2. Dissemination of work at block and cluster level through the support of the primary government school teachers of 5 schools in Sarojini Nagar Block, Lucknow district
3. Setting up 2 Khoj Shaala in the upper primary government school of Lucknow district, catering to children in Grade 6 to 8 through maker-spaces
4. Enhanced learning of core and other team members through trainings and capacity building workshops. There will be specific focus on teachers becoming researchers and writers to help create thoughtful content for the future.
5. Action based research and documentation of work through modules, blogs, and articles