Education is the human right of every individual. You can support these tribal children to get quality learning.
Tribal Education
The educational condition of tribal communities is a matter of awareness, as they suffer the maximum degree of educational hardship. The tribal literacy rate remains limited compared to other sections of the population — because tribal communities have historically been isolated and have suffered from centuries of neglect that kept them distant from mainstream development, and because government programmes have not reached them properly.
Unable to afford primary human needs like water, food and shelter, parents are left with no alternative but to push their children into the same unfair system of child labour they grew up in. Few can save enough from their wages to send a child to school — so the cycle of conflict and injustice continues.
Aspirant's awareness and efforts focus on strengthening tribal school admission from primary level up to higher levels, and reducing school drop-out rates — especially for girls. We believe education is the key to breaking the rhythm of poverty.
Our tribal education programme: Shiksha Vikas Kendra
There are many government primary schools in Rajasthan — but due to their condition, poor teacher participation, and the long distance from home, many kids are discouraged from continuing school and are sent for cattle-grazing or labour work instead. Aspirant Education took up the task of setting up rural schools as an alternative. Our team counselled parents to enrol their kids — and now, all the children at the Kota centre can read and write. Parents, too, have learned the importance of education.
Shiksha Vikas Kendra ensures education for school drop-outs and the underprivileged in tribal areas, and enables people to demand quality education from the government. We run Shiksha Vikas Kendras in places where quality education is discouraged or unavailable. Each Kendra is a single classroom, one-teacher school delivering learning up to the 6th grade. Aspirant conducts surveys to assess existing education, the condition of the tribe, and maintains continuous communication with tribal villagers. After assessment, we open a Shiksha Vikas Kendra in tribal villages where people are unaware of government schemes, hire a local teacher, and make the required equipment, materials, food and other essentials available to the kids and the school.
Aspirant Education runs 101 schools serving 4,000 kids every year.
Projects and work in the last year
During the global health crisis, centre-based education was not possible under government protocol. As an alternative, we ran group-based teaching (4–5 kids) in open areas near their homes, arranged across the intervention blocks of the districts. Around 400 children were educated through these adapted methods to soften the learning loss, and were provided self-learning educational materials to continue learning at home. More than 200 families were sensitised to COVID-19.
As cases rose in the second wave and lockdown was announced, group-based schooling in villages had to pause temporarily. We ensured the tutor–kid connection continued: phone-call support for parents and kids, daily home visits, and online facilities for educators — all while safeguarding the health of kids, educators and the community.
A story from Aspirant Education
Himanshu is a 10-year-old boy studying at the Shiksha Vikas Kendra; his father Hemant is a truck driver. Himanshu has been coming to the Kendra for years and enjoys learning English, Hindi and Maths. The temporary stoppage of the Kendra during the pandemic made him lose interest in his studies, and he began missing the re-organised group-based schooling. His instructor Lalit noticed this during group study and visited his home, realising Himanshu no longer enjoyed group study. At his parents' request, Lalit taught Himanshu at home personally for some days and motivated him. Himanshu is regular now — more passionate than before about participating in the group-schooling atmosphere, and his parents are happy with the group-based and phone-call-based study system.
Contribute a little to these innocent kids for their primary education.