Learning Companions

Vision

Every child will be self aware, equipped to pursue their passion and lead a successful and happy life for themselves and the community

Mission

Our mission is to transform the education landscape of Nagpur and nearby districts in the next 10 years by creating about 300 education leaders. Through this community of leaders, we aim to reach about 20,000 children and develop a generation of learners who are aware of their interests, values and develop a set of skills that will enable them to pursue their passion.

What do we do?

85% of the children in Sonkhamb can read, write or are growing as per their grade level, where there was not a single literate person in the community when we started our work in October 2019. We are similarly bridging the learning gap for over 150 children at the 5 community centers, another 30 children learning sports through a dedicated sports learning center.

90% of the fellows graduated from our fellowship continue to work in the education sector. Together we are reaching over 1200 children in partnership with different organizations in Vidarbha.

Why does it matter? – The Problem

We are addressing a problem of education at two levels. One, According to the Statistics of School Education Report 2010-11, 71.3% of the Nomadic and Scheduled tribe children in India drop out before grade 10.  Following is the picture of education in the nomadic Bharwad community as per our November 2019 survey. 

Two, in our interaction with over 52 development sector organizations in Nagpur, 62% of the interaction has been related to lack of quality human resource, over 58% related to lack of effective systems and structures to run programs. Only 4% of organizations had focused resources on research and development.  If we can address these challenges, we will be able to create an effective ecosystem for our children.

How do we do it? – The solution

Short-term

• Our fellows teach in a classroom/community centre, directly impacting the student outcomes and setting examples for teachers and parents of what excellent teaching-learning activities/practises look like in practice.
• Our fellows engage with parents through regular home visits, parents meeting and other activities. They focus on building awareness and motivation in parents about what their children should learn at a certain age/level, what they should expect from teachers/school and how to effectively engage in their children’s education.

Long term

We are solving 3 key pieces in the puzzle of excellent education in our region: 

1. We are developing, systematically experimenting and documenting organisational tools that effectively enable learning, motivation and efficiency in rural youth. We are rigorously capturing data on effectiveness of these tools, refining them, building these resources in regional language and documenting them in a way that they can be shared easily with other organisations. Through this, we aim to build an ecosystem of individuals and organisations in the region that are working rigorously and effectively towards providing excellent education to every child.
2. Similarly we are building a database of best teaching-learning practices, activities and other resources available in regional language and open for anyone who wants to use it. 
3. Developing highly motivated, skilled and efficient youth education leaders who will drive the movement towards excellent education in our region.

Fellows are supported through following model during their journey of two years as teaching fellows

Current Outreach – Directly through ‘Learning Companions Fellowship

Location/Community	Number of centres/ Schools	Number of children	Number of fellows
Nagpur – Nomadic Bharwad and Pardhi Community	6	180	15

Current Outreach – Indirect through Partner organisations

Location/ Community	Partner Organisation	Number of centres/ Schools	Number of children	Number of fellows /teachers
Nagpur – Migrated footpath children	UPAY	1	20	2
Gadchiroli – Gond Tribal Community	Amhi Amchya Arogyasathi	10	260	10
Akola – Tribal Pardhi Community	Zep	1	40	3
Nagpur – Migrated labourers	Krantijyoti Savitribai Phule Convent (started by community)	1	30	3
Total		14	350	18
Grand Total		20	530	33

Intended impact

Our mission is to transform the education landscape of Nagpur and nearby districts in the next 10 years by creating about 300 education leaders (150 education leaders through ‘Learning Companions Fellowship’ and supporting and collaborating with another 150 education leaders at different levels in schools, NGOs, government or private spaces). Through this movement, we aim to reach about 20,000 children and develop a generation of learners who are aware of their interests, values and develop a set of skills that will enable them to pursue their passion.

Our Partners and Supporters

1. Geomitra Solutions LLP
2. Excel Controlinkage
3. PManifold
4. Forbes Marshall Foundation
5. TFIx
6. AVART Parivar
7. UPAY
8. School of creativity (SOC)​
9. Amhi Amchya Arogyasathi
10. Alag Angle
11. Persistent