Education

Solar Digital Night Schools – flagship programme

Despite living in a technologically advanced era, there are still thousands of children who are deprived of access to education.

Many rural children work with their families during the day, meaning they cannot attend government schools. This widens the digital gap between urban and remote rural communities, exacerbating the illiteracy-poverty cycle.

The Barefoot College Solar Digital Night Schools bridge the educational gap for children aged 6 to 14, who gather at night to learn by the light of solar lanterns. Barefoot College establishes these community-led night schools in remote areas, and links them with mainstream schools so the children can continue their education.

The students learn through experience with a blend of traditional and modern techniques. Innovative digital learning tools help teach basic numeracy, literacy, democratic values, scientific skills and environmental sustainability.  We create teaching aids and learning materials from waste products, using local technologies and empowering marginalised groups. For example, we use toys and learning aids crafted from local wood by physically challenged rural young people.

Our high-quality and impactful initiative has been able to scale due to its rigorous teacher selection and training, tailoring curricula to local needs, and detailed monitoring and evaluation of children’s progress.

Barefoot College Children’s Parliament

When a government school programme to teach children about voting was adopted by Barefoot College Night Schools, the innovative concept of a Children’s Parliament was born.

The elected members of the Children’s Parliament have specific portfolios. They raise questions about school affairs, discuss the workings of local government and the values associated with leadership and critical thinking, and develop democratic awareness.

For over ten years the Children’s Parliament elected girls as its Prime Ministers. One of them, Devaki, was invited to Sweden where she received the World’s Children’s Prize and met and chatted with the Queen of Sweden.

Other notable achievements by office bearers in the Children’s Parliament include:

Day school at Barefoot College

Good quality education is hard to come by in rural India. There are either private schools that market education, or badly staffed and ill-attended government schools.

Since its inception in 1988 as an experimental primary school on the Barefoot College campus in Tilonia, Rajasthan, our day school programme has grown in partnership with Shiksha Niketan to serve nearly 500 girls and boys. We combine the government curriculum with the Barefoot approach, significantly improving student outcomes.

Children at the solar-powered Barefoot College day school are active participants in how the school is run, and the teaching-learning process is interactive. Teachers use local examples and straightforward language. Above all, children are encouraged to ask questions and to work hard to find the solutions themselves.

The first group of children who completed class 8 scored an impressive average of 82 percent on their examinations. Over the years, our team has grown to 15 Barefoot Teachers, including four women.

Residential Bridge School

The residential Bridge School, is supported by generous donors and run by Barefoot College for children who are unable to enrol in formal school, such as those from migrant families, or dropout children from vulnerable sections of local communities.

When the children feel ready and confident enough to join the local schools, the Bridge School provides maximum support to bring them into the mainstream and supports them in their progress.

Digital Village Learning Centres

The Digital Village Learning Centres are a response to the needs of young rural girls and women who want to prepare for competitive examinations, or build entrepreneurial skills, or both.

Recognising gender bias in the community the Centres seek to fill the gender gap and address the shortage of resources that are dedicated to empowering and educating females in rural communities.

Barefoot College created these Digital Village Learning Centres to address specific challenges faced by rural girls and women:

• Women are not allowed to attend regular college, so after leaving school they must rely on correspondence courses to complete their education.
• The common custom of early marriage in Rajasthan means that girls are immersed in family life and bear the burdens of running a household and caring for children at an early age. The Digital Village Learning Centre is their own space, where they can spend at least two hours each day on the internet, working on online courses and gaining valuable knowledge and skills.
• In this area, custom dictates that young women are not given access either to mobile phones or internet facilities at home. The Digital Village Learning Centre provides wi-fi and e-devices so that they can tap into the resources and information they need, not just to prepare for examinations but also for their own general interests.
• Rural tradition prevents women and girls from travelling far from their villages, and in any case they feel uncomfortable in the presence of men who are not relatives. Barefoot College saw that this meant two things: the Digital Village Learning Centre had to be located in the village itself, and it had to be a space that was only open to women and girls.
• Rural families in Rajasthan tend not to support women financially in their educational aspirations, simply because they are women. The Digital Village Learning Centres seek to overcome this bias by offering vocational training. Through this, women and girls have the opportunity to earn money for themselves and lead their lives in independence and dignity, in the way that is already open to men.

The Digital Village Learning Centre is a vision going beyond that of a mere building. As a safe space for women it encompasses the idea of comfortable, friendly learning in a rich environment offering a library and internet access to the world well beyond the village, as well as the prospect of independence through vocational training. It is a space where women can become learners for life.

Barefoot Teachers

Working with local people, the Barefoot College team selects enthusiastic volunteers from the nearby area and trains them in classroom management and pedagogy. The training is rigorous, involving peer learning and “learning by doing”. Eventually each person becomes a Barefoot Teacher.

These teachers do not have degrees, but their dedication to teaching and the high quality of their training helps Barefoot College to bridge the educational gap between outcast and other communities.

Rajasthan’s high illiteracy levels in the 1970s led Barefoot College to make literacy a priority. In addition to its more general work in education, since 1974 the College has delivered programmes focused on enhancing reading skills.

Although this began by focusing on adult education, staff saw that children too were attracted to these classes. In 1975 the picture of a lantern, surrounded by children under a dark night sky, gave rise to the idea of night school.

Initially, the classes offered in the villages were aimed at adults, but they attracted children of school-going age rather than the adults they were aimed at. This made clear the importance of giving attention to primary education and schooling.