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Education. Just another name for freedom from poverty, ignorance and a life in the slums.
At Sunbeam, we have a three-pronged approach to education:
- prepare the child for formal schooling
- enrol him/her into a formal school
- follow up to ensure retention.
But how do you introduce an 11-year old slum child with no reading or writing skills to formal schooling? The solution: A bridge course.
Bridge Course:
Bridge Courses are conducted for younger children in the age group 5 - 10 years who are not up to the desired academic levels of the class they are in the formal school or for those children who have never been to school before. Suitable training is imparted in the vernacular language as well as English and Maths to enable them to join the mainstream by ensuring direct admission to classes based on their age and aptitude.
Performance Level ( Bridge Course )
Center |
76 % & above |
60% to 75% |
35% to 59% |
Below 35% |
Not Appeared |
Total |
Worli |
- |
- |
- |
-
|
-
|
- |
Bandra |
9 |
14 |
26
|
30
|
14
|
93 |
Total |
9 |
14 |
26 |
30
|
14
|
93 |
Percentage |
10% |
15% |
28% |
32%
|
15%
|
100% |
Formal Schooling:
Our goal at Sunbeam isn’t just to make the child literate, but also to ensure integration with the mainstream. And that’s why we passionately support formal schooling. We’ve enlisted the support of the municipal schools nearest to each of our centres.
Performance Level ( General Batch )
Center |
76 % & above |
60% to 75% |
35% to 59% |
Below 35% |
Not Appeared |
Total |
Worli |
27 |
117 |
343 |
112 |
35
| 634 |
Bandra |
20 |
23 |
187
|
118 |
10
| 353
|
Total |
47 |
140 |
530 |
230 |
45
| 987 |
Percentage |
5% |
14% |
53% |
23% |
5%
| 100% |
Ensuring retention:
Enrolling a child in school is the easy part. Ensuring that they stay in school is tough. Low motivation, the lure of the streets, parents moving to new sites - all are potential causes for drop-out. Here’s where teachers and community workers play an active role in preventing dropouts. They keep a tab on every child at the centre, assess the reasons for dropout and take immediate corrective steps.
When families shift to new suburbs, the community development coordinator follows up with them. She makes sure that the child is admitted into the nearest municipal school in that area. But the children continue to stay in touch with Sunbeam.
This stringent attention has ensured that Sunbeam retention rates are among the highest.
Staff Capacity Building
Teacher, parent, friend, nurse, muse - the role of a teacher at Sunbeam is at once complex and challenging. And yet the women (and a few men now) take to their role with great enthusiasm. Nothing deters them from bringing out the best in the children. Here’s what they Key Focus Areas look like.
What’s more, teachers undergo regular training to update their skills. The majority of our teachers are professionally qualified.
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