Reaching out of school students

Amreesh Chandra, 
Project Out of School Children (OoSC)

The mission to educate every child is a momentous challenge in itself and limitations of resources make it a Herculean task. While Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, education of girl child and several other schemes like mid-day meal and free books and uniforms are steps in this direction, the ground reality is that around 18 million children in the country are out of school. "While the focus of all the government schemes is to provide better education in the existing schools and to the students already in schools, the need to reach out to those who are not a part of the education system, is hugely overlooked in our country", says noted educationist Amreesh Chandra who has been running schools in UP for over 30 years. He is also involved in education programmes in Malta, Ghana and Macedonia. Chandra, is spearheading the breakthrough initiative, Project Out of School Children (OoSC), that has been launched with the mission to enrol, educate and empower 127 million out of school children in the Commonwealth nations with a special focus on India's 18 million children who do not have access to a school for multiple reasons.  The project internationally is to be unveiled by Chandra on May 29 at the IBG, India Awards in the British Parliament. Excerpts from an interview:

What is the concept behind OoSC project?

It is sad that very little is being done to bring out of school children in the mainstream education system. If one looks at the number of existing schools and the need for new ones, then it is clear that there is a huge gap here and it is because of this that over 18 million students are "unreachable" by our literacy schemes. OoSC aims to target this gap by setting up schools for kindergarten and primary school students and also by raising volume of noise on the issue so that it is noticed all over the world.

How will OoSC fill this gap? 

The out of school children include those who have never been to school and those who dropped out after a short while. OoSC is targeting both these groups. Our focus is on providing  kindergarten and primary schools in remote areas through a structured curriculum and prepare students for the traditional system after Class V. 

What is unique about this project?

The OoSC project delivers three types of learning spaces, libraries, kindergarten schools and primary schools though a one world one book curriculum. We are using recyclable material - shipping containers - to set up schools. We are also focusing on bringing a holistic experience for small children in the initial years of schooling through incubation centres and regulated teaching.

What is your target for 2019?

Within the next 90 to 130 days we intend to set up three schools. The first live project will come up in the first week of July in Gorakhpur. The second project is coming up in Mirzapur district and third school is on the outskirts of Jaipur in a village. Project OoSC aims to launch in its first year 50 container schools across four states over the next year. Besides these the efforts are on to convince governments to observe one day every year as Out of School Children day and generate sufficient funds for setting up new schools. 

- As told to Geetu Vaid