Adharshila Shiksha Samiti

Over the years, Adharshilas direct education activities have increased to over 40 villages through their model school at Agraa and Resource Centres. More than 150 students attend the Adharshila Resource Centres while 330 students attend the model school at Agraa.

25% of students at the Adharshila School in Agraa are exempted from all fees. Adharshila also provides free education to adivasi students irrespective of any government rules or conditions

Their goal has been to improve the quality of school education in their area of operation over a two-year period from 2012-14.

Their activities in 2013-14 were as follows:

• Pedagogy: The Adharshila team broke down the syllabus for each subject at every grade into skills so that teachers can impart these skills and test the level of competency at the end of teaching each skill. They began pilot testing, and the new pedagogy was to be functional from the next academic session. Children will then be evaluated on a continuous basis on skill assessment instead of through term-end examinations.
• Teacher’s Training: Teacher training is undertaken throughout the year at Adharshila, in addition to at least one exclusive training camp each academic year. The training for 2013-14 focused on preparing primary level teachers to teach according to their new pedagogy.
• Resource Material: All students of Adharshila upto Class 10 are provided with textbooks and notebooks free of cost. The books are taken back at the end of the academic session and redistributed to new students and replaced by new books if required. 747 new books and 2,200 notebooks were purchased in 2013-14.

Adharshila is also looking to set up three new Resource Centres in two adivasi villages that were expected to be operational by April 2014. This will help Adharshila reach out to 110 new children. In the next five years, they expect to cover more than 50 villages, especially those where a majority of the population comes from the Sahariya Adivasi tribes.