Quality improvement in schools
With the aim of improving quality of education for rural students in Government and aided schools, Aspire Foundation took up Tamil reading, basic math and spoken English programs. Our staff conducted classes in 60 schools, reaching out to over 5,000 students. This intervention caused improvement of basic skills of students in Tamil reading, basic arithmetic and English comprehension and speaking. Training, resource materials and funding support for this program was provided by AID INDIA, Chennai.
Village libraries Most rural children in our area do not have access to educational materials apart from textbooks at home or at school. To ensure that children have access to lots of colourful books and develop the reading habit, we started Eureka Children’s Libraries in 20 villages, run by village level volunteers. Children borrowed books and read the simple yet interesting stories. Through these libraries, children were also trained on a variety of activities like origami, drawing, drama andessay writing.
Partnership projects In collaboration with UNICEF and Nalanda Way, Aspire Foundation conducted a Story writing and Storytelling competition as part of the Art Arattai Arpattam festival for 3 years, from 2008 to 2010. Village level and block level story writing & storytelling contests were held, at which children worked in pairs, narrating, writing and illustrating their own stories. Prize winners received medals and certificates.
Capacity building - We have provided staff capacity building and on-field support to other NGOs in our target area interested in rural education development.
We have engaged our team in Government projects involving population data collection using IT in NilakottaiTaluk.
Research and development
Skill development curriculum – Since inception in 2005-06, Aspire Foundation has been investing a lot of time and effort in developing and fine-tuning skill development curriculum for its scholarship students from Std. 9 to 12. The curriculum is constantly reviewed and tweaked based on experiences gathered from the SDP sessions and students’ feedback. We brought out a bi-lingual SDP handbook in 2 parts, which is being used by our faculty and students over the last 3 years.
Primary math pilot program – Activities were developed to improve basic arithmetic skills of children in Std. 3-5 in 6 schools. The focus was on number recognition, place value, addition and subtraction using concrete blocks & other material. In addition, melas were conducted to create excitement to learn math. Activities in the melas included weight and height measurement, estimation, visual reasoning and balancing simple equations. Besides, some stalls displayed materials to explain concepts such as number line, arithmetic symbols and reading time on a clock, as well currency. This action research program was done in collaboration with AID INDIA, Chennai.
Storytelling in Balwadis
We piloted a short-term activity session involving storytelling, vocabulary introduction, finger painting and songs for children aged 3 to 5 yearsin 30 balwadis over a period of 2 months. Balwadi teachers welcomed this activity, as they found it refreshingly different. Children enjoyed these activities a lot.This action research program was done in collaboration with AID INDIA, Chennai.
Quality improvement in schools
Most rural children in our area do not have access to educational materials apart from textbooks at home or at school. To ensure that children have access to lots of colourful books and develop the reading habit, we started Eureka Children’s Libraries in 20 villages, run by village level volunteers. Children borrowed books and read the simple yet interesting stories. Through these libraries, children were also trained on a variety of activities like origami, drawing, drama andessay writing.
In collaboration with UNICEF and Nalanda Way, Aspire Foundation conducted a Story writing and Storytelling competition as part of the Art Arattai Arpattam festival for 3 years, from 2008 to 2010. Village level and block level story writing & storytelling contests were held, at which children worked in pairs, narrating, writing and illustrating their own stories. Prize winners received medals and certificates.
Primary math pilot program – Activities were developed to improve basic arithmetic skills of children in Std. 3-5 in 6 schools. The focus was on number recognition, place value, addition and subtraction using concrete blocks & other material. In addition, melas were conducted to create excitement to learn math. Activities in the melas included weight and height measurement, estimation, visual reasoning and balancing simple equations. Besides, some stalls displayed materials to explain concepts such as number line, arithmetic symbols and reading time on a clock, as well currency. This action research program was done in collaboration with AID INDIA, Chennai.
Storytelling in Balwadis
