Deepening Learning

Putting technology in the hands of students, developing teachers' capacity and demonstrating inputs and outcomes at scale.

Ensuring access to quality books and capacity building avenues for librarians, teachers and educators.

Directly implementing SCQuIP, and initiating remedial coaching in secondary schools, and innovation and research.

An age-specific intervention that focuses on the psychological and physiological growth of children from the ages of 0-6, the early childhood development intervention by Kalike works through government-run anganwadi centres.

Baseline studies showed that Yadgir had the highest number of children denied access to pre-school education. So Kalike developed a programme to improve child-care practices and the quality of early childhood education in the anganwadis in the region.

This programme is a combination of Kalike’s train-the-trainer model and work in improving classrooms and materials for young children.

Anganwadi workers are trained in several subjects such as the importance of nurturing the developing brain, needs and considerations to be followed while teaching, and practical methods to encourage personal hygiene. Kalike offers onsite mentoring to help anganwadi workers collate and create activity-based teaching from locally available materials.

Kalike offers regular home visits and sets up meetings at schools for mothers to emphasise the importance of pre-school education. Since inception, the number of anganwadi workers has grown to 4,465 members.

Yadgir is one of Karnataka state’s backward districts. It comprises a primarily agrarian society and experiences large scale season migration for employment. This contributes to low school enrolment and retention rates, as well as a drop in grade-appropriate learning. The Tata Trusts launched Kalike Samruddhi Upakram (KSU translates as learning enhancement programme), in October 2007 to improve the quality of education in this region.

In 2012, the Trusts registered Kalike as a nodal agency to implement the KSU initiative in Yadgir. The focus is on piloting and scaling up innovative solutions to the challenges faced by Yadgir through integrated programmes. Hence, the interventions under Kalike have expanded to include livelihood enhancement, health and nutrition, and skill development.

Kalike works alongside the Department of Women and Child Development to build capacities of anganwadi workers. Anganwadis are government-run centres where children between the ages of 0-6 are taken care of while their parents work.

Intensive capacity building is provided to anganwadi workers with a focus on building perspective in early childhood education, hands-on experience and practical methods of teaching age-appropriate activities, and on maintaining hygiene.