#WATWB- VLC’s in Telengana, India

“You Create Opportunities by performing and not complaining”  Muriel Siebert

The Pandemic has turned our world upside down, with lock down from March 2020, the Government school students are the most affected, with no guidelines on conducting online classes in our state of Telengana an initiative has been taken up by the Telengana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society and Telengana Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions have turned teachers for their classmates. They have started Village Learning Circles to promote continuity of studies while schools remain closed due to COVID 19 with uncertainty over the academic year.

The idea is to operate the Village Learning Circles(VLC) from homes, panchayat offices, churches, schools, religious places and other learning centres in villages.  Students who good communication, leadership and teaching skills take up the role of teachers and teach the younger schoolmates and peers in his or her village. This programme was to make up for digital education’s shortcomings, especially when it came to those who lack the resources. Those children who were in VII and VIII had communication and teaching skills which were above average and lived in far off areas, the teacher chose them to take charge and teach students who lived in their area and had no digital connection to the world. The children were motivated to teach the basics.

Every VLC had five to ten students from class 6 to degree level with good teaching skills and were competent in a particular subject were entrusted with teaching responsibilities.  The time table was evolved in such a way that there were two to three hours of teaching schedule per day.

Teachers guided and mentored the student teachers and enabled them to sharpen their skills in implementing the programme. Precautions were taken to ensure that student were encouraged to wear mask, sanitize their hands and maintain physical distance. There are 8,000 Village Learning Centres with 40, 000 students under Telengana Social Welfare Residential Education Institution society and 200 Village Learning Centers for Telengana Tribal Welfare Residential Education Institution society. It is said that the target is to form 50,000 VLCs for both societies.

The Village Learning Centres will help students to continue their education instead of pushing them to take up labour activities. It will also keep them engaged in learning and help them stay connected with books. This initiative is inspiring and bringing light into the darkness, proving opportunity for the less fortunate students to be on track academically.

For further readings you can click on this link.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/students-form-village-circles-to-transform-learning-in-rural-areas/articleshow/77075247.cms

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/lockdown-lessons-students-don-teachers-role-for-classmates-in-telangana-116907

https://tswreis.in/English%20VLC_compressed.pdf

Our co-hosts this month will be: Eric Lahti, Roshan Radhakrishnan, Shilpa Garg, Peter Nena and Sylvia Stein.

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