"I talk to other women in the village, and I want to see this grow as a movement." Rekha expresses her optimism during our meeting at her house. We are at Hyakanuru village in Karnataka's Mysore district. It lies in the T. Narasipura block, where people either cultivate rice or travel to Mysore for work. Rekha's family is involved in the former. While she is a housewife, she also helps her husband on the field sometimes.
"There was no after-school class in the village. I wanted to initiate it so that children could revise what they studied in school. I wanted it in my village, just like they have it in cities", she says. Hence when she came to know about Pratham's library program, she felt the need to initiate it and implement it at Hyakanuru. Rekha was also worried that children spent their time roaming in the village after school, and nothing was productive. The time from 4 pm to 6 pm was without any activity, and the library program filled the gap!
There are ten children in Rekha's library, and she enjoys her duty of ensuring that they learn in groups. "The good thing about this is that I also learn with children, and it is like a revision of concepts for me", she says. She has identified that children struggle in Math, and she has come up with some activities of her own. "I ask children to identify the price of daily use items and then frame the problems based on them. Children find it interesting, and it improves their Math as well." For the activities concerning the Kannada language, the activity of story-telling has helped the children. "They now know more words", she says.
There is a marked improvement in children, according to Rekha. They are more confident, express themselves clearly, and more importantly, they enjoy all the activities. "The group learning technique has helped them, and that is the reason they have changed. It makes me happy", she says. Now in the initial stage, Rekha is determined to carry this forward as a movement. She is confident that her daily interactions with other women in the village will be fruitful and one day, the whole village will contribute to this initiative of improving the learning level of children.
"There was no after-school class in the village. I wanted to initiate it so that children could revise what they studied in school. I wanted it in my village, just like they have it in cities", she says. Hence when she came to know about Pratham's library program, she felt the need to initiate it and implement it at Hyakanuru. Rekha was also worried that children spent their time roaming in the village after school, and nothing was productive. The time from 4 pm to 6 pm was without any activity, and the library program filled the gap!
There are ten children in Rekha's library, and she enjoys her duty of ensuring that they learn in groups. "The good thing about this is that I also learn with children, and it is like a revision of concepts for me", she says. She has identified that children struggle in Math, and she has come up with some activities of her own. "I ask children to identify the price of daily use items and then frame the problems based on them. Children find it interesting, and it improves their Math as well." For the activities concerning the Kannada language, the activity of story-telling has helped the children. "They now know more words", she says.
There is a marked improvement in children, according to Rekha. They are more confident, express themselves clearly, and more importantly, they enjoy all the activities. "The group learning technique has helped them, and that is the reason they have changed. It makes me happy", she says. Now in the initial stage, Rekha is determined to carry this forward as a movement. She is confident that her daily interactions with other women in the village will be fruitful and one day, the whole village will contribute to this initiative of improving the learning level of children.
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