The primary objective of this exposure trip was to provide an opportunity to understand the lives of underprivileged children at various schools studying in Kutch of Gujarat. This trip has helped them to understand how students are learning inside classrooms through classroom observations and frequent interactions with teachers. Understanding the hardship of their parents at fields and workplace was core to it. Developing a better understanding about the approaches of different organizations and working strategies established by them in this area was one of the objectives. To draw a comparison between urban and rural theoretical frameworks in primary and elementary education and accumulating best practices was envisaged through this trip.

DAY – 1
VISIT TO RESIDENTIAL HOSTEL
Location: – Vill. Amaliyara, Distt. Kachchh, Gujrat

A government run residential hostel providing a learning environment at the heart of village gives a pleasant feeling to the team. It functions Under SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.This hostel and learning facility is meant for the children of migrated labor.

VISIT TO CRAFT VILLAGE AND SALT PAN FIELD
Location: Vill. Dhamadka and Little Rann of Kachchh

Handicrafts are a living tradition of Kachchh and the women of various communities who make beautifully embroidered garments to earn livelihood.

The Little Rann of Kachchh has vast salt marshes where most of the salt is harvested in Gujarat. The team visited to see one such salt pans where they observed various steps involved in salt making.

DAY – 2
CFT works for both Rural and Urban Poor. Its major components are Support function, Knowledge building and sharing, Research and Advocacy and Implementation functions.

Observations: –
Though Cohesion Foundation Trust (CFT) uses school premises for taking remedial classes, it has more of community based approach towards education. They target SMC members and local community for pushing children towards formal education.

It has a well developed curriculum with fixed timeline for its remedial classes. Two levels have been defined. Level 1 in which they bridge the gap in knowledge levels of children is to be completed by December of every year after which they do their midline assessment. Then Level 2 begins in which the class wise syllabus of children is being taken care of while teaching them.

Several good practices adopted by the teachers of the organisation were Parents’ class visit charts, children’s attendance charts, class observation formats and suggestion box in every class organised by CFT.

Unlike Aspire which uses worksheets as one of the teaching aids in its classrooms, CFT in partnership with American India Foundation (AIF) has developed its workbook which records the progress of every child CFT is working with.

In addition to Baseline, Midline and End-line Assessments for tracking progress of children, CFT has also developed and adopted Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation (CCE) methods for tracking the progress in learning levels of every child on a quarterly basis.

DAY – 3
Observations: –
Unnati is a non profit organization which work on school safety and issues related to livelihood of underprivileged section of the society. It also promotes social inclusion & democratic governance, so that the vulnerable sections of the society, particularly the dalits, tribals, women and persons with disabilities, are empowered. The team visited its office located at Nava Gam, Bhachau, Kutchh.