Based on CGPL’s long-term commitment to boost literacy levels in the rural regions of Gujarat, the organisation has carried out various activities to engage children and encourage them to take up reading. However, a number of challenges still face CGPL in carrying out these activities. These must be addressed to facilitate a smoother journey to help our children learn more effectively in the future for a better tomorrow.
- Many learning programs depend heavily on volunteers. Mobilising and sustaining volunteers is a challenging task, especially in areas which also house companies and industries.
- Schools that are established in interior villages have to deal with low rates of enrolment. Different strategies must be formulated to help improve learning in these villages, both for better outcomes and for an ownership of strategies at the village and school level.
- A majority of mothers spend time conducting activities with their children at night. This makes it difficult to monitor whether activities are being conducted in an effective manner. To address this challenge, home visits are undertaken to see if mothers are facing any challenges to help engage their children in studying.
- A number of children who live in remote villages could not be a part of science activities as they would be busy helping their parents. CGPL mobilised their volunteers to reach out to these children and their parents to take a bigger part in undertaking scientific activities.
With consistent, strategic efforts, several schools and children have been reached out to over the last few years. Challenges are at every step on the road to achieve CGPL’s aim of educating children, however much work is being done to overcome these challenges and realise the dream to boost literacy rates across rural regions in India.