Summary
The mobile cart will initially cater to students of four primary schools run by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation in TIljala-Topsia
The cart comes loaded with high-quality learning resources that Ek Tara’s street educators can use to nurture the learners’ talents
A mobile learning cart run by Ek Tara and Belgium-based non-profit organisation Mobile School is back on the streets to help bridge the learning gap for students.
Ek Tara has associated with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to take Anondo Gari to students of four corporation schools by rotation. Street educators will try to bridge the learning gap caused by school closure.
Initially, children from KMC schools aged five and up can learn from the cart. Ek Tara hopes to expand the initiative further.
The Chakke Pe Kaksha initiative by Ek Tara earlier catered to 300 kids in wards 59, 65 and 66 of the Topsia-Tiljala area since 2017 but had to be put on hold in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The initiative has now been relaunched to cover the learning slide caused by the pandemic.
The mobile education cart was provided to Ek Tara by Mobile School as part of a collaboration that began in 2017. The cart comes loaded with high-quality learning resources. Ek Tara’s street educators utilise the resources provided by Mobile School to nurture and grow the learners’ talents and skills.
Mobile School leverages learning from and on the streets to support children from low-income and marginalised communities. Mobile School has partnered with organisations from 26 countries to provide them with support in the form of learning carts. In India, Ek Tara is the first to partner with Mobile School.
Ek Tara works towards educating girls in Topsia and Tiljala and also aims to skill the women of the community to bring about long-term change.
Mobile School’s cart on wheels can be used as a mobile classroom that can be installed anywhere. The cart is around five-foot-long and has extendable blackboards that can be extended up to 20 feet long. They are equipped with more than 350 educational materials that are divided into eight categories- basic education, basic stimulation, children's rights, creative therapy, entrepreneurship, game education, healthcare education and life skills.
With schools reopening, Ek Tara, with the compact education cart, hopes to resume its mission of using education to uplift communities.
Last updated on 22 Feb 2022
