Around 50 per cent of children in India between the age of six and 18 do not go to school. More than 17 million of them work before they are legally allowed to be employed. The same youth that forms a part of India’s demographic dividend is also among its most neglected and vulnerable sections. Trying to change this reality in its own way is Educating Children for Life, a project by Saibaba Sevashram and Yoga Research and a CSR initiative of Petronet LNG Ltd, supported by Champ for Life (CFL) Academy. Inaugurated on February 27 at Basha, an NGO school in Kolkata’s Hazra Road, the project is all set to provide quality education to more than 500 children across Bengal, with plans to cross 1,000 by the end of the year.
“We’re really excited to use cutting-edge technology to help children with key learnings across subjects and life skills in ways they haven’t had the chance to experience before. Mentoring them will be a fantastic faculty of teachers who come with the highest qualifications, ensuring a high standard of education,” said golf guru Indrajit Bhalotia, managing trustee of Saibaba Sevashram and Yoga Research and the man who started CFL Academy as India’s first online educational academy exclusively for athletes.
Long-term objective
CFL Academy’s online apparatus of learning will play a key role in making the project come to fruition
As part of Educating Children for Life, Saibaba Sevashram and Yoga Research, a charitable trust based out of Moor Avenue, intend to create “a valuable impact in the lives of children who are deprived of quality education by providing them with necessary certification and training ranging from personality development to skills in sports, business, health and nutrition, alongside Microsoft Office proficiency to make students employable.”
The trust has collaborated with CFL Academy to offer modules and course content via digital learning tools that have been curated by industry experts. As part of the first phrase of the project, the goal is to teach 500 to 1,000 children from various NGOs, underprivileged schools and sports academies in Bengal, where budding athletes often drop out of formal education. Eventually, the objective is to expand across India and extend learning assistance to more than 10,000 children.
The project forms a key part of the CSR work being done by Petronet LNG Ltd, one of the fastest growing PLCs in the Indian energy sector. Petronet has a proven track record of supporting local institutions, NGOs and local government agencies, and institutions in the fields of education, healthcare, community development and entrepreneurship. Petronet believes in “meeting priority needs of the marginalised and underserved communities with an aim to help them become self-reliant”. Prominent CSR projects done by Petronet in the past include distribution of 750 e-tablets to school teachers in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, running Petronet Kashmir, Jammu and National Super 30 (for residential coaching and counselling for JEE examinations) and skill development of Indian youth in association with the Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering and Technology (CIPET).
Provision for sports coaching, public speaking, media literacy and more
Founded in 2005, Basha has helped close to 800 children complete their formal education
Educating Children for Life will be based on extensive online tutorials, guiding students from their ninth standard to graduation. Integrated as part of the curriculum are provisions for sports coaching, sessions on mental toughness, psychology and nutrition, as well as career planning facilities. Apart from mainstream academic subjects, additional subjects such as time and stress management, public speaking, media literacy and finance management have also been included.
“This project is a massive help for us, as it drastically reduces the financial burden of providing tuition to kids at our NGO,” said Saswati Arora, founder-chairperson of Basha, which has steered close to 800 underprivileged children across the academic finish line since it was set up in 2005.
“During the pandemic, when offline classes were suspended, we were grateful to Indrajit Bhalotia and his team for making the seamless transition to online learning. Through Educating Children for Life, we’re eager to see the process of online learning made permanent,” added Arora.