2021: Year in Review

By Sumita Jayaraman

The light at the end of the tunnel…..

It’s been a long chaotic year but we seem to be emerging from it at last. ILP, along with our partners, navigated all the ups and downs, continuously adapting to deal with the challenges. Now it is time to take stock of the year that was and set out the path for a brighter 2022 and beyond.

Here are our learnings from the past two years that will help us take our goal of education for every child to a new level.
Learning 1: Digital content is very effective for scaling knowledge and delivering training as long as the content is relevant, localized and the target audience is older (high school) children or teachers.
ILP launched digital learning content in local language for computer education in Karnataka high schools to bolster the Government computer education curriculum. Career counseling sessions transitioned from in-person to social media apps that helped address queries for high school children. These initiatives will help us scale the programs while helping to bridge the digital divide between the rural schools and urban areas.

Learning 2: Digital learning is not very effective for young rural children, with the lack of access to technology and face-to-face interaction of a school-like atmosphere leading to a steep learning loss. The effects need to be tracked and evaluated to find a solution.
The effect of the pandemic and the detrimental effect of school closures needed to be evaluated and ILP’s detailed covid surveys revealed all of the issues. The data showed how the lack of access to schools affected the kids safety and accelerated child marriage. The lack of access to a smart-phone or a computer was so acute that the digital learning did not compensate for school closures in anyway. ILP actually launched our metrics and evaluation program to systematically collect data that is digitized followed up with detailed analysis of the programs. Going forward this will be the basis for understanding issues and providing the right support.

Learning 3: Having a self-sustaining learning option at the village level can provide a safety net when unavailable and a support system when schools are open.
The effect of the school closures on primary school children was clear from the Covid surveys. Based upon that, ILP launched their Village Learning Center (VLC) program providing a volunteer-based safe learning environment for primary school children. This program has been successful and even after schools are open, they will continue to operate providing the support for the children.

These are just some of the newer programs that ILP has rolled out and will continue to expand to all our partners, helping enhance the quality of education across all children in under-served communities