Model Village

A Model Village is an initiative energised and guided by programs developed by Pratham Mysore (PM)  with greater autonomy in interacting, implementing and working with the community.  Driven by its  motto ‘ Every Child In School and Learning Well’, a Model Village encourages the community to become self-reliant both in education and income generation activities.

The first two Model Villages were established in 2017 at Muthati and Hykanuru. The other two Model villages were at Mavinahalli and Sujjlur, started on 2019. Instead of focussing just on the education of the child, the concept of Model villages broadens it’s reach to the parents, schoolteachers, village council and treats the community as equally responsible for the education of the children. To achieve this, it combines awareness with incentives, along with measurable targets to track progress.

Methodology:

When it comes to the methodology to teach children, TaRL (Teaching at the Right Level) is employed. Rather than replacing the syllabus, it supports it the children to reach grade appropriate levels by assessing their reading levels, and appropriately assigning content through a trained facilitator to enable learning. This is achieved low-cost teaching aids, games, discussions, questions and more of a hands-on approach. Since the program runs throughout the year, it supplements the Govt. teachers and helps them achieves their objectives too.

As time progressed, more programs have been added, such as assigning specific mentors to the students, bringing in students and professionals to interact and share their knowledge with the children, tailoring classes for the mothers in exchange for running libraries in the evenings. Computers with internet and a trained facilitator help to bridge the digital divide in these villages.

Going a step further, we recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the villagers, stating that they will take over the ownership of the village, along with initiatives to boost village tourism and to generate employment for the village youth.

The following are the results of our efforts. An assessment test done shows an improvement of 70% compared to the  baseline percentage of 20% , for a coverage of 800 children from four Model Villages. More women have found employment in garment industries and have started their own tailoring businesses in their villages.

Contact us to see how we can join hands to convert other villages into Model Villages in T Narasipura block.