Education & Livelihood

Number of lives impacted: 4,45,161

NPCI is committed to furthering the cause of education and livelihood amongst the underprivileged and disadvantaged communities of India, to create a safe and holistic environment that ensures inclusivity and improves children’s academic performance. NPCI aims to create a sustainable impact on education by focusing on a) Enrolment and retention of children b) Safe and engaging school infrastructure and c) improving learning outcomes of children.
NPCI is also focusing on providing sustainable livelihood opportunities for unemployed youth by developing them into skilled and motivated workforce. NPCI is proud to collaborate with some of India’s leading NGOs to fulfil these endeavours.

Presence

Programs

Improving Enrollment-Retention-Learning of Children, Educate Girls

Project Summary

NPCI in partnership with Educate Girls is implementing project on Improving Enrolment-Retention-Learning of Children across 429 villages of Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh to bring a systemic reform in the education status of girls. Project focuses on empowering communities to prioritize girls’ education, improving enrolment, ensuring retention, improvement in learning level.

The project aims:

To identify Out-Of-School Girls (OOSGs)
Enrol them back in school
Mentoring parents on the importance of education by volunteering initiative led by village level change agents known as Team Balika
Improvement in learning outcomes of children through regular learning camps called Camp Vidya.

Impact of the Project

41,769 Outreach

Project Location

Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh

Building sustainable playgrounds for school children, Anthill creations

Project Summary

NPCI in partnered with Anthill Creation, to create sustainable playgrounds across 4 states in India namely- Gadhchiroli in Maharashtra, West Garo Hills in Meghalaya, West Tripura District in Tripura. The project has ensured that children have access to a dedicated play area in their schools and introduce them to the concept of Best out of waste by building the playgrounds with upcycled materials such as tyres, oil drums etc. Project has upcycled 21120 kg of tyres and reach around 10,292 students.

Objectives:

Infrastructure development in schools to attract more children from the area to school and ensure higher attendance rates.
Increase play time for children leading to physical wellbeing of children in turn impacting the holistic development of children.
Children and all stakeholders learn the importance of upcycling, recycling and make environmentally conscious decisions in their life.

Project Outreach

10,292 children & 48 Schools

Location

Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Tripura & Ladakh.

Foundational Learning Program , Pratham Education Foundation

Project Summary

NPCI in partnership with Pratham Education Foundation is implementing ‘Foundational Learning Program’ across 430 villages of Kanker district of Chhattisgarh. The project aims to help children in government schools acquire foundational reading and arithmetic skills through learning camps and digital learning support.

The Foundational Learning Program has three major components:

School Component aims to employ Pratham’s Teaching-at-the-Right-Level” (TaRL) approach to address the learning crisis in targeted primary schools.
Community Component aims to create opportunities in community by building a learning environment.
Digital Intervention aims to enable access to digital content to children and youth in the community. The design will involve getting children in Std. 6-8 in a village to form groups of 5-6 each around a tablet, thus enabling them to co-create a learning space within their community.

Project Location

Kanker district of Chhattisgarh.

Impact of the Project

46,260 Beneficiaries

Career Guidance and Skill development Project, Orion Educational Society

Project Summary

NPCI in partnership with Orion Educational Society is running Career Guidance and Skill development project in 7 districts of Chhattisgarh. Project aims is to provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for the unemployed youth and women through industry endorsed job linked training programs. The project is helping youth to acquire skills leading to be part of skilled workforce and develop them into economically and socially independent individuals.

Project is focusing on competency-based, skill-oriented training, capacity building, promoting financial literacy, credit and entrepreneurial activities, employment/ self-employment opportunities and up skilling. The project includes- skill training in Automobile, Retail, Construction, Apparel, Healthcare and Electronics, based on the present and future job demands. Our approach is to bridge the gap between industry demand and availability of skilled manpower.

Project Location

Jagdalpur, Dhantewada, Kondagaon, Kanker, Dhamtari, Narayanpur and Sukma - Chhattisgarh

Project Outreach

4000 youth

The School Transformation Project, Learning Links Foundation

Project Summary

NPCI in partnership with Learning Links Foundation is implementing the School Transformation Project in 200 schools of Washim and Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. The project aims to nurture holistic development of children by providing appropriate infrastructural facilities, creating learning spaces conducive to student engagement in studying, and supporting capacity-building of teachers. School Transformation Project focuses on transforming existing 200 government school in into SMART schools.

Project is creating dedicated learning spaces such as laboratories, libraries, ICT-enriched classrooms, enhancing sanitation facilities and provision of safe drinking water. The project is also focusing on teachers training, orientation of students and parents. The project aims to bring together all the stakeholders to catalyze holistic development of children.

Project Location

Gadchiroli and Washim, Maharashtra

Project Outreach

200 schools covering a total of 33,796 students

Completed Projects

Mini Science Lab Project- Seva Sahayog foundation

Project Summary

NPCI in partnership with Seva Sahayog Foundation is implementing the Mini Science Lab project in 63 government schools at Singrauli District of Madhya Pradesh. The project aims to reduce the gap between contextual and rote based learning, and replace it with a practical approach, which will equip students with the skills and knowledge needed to pursue opportunities in field of science and technology. The practical knowledge helps in clearing the fundamental concepts of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Mini science laboratory facilities are being set-up in the target schools along with training of the teachers and DIY (do it yourself) workshops to ensure sustainable use of the laboratories.

Project Location

Singrauli District, Madhya Pradesh

Project Outreach

22,318 students

Scaling Up Girls Education, Educate Girls

Project Summary

NPCI in partnership with Educate Girls implemented Scaling Up Girls Education in Banswara district of Rajasthan. Scaling Up Girls Education program model focused on bringing a systemic reform in education status of girls. It focused on empowering communities to prioritize girls’ education along with facilitating improvement in education and school infrastructure.

The program focused on ensuring local ownership and looked at creating awareness by educating the community members about their rights and duties towards their children’s education as well as their role & active participation in the improvement of the school and governance by empowering and strengthening the School Management Committees (SMCs).

To tackle the problem of school closure and mitigate problems associated with loss of learning, the project team conceptualized a Community-Based Learning Program called ‘CAMP VIDYA’. It focused on emotional engagement activities designed to reduce stress and anxiety among children, along with foundational learning of Mathematics and Hindi. Camp Vidya provided much needed platform for children to continue their education and keep them motivated to learn during the pandemic

Project Location

Banswara district of Rajasthan.

Project Outreach

1,65,377 beneficiaries

Hamara Gaon, Pratham Education Foundation

Project Summary

NPCI in partnership with Pratham Education Foundation implemented Hamara Gaon project in 6 districts of Chhattisgarh. The Hamara Gaon project was aimed to consolidate interventions for various age-groups in one village and transform the educational landscape of the village over a period of 3 years. This was done through direct demonstration of teaching-learning activities, mobilization of community volunteers to participate in learning activities, parent engagement and community-based support to children to improve learning.

The vision of the program was to improve learning outcomes and enable the local community to take ownership of children’s learning needs. In 2018, Pratham in partnership with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched the ‘Hamara Gaon program in 210 villages of Chhattisgarh, including villages which fall under the ‘naxal’ affected areas of the Bastar belt. By working with children of different age groups, right from Grade 1 to Grade 8, this intervention also ensured interaction with different community members, raised awareness about education in the community and improved learning outcomes.

Project Outreach:

29,082 Beneficiaries

Project Location

Kabeerdham, Kanker, Mahasamund, Rajnadgaon, Sukma, Kondagaon districts Chhattisgarh.

Digital Empowerment & Beyond School Program, VIDYA

Project Summary

NPCI in partnership with VIDYA implemented Digital Empowerment and Beyond School program across Mumbai. The Digital Empowerment & Beyond School Program had three major components:

The Digital Empowerment Program offered Digital skills to children so that they might adapt and excel in this technological era. It made learning more interactive so that children enjoy coming to school, thus increasing retention.
Spoken English skills aided to open up future employment avenues for students from marginalized backgrounds.
The Beyond School Program offered opportunities for enriched education and value-based skills to for children to succeed in life by creating more learning opportunities.

Project Outreach:

9,629 Beneficiaries

Project Location

Mumbai.

Mid-Day Meal Program, The Akshay Patra Foundation

Project Summary

NPCI in partnership with Akshay Patra Foundation implemented Mid-Day Meal Project. The project aimed to provide freshly cooked, nutritious meals to the children studying in government Schools throughout the year. This intervention focused on daunting issue of malnutrition and hunger. This project was very important as often, Mid-Day Meal provided at school is the only full meal that some of the children get to have during the day.

Project helped to not only improve the nutrition intake among children but also lead to higher retention rates and learning outcome in the targeted schools

Project Location

Thane, Bangalore, Rourkela, Jhalawar, Hyderabad, Bhilai, Guwahati, Nellore and Kuppam

Impact of the project

82,638 children fed

Gallery

Improving Enrollment-Retention-Learning of children- Educate Girls

Foundational Learning Program - Pratham Education Foundation

Mid Day Meal Program- The Akshaya Patra Foundation

School transformation program- Learning Links Foundation

Mini Science center - Seva Sahayog foundation

Career guidance and skill development - Orion education society

Videos

Field stories

Dreams to be a changemaker - Educate Girls

14-year-old Anita comes from a remote village in Singrauli that is plagued with issues of alcoholism and illegal activities. Fearing the fate of her own family being defeated by these social evils, Anita dreams of getting educated and becoming a change maker for her village. As one of the Girl Leaders in Bal Sabha (Adolescent Girls Program run by Educate Girls), Anita was known for her enthusiasm and motivation to learn and make a difference. However, once a class topper, she was forced into household chores and was on verge of dropping out from school during the pandemic.

Educate Girls’ field Coordinator Savitri noticed Anita’s absence in the school. Savitri visited Anita’s family to know the reasons. Upon probing she realized that Anita’s family deemed her education to be unimportant as they had limited means and needed help at home. Savitri’s persistent visits convinced them to enrol Anita into Navodaya Vidyalaya that gives free-of-cost schooling to girls who clear their entrance test. Savitri also helped Anita prepare for the test that she passed with flying colors and got admitted in Grade 9.

Anita now walks 2kms daily to school and never misses a day to learn. “I am extremely thankful for all the support I got to continue my studies. I want to be a teacher so that I can change the future of the children of my village and take them back on the right path,” says Anita.

Anita

Anita with friends at school science laboratory

From a mother to a mentor - Pratham Education Foundation

Smt. Sharda belongs to Salhetola village of Charama block in Kanker District of Chhattisgarh. Agriculture is the primary occupation of people living in Charama. Sharda is a mother of a child in Primary grade. In one of the initial visits by the Pratham team, she was introduced to the Foundational Learning program. She had become part of the Mother's’ group in her neighbourhood. Mother's’ group are group of 3-5 Mother's of children aging between 3-6 yrs.

They come together and are trained about simple activities that can be conducted with their children which helps Mother's to be more effectively involved with their children. She had been a member but was hesitant to become group leader due to her educational qualification. Pratham team encouraged her and made her realise that she could help other Mother's in the group to do better. She started realising her potential and agreed to become the group leader.

She not only understood her roles and responsibilities but also encouraged and supported other Mother's to join group in large numbers. Now Sharda has become an important part of the village in creating awareness in her village.

She shares that, "…if my small effort is increasing the strength of children and confidence in Mother's, then that is my biggest achievement…”

Sharda leading the mothers' group discussion

Sharda conducting group activities with other mothers from the village

Beating the unemployment - Orion Educational society

Shanti Netam hails from Bastar, Chhattisgarh. Her family comprises of five members–mother, father, sister, brother and herself. Her father required someone to support his family financially along with him. Though Shanti had studied till 12th std, she was unemployed and was feeling hopeless for not being able to support her father.

She Heard about NPCI’s training program from an Orion educational society’s member who had visited her village. Shanti spoke to the member and eventually joined the fellowship program. The training helped her learn skills in digital literacy, customer handling etc in 3 months. The friendly learning environment encouraged her and helped her shape her life. Today she is employed and is able to help her family with her income.

Shanti Netam Success Story

Shanti Netam

Science teaching in laboratory - Seva Sahayog Foundation

Sharad Kumar Pandey, an innovative and enthusiastic science teacher from Shahpur Government High school at Waidan - Singrauli District in Madhya Pradesh has attended teacher professional training organised by Seva Sahayog Foundation (SSF).

Mr. Sharad, with vast experience under his belt, has been trying to improvise and innovate teaching styles in science to make it more appealing and meaningful to students but it had been a real challenge without practical and visual aids.

Seva Sahayog Foundation in partnership with NPCI has established mini science centres in 50 schools in Singrauli district with Mr. Sharad’s school being one among them. The mini science center has helped Mr. Sharad transform his classroom into active learning centres. He has successfully used the Mini Science center to provide practical knowledge and hands on experience to students and kindling their curiosity in science.

Students at science lab

Library room cultivating the habit of reading- Learning Links Foundation

Learning outside the classroom emphasizes personality development, and libraries are the biggest catalyst in making them know the world better. National Payments Corporation of India are implementing an innovative program, the School Transformation Project, supported by Learning Links Foundation. As a part of this, libraries are being set up in 50 Zilla Parishad Upper Primary schools in the two aspirational districts of Washim and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra.

Aavruti Ambade is a class 7 student of ZPPS Sakhra in Gadchiroli district. The library set up as part of the School Transformation Project is first library she has ever entered. An ardent reader, Aavruti spends her free time in the library. “I love reading books. I am very happy that the facility has come up in our school,” she says. To encourage students to use the library better, the project team conducts various activities like National Reading Day, read aloud and story-telling, of which Aavruti is an enthusiastic participant. She also participated in the various events activities.

The Head Mistress of the school, Smt. Pimpale is thrilled to see her students acquire reading habits and has ensured that one period per week will be devoted to visiting the library. All the students are

School library

Students Reading in library