NEW DELHI: Every weekday four buses head into the New Delhi slums to give the children of migrants, labourers, ragpickers and scavengers a chance at an education they might not get otherwise.
Each bus goes to two locations a day, setting up an onboard classroom to give about 50 children at a time basic lessons in math, body parts, English and Hindi, along with daily meals. Ages range from 3-13, and some activity-based lessons are held outside.
These "Hope Buses" of non-profit group TejasAsia are one of several grassroots initiatives in India helping to fill the education gap caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Another such initiative delivers lessons by loudspeaker to children in rural areas.
TejasAsia has been operating the mobile schools a few years now, said Ebna Edwin, a project co-ordinator for the group, but they have become more critical since the pandemic struck.
Schools across the country have shut and moved classes online amid repeated lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19 over the past year, impacting nearly 247 million Indian children from 1.5 million schools, according to UNICEF.
Even for children in the slums who went to regular schools pre-pandemic, their families are often too poor to afford the phones or other devices needed to study online.
For others, the two hours on the bus are time away from manual labour or scavenging the landfills with their families.
Data from India's latest Annual Status of Education Report show that the national dropout rate has risen to 5.5% from 4% over the last year.
"It is very hard to get the kids to understand the value of education so we have got to work with the families first, create a lot of awareness in all these places," said Marlo Philip, the founder of TejasAsia.
"It takes about six months to establish our programme in one location," he said.
The NGO wants to expand its reach to ten more locations in different states but has put these plans on hold as funds and resources have been redirected during the pandemic.
The Hope buses are reaching nearly 400 children across Delhi and neighbouring areas.
Mumtaz Begum, who lives in a neighbourhood of huts in northern Delhi, said her two daughters had improved a lot after they started attending school on one of the buses.
“We want our kids to learn and grow,” she said.
Ten-year-old Azmira, who has been studying on one of the mobile schools for four years and sat in a bus with a mask on, said: "We all really like coming here and studying. The teachers are very good."
Reuters
Wed Aug 11 2021
A woman teaches children inside a parked bus run by TejasAsia, an NGO using "Hope" buses as mobile classrooms for children living in slums, on the floodplains of the Yamuna river in New Delhi, India. - REUTERS
Kru kapal dikaitkan dengan Israel dibebaskan
Iran berkata pembebasan anak kapal adalah tindakan kemanusiaan dan mereka boleh pulang ke negara mereka bersama kapten kapal.
Agensi Risikan Seoul beri amaran Korea Utara rancang serangan ke atas kedutaan
Agensi Risikan Korea Selatan mengeluarkan amaran Pyongyang sedang merancang serangan yang menyasarkan pegawai dan rakyat Seoul di luar negara, dan kementerian luar perlu meningkatkan tahap amaran untuk misi diplomatik di lima negara.
20 terkorban bas terjatuh dalam gaung di utara Pakistan
Bas berkenaan dalam perjalanan ke kawasan pergunungan utara Gilgit-Baltistan dari Rawalpindi di wilayah timur Pakistan.
MKT UMNO beri komitmen sokong kempen calon PH
Mesyuarat Majlis Kerja Tertinggi (MKT) UMNO bersetuju untuk memberi komitmen penuh untuk membantu calon Pakatan Harapan (PH), Pang Sock Tao pada Pilihan Raya Kecil (PRK) Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) Kuala Kubu Baharu, pada 11 Mei ini.
Laluan alternatif hubungkan Sibu-Kapit akan dibina
Satu jajaran jalan baharu akan dibina sebagai laluan alternatif yang akan menghubungkan Sibu dengan Kapit melibatkan jarak kira-kira 66 kilometer (km).
UNESCO anugerahkan hadiah kepada wartawan Palestin
Wartawan berkenaan dianugerahkan Hadiah Kebebasan Akhbar Dunia UNESCO/Guillermo Cano 2024 pada Khamis di Chile, lapor agensi berita Jerman (DPA).
Malaysia, Jepun bincang kerjasama perdagangan, pertanian
Malaysia dan Jepun mengadakan perbincangan dua hala yang antara lain menyentuh mengenai perdagangan, pertanian dan peranan Malaysia sebagai hab halal yang boleh dimanfaatkan negara itu.
Mohamad wakili PM ketengah isu kepentingan Islam
Menteri Luar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan akan mengetuai delegasi Malaysia selaku wakil Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ke Sesi Ke-15 Sidang Kemuncak Pertubuhan Kerjasama Islam (OIC) di Banjul, Gambia dari 4 hingga 5 Mei ini.
Malaysia berpeluang berkembang dengan kemajuan teknologi
Mengambil contoh Malaysia sebagai negara berpendapatan sederhana, beliau berkata keutamaan yang harus dilijat ia seberapa cepat teknologi berkenaan boleh disebarkan ke seluruh ekonomi, dan memanfaatkan sektor seperti penjagaan kesihatan dan pendidikan.
Rakyat perlu kuasai AI untuk tentukan sendiri nilai moral, budaya - PM
Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.berkata jika AI tidak dikuasai, nilai dan moral dalam teknologi itu akan ditentukan oleh pihak-pihak yang menguasainya terutama dari barat.