Aboli's new study group initiative

The transition from Zilha Parishad to secondary school is challenging. To address this, we ran a pilot study group initiative last year. Students from Talpaada, Dasgao and Tempi Paada attended this study group and a teacher was hired to supervise their learning and offer guidance where needed. Unfortunately, this pilot wasn’t successful and unsustainable.

A few months ago, Arvind Vartak (our grandfather) decided to run study sessions at his home for students in nearby Paadas. These students are from different schools—some are still at ZP schools, others are attending the secondary school. Fifteen students attend these classes regularly. We decided to take this project under MAF’s wing. Director Shubhada More, a trained Iyengar Yoga teacher, ran yoga sessions alongside the study sessions. Considering the enthusiasm of the children, our director has ordered yoga mats for which the children are eagerly waiting.

During the COVID pandemic, we had designed workbooks for the students to study at home. The purpose of these workbooks was to keep them engaged with their studies while on break. However, we had no objective measure of the utility of this intervention. Therefore, we have decided to re-use this workbooks with the students. Director Shubhada performed a pre-test with the students to check their understanding of alphabets, numbers, and simple words and phrases in English and Marathi. The results of this pre-test was varied with some students requiring a lot more additional support. We are hoping that this initiative will improve the students’ learning.

The students have expressed enthusiasm to attend classes even during the summer vacation.