Roshni to be expanded to 40 more schools in Ernakulam

Benefits of the project to reach around 3,000 students

A session under Project Roshni at a school in Ernakulam. | Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO

Roshni, a project for the educational uplift of migrant children in primary classes by bridging the language barrier through the pedagogical tool of code-switching, will be expanded to more government and aided schools in Ernakulam district in the forthcoming academic year.

The project being implemented by the district administration with funding from Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) under its corporate social responsibility initiative is now running in 40 schools covering over 1,000 migrant students. The idea is to expand it to another 40 schools, thus taking the benefits of the project to nearly 3,000 students.

Multiple meetings had been held in the presence of the Director of General Education and the District Collector on expanding the project. Another meeting to finalise plans for the forthcoming academic year is scheduled for Saturday. The Education department seems insistent on maximising the benefits of the project by reducing the administration cost.

“Sharing Roshni volunteers among selected schools based on the number of beneficiaries and even training teachers of schools with very few migrant students in code-switching are among the possibilities being explored. Attaching volunteers of Samagra Shiksha Kerala [SSK] involved in running a programme of its own for migrant students with Roshni will also be considered,” said Honey G. Alexander, Deputy Director of Education, Ernakulam, and nodal officer of Roshni.

The pool of trained volunteers of Roshni in the district has dropped to 27 after many left following the pandemic. “We have asked SSK volunteers to identify the additional 40 schools for the project considering that they have readily accessible data. We plan to conduct an upgraded mode of the project by infusing new modules in schools where the project is into the sixth phase, while the basic model will be adopted in the additional schools,” said Prakash C.K., general coordinator of Roshni.

The supply of free nutritious food, a component of the project, may be more or less restricted to the existing schools owing to paucity of funds, while in the case of newly added schools, it will be available if the local bodies concerned or other agencies are already supporting such a food programme.

Roshni was rolled out by the district administration in 2017 starting with just four schools. Since then, it has drawn recognition from far and wide, with the State government now planning to implement it across the State.