Teaching The Masses
We all want to remove illiteracy from the face of our country but not a lot of us can gather the time to help out as our lives are tightly knit in our busy schedules. Education Kit, an initiative of Bangladesh Volunteer Society (BVS), a local non-profit organisation, tackles this problem brilliantly through the use of technology and a bit of perseverance. A conversation with Ali Mashraf, one of the co-founders of Education KIT, revealed more about the organisation and its functions.
WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND EDUCATION KIT?
Ali: Initially Newaz Akbar Hossain and I wanted to start an online platform for underprivileged kids to avail primary education. The idea was shot down by most people saying it's a long shot for Bangladesh. And that was the exact sort of mentality that we wanted to change.
We crunched the numbers and found that out of 3.2 million child labourers in Bangladesh, 421,000 are employed as domestic help and the majority of them (79.2%) have no access to formal education. However, it was promising that 75.83% of these kids wish to continue their study and thus we had our target group identified. We primarily targeted them, since among all the underprivileged kids, they're the ones who usually don't have any recognised platform for primary education."
HAS THIS INITIATIVE BEEN TAKEN ON BEFORE?
Ali: We wanted this platform to be similar to Coursera. There are online platforms for providing education in Bangladesh for primary level but those aren't open to the masses. We wanted Education KIT to be open and accessible from any part of the country.
HOW DOES EDUCATION KIT WORK?
Ali: Anyone can visit our website – educationkit.org, login and go to the classes 1-5. They can download the PDFs of the NCTB books there and use lecture videos uploaded on our YouTube channel to teach the kids. At present we have uploaded all the lectures of class 1 and will be uploading video lectures of class 2 soon. We also have sample assessment materials and urge those using our service to assess the progress of these kids and send us report. Our team would help the kids in those households who require further assistance.
HOW CAN THE YOUTH TAKE PART IN THIS INITIATIVE?
Ali: They can contribute directly as tutors explaining the contents of the textbooks, and the lectures will be recorded and uploaded to our platform. They can also contribute by ensuring that the children working in their household as well as other households of the society get to avail our service and thus build a network that ensures all underprivileged kids working as domestic help get primary education as prescribed by NCTB.
CAN THE YOUTH CARRY THIS INITIATIVE FORWARD?
Ali: I personally believe the youth are not the future, rather they're the present. The youth can lead the society and change perspectives of people who think education for child domestic workers is a waste of time, and make a revolutionary impact in eradicating illiteracy in Bangladesh.
Education KIT has been launched all over Bangladesh. Visit www.educationkit.org to be a part of the initiative.
Nazifa Raidah loves sugar and spice and candy. Loads and loads of candy. Reach her at nazifa45678@gmail.com