J1155N Streets to Schools to Skills Program

Project Goal 1: Aasraa’s Mobile Learning Centres (MLCs) provide educational support to over 200 street children and provide transportation facility to over 1,000 slum children, who are already mainstreamed into regular schools and our NIOS – Open Basic Education program. Each Mobile Learning Centre is an ordinary school bus retrofitted with technology that a trained teacher uses to showcase modern, colorful, and high-quality teaching programs and e-learning materials. This instantly captures the imagination of the children and makes learning fun. Our visual and interactive computer-aided learning program has always proven to be a powerful tool to keep children engaged in education.

The usage of every MLC is twofold: firstly, for teaching out-of-school children with the aim of getting them off the street or construction site where they would otherwise spend their whole day, and building an interest in and helping them bridge the enormous learning gap to finally mainstream them to regular schools. Secondly, for the transportation of students who are already mainstreamed in school from their homes to schools and back.

Project Goal 2: Aasraa’s Skillability Centre will focus on the underserved youth in Dehradun, who have dropped out of school, or are forced to beg, or have completed school at a certain level but not found employment because of a lack of skills. Although most youth in Aasraa’s programs are staying in education for longer, the economic needs of their families have always taken priority. Therefore, the centre’s courses will be aimed at skilled jobs that require specific training and can ensure livelihoods. It will include practical and theoretical courses linked to regional jobs, industries, and opportunities as well as on entrepreneurship models.

Aasraa’s other programs will be a significant source of youth enrolment for the centre. One of these programs is linked to our existing accreditation with the National Institute of Open Schooling