Vidyarath is Transporting Rural Children in Maharashtra into the Land of Learning

There is excitement as the children know it is time for the Vidyarath to trundle into their school. And soon, it does. A cream coloured tempo proudly displaying a huge poster with Vidyarath written on it, drives into the government school in Lonikand village in Pune district, Maharashtra.

Inside the tempo are several shelves with colourful books that add colour while in another corner are neatly arranged five to six laptops, study material and stationery items, and a science lab. The tempo has 300 books of short stories and poetry for the children to read. They are in English, Hindi and Marathi.

Vidyarath (Education on Wheel) is an initiative introduced by Think Sharp Foundation, a non-profit founded in 2011 supported by Forms and Surfaces India with an aim to encourage children to read and take interest in science and computers. Vidyarath goes to several government schools in rural Maharashtra and conducts computer and coding classes.

Since 2015, the foundation has been collaborating with the Maharashtra government to provide learning opportunities to the rural children.

Currently it works with around 300 government schools in Maharashtra and four in Gujarat.

Also Read: Creating a Classroom in a Kitchen Garden

Muskan Kumari is an eleven year old student who studies at the Zilla Parishad Prathmik School in Bakori village in Pune district. She told Gaon Connection that her favourite subject was Mathematics. Muskan Kumari waits for Vidyarath to come to her school and dedicates one hour at the mobile classroom for her computer classes.

“I have learnt MS Word, letter writing and painting on the computer. Sometimes, I also teach other students who are new to the class. I think learning computers will be my biggest asset as I want to see myself as a computer teacher in future,” said Muskan Kumari as she carefully made a digital painting.

“Vidyarath was started in October 2021. About 100 children from Lonikand and Bakori villages attend classes in Vidyarath in batches of 20. Sometimes we park the tempo in the compound of a school and hold classes outdoors,” Balaji Shinde, who works at Think Sharp Foundation, told Gaon Connection.

Vidhyarth has four sessions for the children between 11 am and 5 pm where students are taught different subjects. Computer and Book Mitras are selected from amongst the students who in turn encourage their friends to use computers and read more books.

Thirty-nine-year-old Santosh Phad, from Mandwa village in Beed district of Maharashtra, is the founder of Think Sharp Foundation. He said coming from a rural background himself, he could resonate with the children from the villages.

Also Read: A library in a tribal village in Jharkhand keeps alive the memory of a Galwan Valley martyr

“I always felt a little out of place and left-behind and had low self confidence and communication skills. I wanted to do something for children from my kind of background so that they could learn new things, be confident and hone their communication skills,” he told Gaon Connection.

“I didn’t have the resources that other people had. So I wanted to make sure rural children had the opportunities to access quality education,” he added.

Phad earned an engineering degree from Aditya Degree college, Beed. He then went on to do his post-graduation diploma in business management at Rizvi Academy of Management, Mumbai. He has worked with big corporates such as HDFC Bank, Reliance Capital, etc. He worked for as long as it took him to build up some funds so that he could start his non-profit.

Study Mall and Digi Library

Vidyarath is just one of the many programmes that his foundation runs. It also provides tabs, projectors, TV, toys, and books to the government schools, and helps with the upgradation of infrastructure in the schools.

Think Sharp Foundation also offers a programme called Study Mall. “Through this we provide computer education, sports material and books. We focus on multimedia content and digital learning so that children are introduced to new things and they learn each day,” Phad explained.

The foundation designed an application called the Digi Library application to provide students easy access to a wide variety of books. The application is available on all android devices.

There are more than 1,000 books available in audio and PDF format in Marathi, English and Hindi, and there are more than 5,000 people already using it.

Also Read: A Teacher in Meghalaya Dispels the Haze of Substance Abuse in Children

Through its ‘Reader of the Month’ programme, Think Sharp motivates students to read more. Children who read a certain number of books are rewarded at the end of the month with a certificate and a gift from the foundation.

Anushree Ganesh, an 11 year-old-student of class 5th from Zilla Parishad School in Gorhe Budruk village read more than 30 children’s books in one month and won.

“I have been reading more books since I got the Digi Library app installed on my mother’s phone. History is my favourite subject. The books are easily accessible and I read stories from it for my younger brother sometimes,” Anushree told Gaon Connection. Her father works at a welding shop and her mother is a homemaker.

Teaching Fellows

The Think Sharp Foundation runs on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and online crowdfunding. There are around 15 fellows who work with the foundation and are paid a monthly salary of Rs 20,000. They teach rural children about problem solving, critical thinking, communication and collaboration skills.

Gauri Nilesh Khirid is a 26-year-old fellow of the foundation from Gohre Budruk village and teaches computers at the Zilla Parishad school. She has been working with the foundation since 2021. Khirid has done B.A from Savitribai Phule University and a Diploma in Education.

“I also come from an underprivileged background. My father is a farmer and I know the hassles that a rural kid has to go through and this is why we at the foundation ensure that the children do not lag behind due to underconfidence and lack of communication skills,” she said.