Learning from Bangladesh: Introducing digital education for Dalit children in India

Our digital education programme in Bangladesh is proving so successful that it is being introduced in India, where we support 35 learning centres, offering education to around 1000 Dalit children.

In October 2022, staff from our partner organisation in India, travelled to Bangladesh to meet our partners there - Mukti Cox’s Bazar. They wanted to find out more about the digital education Mukti provides for over 9,000 children and see first hand how much of a positive impact it has, so they could deliver digital lessons with the same success in India.  

OUR WORK IN BANGLADESH

In Bangladesh, we support over 5,000 children with education at bright, colourful learning centres and classrooms. These include Rohingya refugee children living both in Kutupalong refugee camp and on Bhasan Char Island as well as slum dwelling children living in Cox’s Bazar and the Doharazi Enclaves. 

To enhance learning and engage the children, daily digital lessons are projected onto screens in each classroom we support.

For Rohingya refugee children living in Kutupalong, the worlds’ largest refugee camp, these digital lessons are produced in a language they understand, enabling the children to genuinely comprehend what they are being taught and actually learn. This technology also gives them the opportunity to experience something of life beyond the confines of the camp.

'MOJA KIDS'

​In addition to the digital lessons, the students have their own online platform, ‘Moja Kids’, where students create video updates to share back and forth with children outside the camps and slum communities where they live. This not only gives them a voice and a place to express their talents and creativity, but enables them to interact and tackle their sense of isolation.

VISIT FROM INDIAN PARTNERS

When Sister Veena Jacob and Renji Joseph from our partner organisation in India visited Bangladesh, they were taken to see our classrooms in Kutupalong refugee camp, Cox’s Bazar and the Doharazi enclaves. 

Veena and Renji were able to meet with the Mukti’s digital team, who create a huge range of video lessons, and were able to see the green room used to make Moja Kids videos. They were taught the technical aspects of producing these videos, while staff from India joined the training virtually.

Whilst visiting the learning centres in Kutupalong, they shared videos prepared by children from the learning centres in India. These were hugely popular with the children in Bangladesh, who were keen to respond in kind with their own videos. The Bangladesh digital team has since included these videos from India in episodes of Moja Kids, which have been shown across the classrooms we support in Bangladesh.   

Alongside learning about the digital programme, Veena and Renji saw how each learning centre in Bangladesh is filled with colourful decorations inside, and small gardens outside. Working in densely populated and cramped slum areas, they were inspired to see how making the classrooms beautiful for the children can be possible within very small spaces and with few resources.

The team was also interested to see that the children at our community schools are provided with school uniforms and bags, something they are keen to provide for the children at their learning centres in India. 

Renji described the trip as “joyful, enriching and filled with learning”.

INTRODUCING DIGITAL EDUCATION IN INDIA

The 35 learning centres we support in India offer supplementary education, to prepare Dalit children to return to, or integrate into, local government schools. So, whilst the set up is different to Bangladesh, where the learning centres and community schools offer more formal education, there was still much to be learnt and the team is excited to introduce some new ideas and changes in India.

A new Digital Team has begun introducing digital lessons and using digital technology in the learning centres in Patna. Almost all the centres have now started using projectors and showing digital content to help deliver lessons. 

Before the trip to Bangladesh, the team in India had eight projectors. These were being used to pilot digital lessons in eight learning centres. The teachers from these centres became 'pioneer' teachers to inspire the other teachers and centres and they began to rotate the projectors around the different learning centres. 

The children responded with huge enthusiasm and it became a real attraction for lessons. So, after the trip to Bangladesh, the team sourced a further 20 projectors and trained 20 more teachers.

The children have been shown some of the Moja Kids videos produced by the team in Bangladesh and they are keen to connect with other children around the world. They are excited to share their ideas and talents!