KRISHNAGIRI: The much-awaited school bell rings. The chatter fills the streets of Valli Nagar near Veppanahalli in Krishnagiri district as students eagerly mill out of the government school building. Classes may be done for the day but the learning is just getting started.
At 5.30pm, around 20 students slowly fill up a house with a thatched roof. They sit on multi-coloured mats and brush up on their basic concepts. For the next two hours, they pay rapt attention to their teachers explaining how numbers add up and what gases make up the atmosphere. It is an attempt to bridge the gap in learning.
Welcome to Krishnagiri-based NGO Oyyal Foundation’s informal evening tuition centres. Oyyal’s centres are dotted across Shoolagiri and Krishnagiri aka the border districts where access to education is sparse and overlooked.
Since 2012, the organisation has been on a mission to educate marginalised students of rural areas of Tamil Nadu. Oyyal -- as the name suggests -- also has a special focus on elevating children to higher grounds, especially those belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities.
Much like the State government’s Illam Thedi Kalvi scheme (education at doorstep) -- launched by the State government last December — Oyyal, too, is on a mission to bridge gaps in learning. The NGO hopes to light the fire of knowledge in the minds of children.
Oyyal’s story begins around 10 years ago when techie A Jeyakumar visited Theertham village in the district. “Earlier, we used to conduct awareness programmes on hygiene and career guidance for high and higher secondary school students. While at a government high school near Theertham village, I saw three Class X students were unable to spell their village name or their own names properly,” says the NGO’s president.
Watching the three students mix up letters, Jeyakumar decided there was a need to help students from government schools strengthen their basic spelling, addition, subtraction and language. “Since then, our team started to conduct evening tuitions to provide basic studies for the students from Class I to VIII,” he says.
The NGO’s project has expanded and currently has 390 students studying in 19 centres at 12 villages this academic year. As for their teachers, Oyyal brings in residents of a village into the centre, providing them with employment. These locals have either passed Class X or are equipped with an undergraduate degree. Each tutor is paid Rs 750 a month.
Oyyal usually holds classes every day, barring Sundays and government holidays. The only time their track record was married was during the pandemic. The lockdown forced centres to close down temporarily.
But the organisation didn’t let Covid-19 stop them from teaching their students. The NGO devised a fool-proof strategy: to take micro classes for 5 students each on a rotation basis in nearby houses. The students’ learning and progress was monitored with listening lessons using the State school education department’s ‘Kalvi Tholaikatchi’, explained S Rekha, a tutor at Neralagiri training centre.
According to a coordinator S Sadiq, apart from taking classes or providing a space for the students to do homework, free study materials are also distributed. There is a special focus on people from the ST community to help them obtain their community certificates. To further the learning process, two televisions — worth Rs 30, 000 — were set up in two centres, added Sadiq.
Oyyal also engages students in several cultural activities, bringing together learners from all centres. They also open up a window for students to hear stories. Several famous writers such as Umanath Selvan, popularly known as Vizhiyan, and storyteller Satish were also invited to narrate tales.