School-based support

As our focus shifts toward driving systemic change, we are reducing our direct work with schools. Nevertheless, we believe it is important to maintain contact at the school level both to gauge which interventions are proving effective and why, and to appreciate first-hand the experiences and challenges faced by educators. This is why we continue to develop and refine our Schools and Community Ownership Programme for Excellence in Education (SCOPE), combining community engagement and teacher capability development to ensure children receive the best quality education.

Our efforts in the school and the community are mutually reinforcing to ensure education outcomes are improved. Regular attendance is essential to optimise learning outcomes in the classroom. In turn, the learning transformation that parents and other community members see in the schools builds their commitment to ensuring the regular attendance of all children. We aim to ensure that the community assumes full and sustained responsibility for children’s attendance after our own limited term support comes to an end.

Highly flexible and independent of curriculum or school system, SCOPE supports the development of an environment which makes children feel safe, secure, and ready to learn, and teaching strategies which recognise each child’s learning needs and how to address them. Regular coaching sessions with headteachers ensure they understand their role as pedagogical leaders and are comfortable mentoring teachers to improve the quality of teaching and learning in their schools.  

community ownership of education

Much international research has demonstrated that there is a strong correlation between children’s attendance and attainment; those who do not attend school regularly are less likely to attain age-appropriate education outcomes. This is why Reach to Teach has developed a Community Ownership of Education programme that has a proven track record in increasing levels of regular attendance in schools, in turn enabling better pupil attainment.

The programme comprises a number of locally-driven, low-cost interventions that we have shown change perceptions about the value of education among parents and local communities, which in turn increases attendance levels. By evaluating the impact of our work at the community level we have been able to incorporate proven interventions into our state-wide programmes, including Praveshotsav 2.0, the Government of Gujarat’s programme that aims to achieve 100% enrolment and retention.