This article is powered by P&G Education.
In a classroom where most students seek the teacher’s attention and recognition, Bindia prefers to stay hidden. Whether it’s hiding under the desk, mingling with her friends, or finding refuge behind the trees on the playground, she excels at a game of hide-and-seek, while her friends compete to answer the teacher’s questions.
Eventually, the teacher becomes aware of this behavior and manages to locate Bindiya. Curious, the teacher asked, “Bindia, why are you hiding?” Please tell me.”
After a moment’s hesitation, she replies, “Sir, I’m afraid of questions. And if you can’t see me, how can you ask me questions?”
The scene is part of P&G Education’s new campaign film, which depicts the profound impact of the ‘invisible gap’ on children and their struggle to adapt to the classroom environment. According to the film “Like Bindiya, over six crore children feel left behind in class”. NAS (National Achievement Survey) 2021 report — and that “many of them eventually quit.”
The campaign aims to emphasize the importance of integrated efforts to guarantee that every child in India is provided with an empowering education, enabling them to shape a brighter future for both themselves and their communities.
What is the ‘Invisible Gap’?
“Many times, children struggle to keep up with what is taught in class. A concept, a subject, a class – can give way to a bigger issue, where a child develops a gap in the fundamentals of education. When a child falls behind and the current learning level does not match the expected learning level as per the defined curriculum, it creates a learning gap,” says Girish Kalyanaraman, Vice President, Marketing Operations, P&G India.
As a result, India is facing a significant “learning crisis”, in which educational access has improved greatly, but learning outcomes have not kept pace. This crisis manifests itself in various ways in children such as low self-confidence and making excuses to drop out of school, lack of participation and fear of expressing themselves.
As Bindia’s story illustrates, some children even resort to obfuscation and concealment when investigating. Unfortunately, these signs are often misinterpreted as mischievousness, lack of discipline, or apathy, which only worsens the symptoms due to a lack of understanding and support. These misconceptions mainly stem from a lack of awareness and understanding about the invisible gap.
The invisible gap manifests itself in many ways — making excuses to avoid going to school; exhibiting limited participation in classroom discussions and activities; experiencing fear or difficulty expressing their feelings; performing below average on tests and exams; Exhibiting a tendency to become confused and hide during class or when checking at home.
How to show this learning gap?
Girish says, “Our aim this year is to highlight this invisible gap, by creating awareness and urging meaningful action.
“We’re trying to start a conversation around the relevant learning crisis that affects millions of children in our country. This gap occurs when children fall behind and current learning levels don’t match expected learning levels. To close this gap, P&G works with our partners through a variety of programs. is doing — from advanced machine-learning-based tools to community-level learning camps.
P&G Education has adopted a three-pronged strategy to bring visibility to this gap:
1) Taking the lead in the urgent need for driving consciousness – Through this campaign, they aim to address this gap by creating nationwide awareness about the issue, which is often misconstrued as child mischief or lack of interest in learning.
2) Addressing the issue on land – They say they are actively using innovative approaches to reduce learning gaps and increase learning outcomes. This includes implementing ground-breaking remedial learning interventions, early childhood education initiatives, and technology-based digital remedial learning methods.
3) Urge for collective action – While P&G Education leads these on-ground interventions, it encourages everyone to join forces and take collective action. Each person can contribute to this change by participating in assessment tests to identify learning gaps in the children around them and then taking corrective measures to bridge those gaps. The test can be accessed on their website.
The assessment test was created in collaboration with Educational Initiatives, an implementing partner for their Digital Remedial Learning program. The purpose of this assessment is to enable people across the country to quickly identify learning gaps faced by children. It also suggests ways to bridge these gaps.
The assessment is open to children from classes 1 to 10 and consists of 15 compulsory multiple-choice questions. These questions consist of five questions from each subject of Mathematics, Science and English. The difficulty level of the assessment is determined based on the child’s grades. The questions are aligned with each grade’s curriculum and aim to assess whether the child’s current learning level matches the expected level according to the defined curriculum.
If the assessment reveals that the child’s learning level is below expected levels, the screen provides recommendations and remedial actions that the parent, or guardians, can take to close the gap.
inspiration
P&G India’s flagship CSR programme, called ‘P&G Shiksha’, was introduced in 2005 with the aim of providing access to education to the nation’s underprivileged children. As the country progressed, P&G Education took a transformative journey, expanding into a comprehensive education initiative that encompasses all aspects of education.
It focuses on enhancing children’s learning outcomes by strengthening educational infrastructure, addressing learning gaps, and empowering marginalized communities through education.
Girish says, “At P&G, our endeavor is to be a ‘Force for Development’ and a ‘Force for Good’ in the communities we serve, and to touch and improve people’s lives. This is naturally woven into the way we work every day. Our initiatives include new learning In line with the motto outlined in the policy – Educate, Encourage, Enlighten. Over the years we have helped over 3,000 schools impacting more than 3.5 lakh children.”
These programs are in line with the government’s overall education campaign and the National Education Policy, both of which emphasize the importance of providing equal educational opportunities for all.
The initiatives are currently led by P&G Education
1) Infrastructure – In collaboration with NGO Round Table India, P&G Education is actively involved in improving education infrastructure in various ways. These include building new classrooms, developing playgrounds, and enhancing health and sanitation facilities for children — such as providing clean drinking water and separate toilets for girls and boys in schools.
“By undertaking these initiatives, our aim is to create a learning environment that is more conducive to education. This, in turn, contributes to increased enrollment, reduced dropout rates, improved teaching efficiency, student motivation and ultimately a higher level of overall education,” says Girish.
2) Community Remedial Education – Through collaboration with the First Education Foundation, P&G Education is implementing innovative approaches to reduce learning gaps and increase learning outcomes in communities. This is achieved through on-ground remedial learning interventions using both community-based and ‘in-school’ models. Trained volunteers from the community, along with school teachers, provide support for these programs.
“The purpose of our remedial learning initiatives is twofold – first, to accelerate students’ progress in school and second, to strengthen their conceptual understanding of important subjects. As a result of these interventions, at the end of the program last year, more than 70% of students were able to read at their expected learning level , which was less than 25% at the start of the intervention,” he noted.
3) Digital Remedial Education – Through partnerships with educational initiatives, they are implementing ‘MindSpark’, an adaptive computer-based learning tool designed to address learning disabilities in students. This tool combines pedagogy, teacher guidance, and a comprehensive learning management system to assess each student’s learning level and create a personalized learning path tailored to their specific needs.
4) Early Childhood Education Program – In collaboration with the First Education Foundation, P&G Education’s efforts are directed toward nurturing children’s motor, cognitive, social-emotional, language, and creative skills.
5) Girls Education in Rajasthan – Through a partnership with Save the Children, they are working to remove gender-based barriers that hinder girls’ access to education in the country.
“As part of this initiative, we extend our support to 49 government residential Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) schools and 36 regular schools in seven districts of Rajasthan. Our focus is on imparting quality education to girls through comprehensive infrastructure and learning interventions. Additionally, we We actively involve parents to emphasize the importance of continuing education and reduce dropout rates,” says Girish.
6) STEM Scholarship – They are actively involved in providing opportunities for girls to pursue careers in STEM fields through the ‘P&G Shiksha Betiyaan Scholarship Program’ in collaboration with the Center for Civil Society (CCS).
“Currently, women comprise only 14% of the STEM workforce in India, and we are committed to bridging this gender gap. Our aim is to empower girls who want to pursue STEM education by providing essential financial support and mentorship support. Our ultimate goal is to create jobs in the manufacturing and manufacturing industries.” Facilitating entry of skilled women professionals. Through this program, we have successfully collaborated with over 100 organizations, positively impacting over 300 beneficiaries,” he explained.
“P&G Education started as a program to build schools across the country in line with the government’s mission. It has today evolved into a holistic program that addresses some of the critical barriers to achieving quality education,” commented Girish.
(Edited by Pranita Bhat; All images courtesy: P&G Education)