Scope of youth engagement in influencing ECCE within the public elementary school system

• In Event: 2-183 - Youth-Led Early Childhood Care and Education Programs: Characteristics and Potential Impact Across Multiple Global Contexts

Integrative Statement

Introduction: The Gandhi Fellowship Program is an intensive, two-year Residential Professional Program for youth in western India. Youth participants are placed in targeted communities where they do not have prior local affiliations. The learning value for the youth participants is to adapt to environments beyond their comfort zones. A study of the program is underway to explore and illustrate the scope of youth engagement in enhancing outcomes in the following four intervention areas that influence early childhood learning at the elementary school level:
1. How youth leaders can form collaborative partnerships with school administrators and local communities to increase enrollment of children in government elementary schools;
2. How youth engagement with parents in low-income rural and urban communities can positively influence parent engagement with the child at home;
3. How youth can be engaged to strengthen key school processes that have a direct bearing on learning outcomes. The focus will be on two interventions: youth partnering with school principals to build libraries in their schools and youth using video feedback to help teachers improve their classroom practice; and
4. How youth engagement can bring a nationwide cleanliness campaign into communities and schools.
Study Population: The youth engaged in the above interventions are 19 to 25 years of age, with an education profile of 15+ years of education. The geographical areas of focus will be the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat in western India. Case studies of youth engagement across the four intervention areas will highlight examples from rural and urban communities, which will be selected from a sample of 100 schools.
Methods: For the four intervention areas outlined above, program-specific tools will be used to assess outcomes for youth participants and community stakeholders. Findings are described in qualitative and quantitative terms. Youth will be engaged in providing insights on program impact and learnings by documenting their reflections on the interventions they have made. Youth participants’ growth will also be mapped on a competency framework that assesses youth on competencies like self-management, enabling others, grit and denominator thinking.
Results & Conclusion: The design of the program signals to enablers and challenges to the youth-led model in India. We reflect on the rationale and bottlenecks to the program’s evaluation.

Authors

• Tripti Vyas, Kaivalya Education Foundation - A Piramal Initiative
  Presenting Author

• Monal Jayaram, Kaivalya Education Foundation- A Piramal Initiative
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nandita Raval, Kaivalya Education Foundation - A Piramal Initiative
  Non-Presenting Author