Methodology: Interviews, Survey
Language: Hindi, English
Catalysts: Nikita Ketkar
Youth Fellows:
Dayanand Agane
Ganesh .M. Naik
Prashant P Kokate
Sunita Y Kunchikorve
Shaila C Chiplunkar
Swapnali P Jadhav
Coordinator:
Aditya Pant
About the Subject:
Through focused research in five night schools this research group aimed to explore and understand the experience of the 30,000 and more students who are enrolled in 141 night schools and 25 night colleges across Mumbai. Run by charitable trusts, staffed by teachers who have other day jobs, these schools offer a student an educational experience that lasts for three hours in the late evening for a nominal fee. They cater to youth that work in a variety of jobs during the day. The group saw their research as a way to create space for a positive intervention in the future.
Challenges & Learnings:
The hope to create a positive intervention in the future was rooted in the constitution of the group. Four members of the group were students in night colleges and juggled their research work with their daytime occupations. Their shared working class background provided an easily accessible point of reference for all group members to understand the challenges that the night schools students face – trade-offs between the need to gain an education with addressing the financial needs of the family, and the extremely narrow set of choices that offers.
Conclusion:
The struggle of the night school students to balance the financial needs of the family and their own education deeply moved the research fellows to start their own voluntary organization to help these children.
End Product:
A project report, photographs and posters were prepared by the group to share their findings.
