Akshara Foundation — Building an Early Foundation for Long-Term Learning

At a childcare center in an impoverished and largely illiterate area of Bangalore, India, Anita — a worker trained in the Akshara Foundation's preschool teaching techniques — makes a difference in the lives of first-generation learners.

The center is a cheerful place, neatly organized with a place for everything. Anita takes the teaching-learning material (TLM) from the shelf, engaging a group of children to play with a counting board, stack learning cubes and read the alphabet on the wall.

She then begins to assess Saifullah, a five-year-old student, who eyes the learning cubes before him, ready for the challenge. Anita tosses the numbered cubes around randomly and asks him to arrange them vertically from 1 to 10. Saifullah puts 2 on top of 1, a bit asymmetrically, then picks out 3, 4 and 5, and piles them on with practiced delicacy. With Anita's encouragement, he successfully builds the tower. He claps with delight at his achievement, and the other children join him.

At his first assessment, Saifullah could not say how old he was. Color, shapes and sizes were unknown concepts, and he was unaware of the year. Two months later during a follow-up assessment, Saifullah has moved from working with the learning cubes to industriously assembling a jigsaw puzzle — a giraffe takes shape piece by piece. The jigsaw puzzle is completely new to him, but Saifullah has easily mastered the technique.

Saifullah approaches each task eagerly, with sparkling eyes. He is now able to tell the group how old he is, identify colors and sort out a jumble of assorted cards according to shape, size and color. Though he is disappointed that he cannot identify the current year or day, he stands up confidently. He folds his hands high against his chest and proudly displays what he does know: “There are 12 months in a year,” Saifullah names each of them. “There are seven days in a week,” he recites them all correctly.

Saifullah is one of the 35,000 children that the Akshara Foundation, and caring workers like Anita, impacts every day through the community-based preschool education program. This program, supported by Dell YouthConnect, focuses on building a strong foundation to prepare children for success in primary school.

Using the latest Dell YouthConnect grant, the foundation will continue to strengthen its efforts to ensure that approximately 35,000 children get a quality preschool education and more students like Saifullah benefit from the program. In addition, the support from Dell YouthConnect has helped to create a database of children served and track their progress as they advance through primary school in Bangalore.

The Akshara Foundation's mission is to ensure that every child is in school and learning well. And its ultimate goal is to universalize primary education through innovative and scalable programs for preschool and primary school students. Through all of its programs, the organization impacts 250,000 students at both the preschool and primary levels.

Ashok Kamath, Akshara Foundation chair, highlights the importance of this partnership: “Our relationship with Dell has been a wonderful example of a sustained partnership based on a shared vision. Dell has supported our preschool activities in many ways, including active involvement of Dell employees in our efforts.”

Learn more about the Akshara Foundation's meaningful work at www.akshara.org.in