SHIKSHA Initiative was started in 2012 to eradicate illiteracy from India by creating a model that is easily replicable, scalable, and measurable. To ensure the same, SHIKSHA Initiative strategically intensified into SHIKSHA Elementary which caters to students of Grade 1&2 and SHIKSHA Plus that caters to the literacy needs of adult learners. SHIKSHA Initiative uses ICT Technology and digital content to reach out to the beneficiaries along with collaboration from the government of Uttar Pradesh.
Shiksha Elementary's started in two phases i.e. open lab now called Centre of Excellence (CoE) Model and Expansion or Sitapur Model. CoE contributes to the development of the SHIKSHA program by providing inputs that enable project validation and improvement. In addition, it promotes the growth of knowledge and supports the strategic team in the expansion. CoE views Shiksha from a broader perspective and addresses the need to create a base for the development of new learning and ensure it is firmly rooted in the Shiksha model. It includes monitoring the effectiveness of processes, benchmarking performance for optimum implementation, and providing customized frameworks for enhancing output. In summary, the Center of Excellence brings together varied best practices in program development, deployment, and measurement to embed the skills and knowledge required to make Shiksha a successful model.
In 2014, the project expanded to 40 schools reaching out to 5000 students. During this period, testing of technology initiated, Field Officers (teachers in the open lab) were trained, the curriculum was ready, and teams were confident to take the model to next level. With this mission, the initiative was expanded to 300 schools in 2015 adding 3 more districts of Uttar Pradesh i.e. (Mirzapur, Hardoi, and Hathras) to its sphere. This was testing for scale as well for the future planned expansions. However, in 2016 management took a strategic decision and made a considerable shift in its approach by consolidating all its operations to a new area i.e. Kasmanda block in Sitapur district. Also, the objective of the SHIKSHA Initiative is not expansion rather to test the model in all scenarios. Thus, it was decided to withdraw intervention from these 3 locations and test the model in the Sitapur district.
SHIKSHA Initiative also strategically intensified into adult literacy approach entitled as SHIKSHA+ that uses an ICT based methodology to teach the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic skills to illiterate adults who have not attended a formal school. The target group for the program is anyone who had missed the opportunity of formal education. Thus, young and adults above 15 years of age are imparted education in the program.
With the on-going pandemic, SHIKSHA Initiative decided to reach out to the learners with the help of loudspeakers, through a program called ‘SHIKSHA KI GOONJ’. The objective of the program was to reach out to the people in this crisis and help them continue their education through engaging and informative content along with little entertainment to make learning although more fun.
SHIKSHA Initiative also launched a mobile rural literacy initiative - SHIKSHA Kiran which is aimed at bringing classrooms to the doorsteps of the children and adults across rural UP. The program uses specially designed vehicles to cover 36 villages across 3 districts – Sitapur, Bulanshahr and Gautam Budh Nagar, reaching out to children and adults who have lost access to education and literacy opportunities due to pandemic.
