In her three years of visiting schoolchildren in the coastal areas of Thiruvananthapuram, one of the most upsetting encounters for Sneha was meeting Class 7 students who could not spell their own names. One boy had to fetch another with the same name because he could not pronounce the letters “sh”, she recalls, and no one had taken enough notice to find out if it stemmed from a learning disability.
Sneha, a social worker with the non-governmental organisation Kanal, has been coordinating a project called Changathi (friend), which works with financially disadvantaged students in coastal areas. Project Changathi is now in its third year, attempting interventions that improve the mental and physical wellbeing of children in aided schools, along with their educational prospects.
There has been some level of improvement, but there is a long way to go, Sneha says. “Students who had earlier scored below five in every subject now get 10 to 20 marks more. The progress is slow but any improvement is a good sign. You have to take into account that these were children who could hardly spell their names or do the basic additions,” Sneha says.
The reasons they do not fare well are many, with a lack of interest in their education being the most disconcerting. “They ask us what is the point in studying, they are anyway meant to go to the sea to make a living like their parents who are fisherfolk. It is difficult convincing them that they could have other options if they do well at school,” Sneha says.
A survey conducted by Kanal this year to assess the students’ health found that many children have irregular meals, low water intake, mild to severe anxiety and stress, high levels of hyperactivity, and emotional and behavioural problems. Kanal conducted clinical evaluations and a medical camp, and used bio-questionnaires and food checklists to collect information from the students. They used tools such as PAAS (Pre-Adolescent Adjustment Scale), DASS (Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale), SDQ (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire), and IAT (Internet Addiction Test).
In the first year, the team from Kanal focused on a school in Vettucaud. Susy, the headmistress, says there has been a marked improvement in the students who were given extra care that year — those who were in Class 7 at the time and are now in Class 9. “Volunteers had come twice a week, giving them awareness classes along with extra tuition for their lessons. They introduced ‘water bell breaks’ during which all the students in the school were asked to drink water and the Class 7 students acted as monitors to supervise it. They also visited the homes of these students, conducted parental awareness classes as well as sessions for teachers,” Susy says.
She adds that a number of students in the schools of the neighbourhood come from broken families. Their parents work as daily wage labourers, fish workers, or auto-rickshaw drivers, leaving little time to look after the children, many of whom live in cramped houses.
“Since many of these children are hyperactive, some schools take extreme measures like making them spend time under the sun to bring down their energy levels. Some parents complain about this but others think it is good. On the other hand, some teachers have found that their high energy could be put to good use by having them play sports,” Sneha says.
This is why awareness helps, and the NGO has been trying to include teachers and parents in their training. “Otherwise, with little attention given to them, the students become truant, and are also lured into drinking and smoking habits by older boys in the neighbourhood,” she adds.
In the second year, Kanal included one more school in the project, and in the third year, yet another. They identified the weaker students in each class and conducted extra lessons for them. Volunteers from Tata Elxsi also joined the teaching.
“After all of this, at the end of the academic year, the children tend to go back to their old ways, and sometimes we may need to start all over in the next year. So we do some amount of follow-up,” Sneha adds.
They focus on Class 7 students when the children are about to enter adolescence and are at their most impressionable age, but follow-up becomes necessary when the students return to environments that are not always supportive of their education.
Kanal’s team is now taking their findings up with the General Education Department to ensure better care and developmental support for children in coastal areas.