The Swa-Adhyay project was launched in 2019 in Dehradun with the aim of cultivating an interest in education among slum dwellers who had little or no interest in attending school. The program was designed to allow children to teach themselves and each other in the absence of supervision and formal teaching, provided they were motivated by curiosity.

We were pleasantly surprised by the results of the program and decided to provide a couple of used laptops at our Dehradun center. After showing the children how to switch them on, we allowed them to figure things out on their own. They tinkered around, made mistakes, and learned together in groups. As a result, teaching them advanced usage was easy.

This small initiative has helped us enroll 200+ children from slums into mains stream school with 3% drop out rate.  Since this project had no one to boss them around they learned faster and at their own space. Later on, the initiative was implemented in a few more slums in Dehradun and at remote villages in West Bengal.  As of now 1000+ children are directly benefiting from the initiative and at the same time bringing them closer to education and knowledge and at the same time they have power access   

We plan to continue this approach at various remote places in the country, with the goal of providing every learner with their own PC/laptop. This will enable them to explore at their own pace, collaborate with their peers, and create an environment that fosters learning.

Our Inspiration

Inspired by Professor Sugata Mitra’s “A Hole In The Wall” experiment, which yielded some rather encouraging inferences, BDF decided to try something similar at our learning center.

 In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC and left it there, with a hidden camera filming the area. What they saw: kids from the slum playing with the computer and, in the process, learning how to use it — then teaching each other. These famed “Hole in the Wall” experiments demonstrated that, in the absence of supervision and formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other — if they’re motivated by curiosity.

The interesting findings motivated us to keep a couple of used laptops at our Dehradun center.  We simply showed them how to switch it on and left them to figure things out. The kids tinkered around, made mistakes, learnt in groups and taught each other along the way. We were then able to teach them advanced usage quite easily. 

At both locations of the Navadha School, we wish to continue this and endeavour to leave all the learners with their own PCs/laptops so that they explore at their own pace, co-ordinate with their peers, and create an environment conducive for learning.