Bridging Invisible Gaps: A Beautiful Story That Will Wrench Your Heart

This article is powered by P&G Education.

In a classroom where most students eagerly seek the teacher’s attention and recognition, Bindiya prefers to hide. Whether it’s hiding under the desk, mingling with his friends, or even taking shelter behind the trees in the playground, he excels at a game of hide and seek while answering questions from his fellow teacher. Compete to answer the questions.

Eventually, the teacher becomes aware of this behavior and succeeds in locating Bindiya. Curiously the teacher asks, “Bindiya, why do you hide?” please tell me.”

After a brief hesitation, she replies, “Sir, I am scared of questions. And if you don’t see me, how will you ask me questions?”

This view is part of P&G Education new campaign film, shows the deep impact of the ‘invisible difference’ on children and their struggle to adapt to the classroom environment. The film further states that “like Bindiya, over six crore children feel left out in the classroom” – according to NAS (National Achievement Survey) 2021 report – and that “many of them eventually dropped out.”

The campaign aims to emphasize the importance of concerted efforts to guarantee that every child in India is provided with an empowering education, enabling them to shape a brighter future for both themselves and their communities.

What is the ‘Invisible Gap’?

“Many times, children struggle to retain what is taught in the classroom. One concept, one subject, one class – can give way to a larger issue, where children develop a difference in the fundamentals of education. When a child falls behind and the existing level of learning is not commensurate with the expected level of learning as per the defined curriculum, it gives rise to a learning gap,” says Girish Kalyanaraman, vice-president, marketing operations, P&G India.

As a result, India is facing a significant “learning crisis”, in which educational access has improved greatly but learning outcomes have not kept pace. This distress manifests in a variety of ways among children, including low self-confidence and making excuses to skip school, low participation and fear of expressing themselves.

According to Bindiya’s story, some children even resort to distraction and concealment when questioned. Unfortunately, these signs are often misinterpreted as mischief, lack of discipline, or disinterest, which only worsens the symptoms due to lack of understanding and support. These misconceptions mainly arise from a lack of awareness and understanding of the invisible difference.

The invisible gap manifests itself in many ways – making excuses for not going to school; exhibiting limited participation in class discussions and activities; experiencing fear or difficulty expressing their feelings; exhibiting below average performance in tests and examinations; Exhibiting distraction and a tendency to hide when questioned during class or at home.

How to make this learning gap visible?

“This year we aim to illuminate this invisible gap by creating awareness and urging meaningful action,” says Girish.

“We are trying to create a conversation about the crisis of contextual learning affecting hundreds of millions of children in our country. This gap arises when children fall behind and the present level of learning does not match the expected level of learning. To bridge this gap, P&G is working with its partners through a variety of programs – from leveraging advanced machine-learning-based tools to community-level learning camps.”

P&G Education has adopted a three-pronged strategy to address this gap:

1) Leading the urgent need to raise awareness – Through this campaign, they aim to bring attention to the gap by creating nationwide awareness about this issue, which is often misconstrued as child mischief or lack of interest in learning.

2) Resolving the issue at the grass root level- They state that they are actively employing innovative approaches to reduce learning gaps and enhance learning outcomes. This includes implementing on-ground remedial learning interventions, early childhood education initiatives, and technology-based digital remedial learning methods.

3) Urge for collective action — While P&G Education leads these on-the-ground interventions, it encourages everyone to join forces and take collective action. Everyone can contribute to this change by participating in an assessment test to identify the learning gaps in the children around them and then taking remedial measures to bridge those gaps. test is accessible on their website,

The assessment test has been created in collaboration with Educational Initiatives, the implementation partner for their Digital Remedial Learning programme. The objective of this assessment is to enable people across the country to quickly identify learning gaps faced by children. It also suggests ways to bridge these gaps.

The assessment is open to children from classes 1 to 10 and consists of 15 compulsory multiple choice questions. These questions cover Mathematics, Science and English, with five questions from each subject. The difficulty level of the assessment is determined based on the grade of the child. The questions are aligned with the curriculum for each grade and are intended to assess whether the child’s current learning level matches the expected level as per the defined curriculum.

If the assessment shows that the child’s learning level is below the expected level, the screen provides recommendations and remedial actions that the parent or guardian can take to bridge the gap.

Inspiration

P&G India’s flagship CSR programme, called ‘P&G Shiksha’, was launched in 2005 with a mission to provide access to education to underprivileged children in the country. As the country grew, P&G Education embarked on a transformational journey, expanding into a comprehensive education initiative that encompasses all aspects of learning.

It focuses on enhancing learning outcomes of children by strengthening educational infrastructure, addressing learning gaps and empowering disadvantaged communities through education.

Girish says, “At P&G, it is our endeavor to be a ‘force for growth’ and a ‘force for good’ in the communities we serve and to touch and improve the lives of people. It’s naturally woven into the way we do things every day. Our initiatives are in line with the motto mentioned in the New Education Policy – Educate, Inspire, Enlighten. Over the years, we have supported over 3,000 schools impacting over 3.5 million children.

These programs are in line with the government’s Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and National Education Policy, both of which emphasize the importance of providing equal educational opportunities for all.

Initiatives currently being taken by P&G Education

1) Infrastructure – In association with NGO Round Table India, P&G Education is actively involved in improving the education infrastructure in various ways. This includes building new classrooms, developing playgrounds, and enhancing health and hygiene facilities for children – such as providing clean drinking water and separate toilets for girls and boys in schools.

“By launching these initiatives, we aim to create a learning environment that is more conducive to education. This, in turn, will lead to increased enrolment, decreased dropout rates, improved teaching efficiency, student motivation and ultimately an improved learning outcomes. contributes to a higher overall level,” says Girish.

2) Community Remedial Education – In collaboration with the First Education Foundation, P&G Education is implementing innovative approaches to reduce learning gaps and enhance learning outcomes in communities. This is achieved through on-ground remedial teaching interventions using both community-based and ‘in-school’ models. Teachers in the school as well as trained volunteers from the community provide support for these programs.

“The purpose of our remedial teaching initiative is two-fold – first, to accelerate students’ progress in school and second, to strengthen their conceptual understanding of important topics. As a result of these interventions, at the beginning of the intervention, at the end of the program last year More than 70% of students were able to read at their expected learning level, compared to less than 25%,” he said.

3) Digital Remedial Education – Through a partnership with Educational Initiatives, they are implementing ‘MindSpark’, an adaptive computer-based learning tool designed to address learning deficiencies in students. The tool combines pedagogy, teacher instruction, and a comprehensive learning management system to assess each student’s learning level and create a personalized learning path tailored to their specific needs.

4) Early Childhood Education Program – In collaboration with the Pratham Education Foundation, P&G Education’s efforts are directed at nurturing children’s motor, cognitive, social-emotional, language and creative skills.

5) Girls education in Rajasthan – Through their partnership with Save the Children, they are working to remove gender-based barriers that hinder girls’ access to education in the country.

“As part of this initiative, we extend our support to 49 government-run residential Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) and 36 regular schools in seven districts of Rajasthan. Our focus is on providing quality education to girls through comprehensive infrastructure and learning interventions. Additionally, we actively involve parents to emphasize the importance of continuing education and reduce the dropout rate,” says Girish.

6) STEM Scholarship – She is actively involved in promoting opportunities for girls to pursue careers in STEM fields through the ‘P&G Education Girls Scholarship Program’ in collaboration with the Center for Civil Society (CCS).

“Currently, women comprise only 14% of the STEM workforce in India, and we are committed to closing this gender gap. We aim to empower girls who aspire to pursue STEM education by providing them with vital financial support and mentorship support. Our ultimate goal is to facilitate the entry of skilled women professionals into the manufacturing and production industries. Through this program, we have successfully collaborated with over 100 institutions, positively impacting over 300 beneficiaries,” he explains.

“P&G Shiksha began as a program to build schools across the country in line with the mission of the government. It has today evolved into a holistic program that removes some of the significant barriers to access to quality education,” comments Girish.

,Edited by Pranita Bhat; All Images Courtesy: P&G Education,