“Adopt a Child” drive helps Varanasi govt school kids turn quick learners

Some 30,000 children of class one, class two and class three studying in Varanasi district’s over 1,100 government primary schools have become quick learners, courtesy an effective measure under which teachers paid special attention to these kids who were slow in learning.

“A brainchild of chief development officer Himanshu Nagpal, ‘Adopt a Child’ campaign was launched in July 2023 with an aim to improve learning skill of children who learn numbers and letters slowly as compared to other children of their age group in their class,” said Varanasi basic siksha adhikari (BSA) Arvind Pathak.

As per him, under the campaign, a drive was carried out in over 1,109 government primary and upper primary schools of the district to find out the children who learn numbers, letters, words slowly. The drive helped identify 54,000 such children.

Among these children, those in class one were not able to read words of two letters, those in class two were not able to read 45 words per minute and those in class three were not able to read 60 words per minute. All this was done in July 2023, the BSA said.

Pathak said thereafter, teachers were assigned the task to pay special attention to these children which they did.

After every two months, assessment of the campaign was done and it was found that the children, who were slow learners earlier had become now quick learners as result of special attention paid by teachers to these kids, he added.

Among the children, those in class 1 can now read words of two letters and those in class 2 can read 45 words per minute and understand the paragraphs, and numbers, addition and subtractions.

Among these kids, those in class three students now read 60 words per minute and understand the meaning of a paragraph. Also, they do additional, subtraction, multiplying and division.

“Around 30,000 children have become adept in learning so far. And in days to come, more children would join them as the campaign is underway,” Pathak said.

Varanasi CDO Himanshu Nagpal said, “Adopt a Child campaign ensures personal attention and guidance to such children who learn letters, numbers and words slowly as compared to other kids in their class. Under the campaign, such students were identified in every government primary school in the district and teachers were asked to pay special attention to them.”

“The campaign has yielded desired results and learning pace of over 30,000 kids has improved,” added Nagpal who regularly monitors the campaign.

Sanjay Gupta, an assistant teacher at government primary school Jamapur in Varanasi, said, “There are 164 children in our school. Of them, 36 kids of class one, two and three did not have the knowledge as per their class level. We adopted these children to pay special attention to them to improve their learning in class. These children were given remedial teaching. Today, 32 out of 36 children are able to do their studies at a fast pace.”