Are you thinking about increasing access to learning opportunities at your school or educational center? There were around 260 million children out of school in recent years, all over the world.
This is due to poverty or the inability to access a decent education within their area. It’s a huge problem and one which is as important as solving world hunger. Without education children and even unemployed adults cannot progress in the world.
But how do you increase education access and improve opportunities for learning? It might seem easier said than done but don’t worry. Here’s everything you need to know.
- Liaise With Schools
Firstly if you are an educational charity or school liaise with schools from your local area and around the world to establish what their needs are.
No school or educational institution likes to feel as if they are having measures imposed upon them or for an outsider to tell them what to do.
To truly make a difference you must work with schools to try and help them overcome their issues.
Start a dialogue with them to help them succeed. This could start with a telephone conversation and then an in-person visit.
It could then lead to a person from your organization heading into the educational center for a week or two. They could observe the number of children attending school and also visiting households where the parents aren’t sending in their children.
Part of the offer might be money for the whole school allocated to encourage educational resources.
Or it might be about mentorship. Students not attending school might need some help in motivating them to come to school.
The Center For Advancing Opportunity is a great charity that can help schools improve on factors like attendance.
Underlying Problems
The reason children might not be coming to school might be because of underlying problems at home.
The children might not be eating and might feel that they don’t have the energy to attend school.
It could also be the case that because of a lack of parenting, the children have no way to get to school in the first place.
As a charity, you could improve access to education by sending people to support the parents and to make sure they get the help they need.
With healthy and mentally strong parents, the children’s lives will surely start to improve as well.
- Free Classes for the Unemployed
Be sure to consider offering free classes for the unemployed. This is because many unemployed people left school with no exams and then went on to get basic low paying jobs.
But the current Coronavirus pandemic may have left them out in the cold claiming welfare. As a result, while the job market recovers they could be spending some useful time at home studying and getting the qualifications they missed out upon as a teenager.
Types of Classes
Some students might wish to retake their exams whilst others might feel they are better off doing practical classes. You should offer both as an option.
That way when the economy is ready to reopen across the road they will be set to get a better job. They will also feel more motivated having achieved something during the time of their unemployment.
As part of the free classes, charities could offer free books that students from poorer backgrounds have access to the latest literature to help them.
- Private Tutoring
Many students from rich backgrounds benefit from private tutoring to supplement their learning in school. This means they are always ahead, particularly in regard to any grades or qualifications they need to pass.
To get around this as a private learning charity promoting access to learning and increased educational resources you could offer some students from poorer backgrounds free private tutoring.
Be sure to enforce a zero-tolerance policy with this so that if the student isn’t interested or showing up it is withdrawn.
Target the students who would most benefit from private tutoring who seem like they need an extra boost to get them to where they need to go.
The key subjects that offer the most amount of value in the early years are English, Maths, and Science. A child that has a higher literacy level and can do advanced level mathematics will find it much easier to get a job in a competitive jobs market.
In-Person Vs Online
Consider looking for great private tutors in the local area but if they are not available then you could use online tutors who are more suitable.
Students do tend to get a better experience of out of in-face tutoring, though this is a challenge at the moment.
Online tutoring is great and there has been a big increase in Zutors but one of the problems that come with is the ability of the student to access the internet. This may require further investment at the student’s family home.
There Are So Many Great Learning Opportunities With Charities
Educational charities offer a great opportunity for poorer students. They offer them a chance to improve their opportunities for learning as well as access to education.
An educational charity can offer free private tutoring to the poorest students and free books. But they can do more than this. They can also help the families of poorer students with basic support needs such as food and mental health.
If you are interested in reading more about learning opportunities with charities then be sure to check out the rest of our site.
