BENEFICIARIES: Students attending the Viveka Shikshana programme at a government school in Mysore.

MYSORE: This is education with a difference, which has benefited several students from the economically weaker sections who otherwise might have discontinued their studies.

The Viveka Shikshana is a special education project for economically backward and academically weak students that was launched in 2000 by Sri Ramakrishna Ashram, Mysore. It has benefited nearly 1,000 students since its inception.

The project was launched specifically to train students who were lagging behind in their studies. As many as 56 government schools in the region have implemented the programme.

Rationale

Explaining the rationale behind the programme, officials at the Ashram said that owing to poor economic conditions, a large section of children were being deprived of basic education. Domestic disharmony at home further deprived them of the essential emotional and physical environment in which to study, and reduced their learning capacity. Also, the increase in the cost of quality education forced many children from economically weak backgrounds to drop out from private schools.

The monks of Sri Ramakrishna Ashram conceived the project to provide educational opportunities for children from economically weaker sections and also to help correct their learning disabilities.

The basic philosophy of the Viveka Shikshana project is to help poor students do better in academics and achieve progress in life, develop their interest in studies through creative teaching, train students to improve their memory power and power of concentration and comprehension, and provide them with superior methods of teaching developed by experienced and trained teachers, apart from distributing free stationary to them.

Students in class X, who attend school regularly and have studied in the Kannada medium, are selected for additional coaching under the two-year project.

Parameters

The students are selected based on parameters such as an annual family income of less than Rs. 40,000 a year, backwardness in studies or poor learning abilities, and marks of not more than 45 per cent. The course is free for the students, who have to pay a one-time nominal fee of Rs. 50 towards registration. They have to compulsorily put in 70 per cent attendance.

The ashram incurs Rs. 3 lakh a year under the project. Philanthropists who wish to get involved may contact the Sri Ramakrishna Ashram here.

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