From school absentee to education role model: Saraswati’s inspiring journey with Pratham

Saraswati is a 13-year-old student from Jharkhand’s Khunti district, who faced serious challenges in reading and solving basic maths problems. Currently in Grade 6, she lives with her elder siblings, 19-year-old Shikari and 16-year-old Anjali who left education to help support their family and take care of Saraswati. Her father, Jeetu Mahato, is a single parent who works as a daily wage labourer in another state, sending money home when he can to support his family’s needs.

Due to their hardships, Saraswati frequently missed school to help her sister with household chores. But despite her absences remained determined to pursue her education with dreams of becoming a doctor.

In August 2023, Saraswati’s school teacher, along with Pratham officials became concerned about her learning struggles during a baseline assessment, which is part of an initiative run by the administration of the Khunti district, with support from Pratham that runs across 54 schools to establish current learning levels of Grade 6 to 8 students. At Grade 6, Saraswati could only identify letters, instead of reading and comprehending stories, and recognise numbers from zero to nine in maths.

In order to address Saraswati’s learning needs, her teacher along with Pratham officials met her father at home and discussed the challenges she was facing. He confided in the team that he and his older children were unable to support Saraswati’s studies and needed help.

Saraswati’s teacher and Pratham representatives decided to form a children’s learning support group in the village that they could give daily worksheets to complete and empowered Saraswati by making her the leader of the group. Sarawati’s sister, Anjali became a volunteer and started supporting children with their learning too. Apart from building basic maths and reading skills, Saraswati was involved in group activities that covered the topics of health, hygiene, types of waste and how to recycle them. These activities boosted her confidence and instilled in her a curiosity to learn more!

At school too, Saraswati did various fun learning activities to improve her reading, writing and maths skills as part of the ‘Baseline Advancement of Students for Improved Capacity’ classes that were held along with her regular classes. Over time, her fear of learning diminished and Saraswati began taking a keen interest in studying. She also completed the worksheets along with other children in the village after coming home from school.

When the end line assessment (a post-test to understand the learning improvements) was done in December 2023, Saraswati was able to read stories and perform simple maths operations. When her sister, Anjali was asked about her thoughts on Saraswati’s learning improvements, she said:

“We could not continue our education due to financial constraints, but we will make sure that Saraswati does not drop out of school. Seeing her passion for learning, we will provide her with all possible support.”

Today, thanks to Pratham’s intervention and additional learning support groups, Saraswati’s confidence continues to grow as she works towards fulfilling her dream of becoming a doctor – and if anyone can do it, Saraswati can!

If you’d still like to join us in helping more children like Saraswati take transformative learning journeys with Pratham. Make your donation today and change a child’s life!