Project encourages families to stay in their locality instead of migrating for seasonal work
Shahin Bepari Lambe
Panaji: A learning centre established at Nirankal-Bethoda under the Katkari Tribal Education and Social Integration Project is helping children from Goa’s Katkari community remain in school, improve literacy and reduce seasonal migration by their families.
The centre, which is run by the Sanvedan Kendra, began functioning in June 2022. It has encouraged families to stay in their village instead of migrating for seasonal work, allowing children to continue their education.
Project coordinator Dasharath Morajkar said that until recently, nearly 90 per cent of Katkari families migrated for sugarcane harvesting between November and March, disrupting their children’s schooling every year.
“The biggest change has been in migration. Last year only 10 per cent of families migrated after the project’s intervention encouraged parents to stay back so that their children could continue attending school,” he said.
The project begins the learning process in Katkari language to help children build a strong educational foundation. The Katkari community is recognised as a vulnerable tribal group, and most of its children are first-generation learners.
While schools teach in Marathi, many parents have never received formal education and are unable to support their children’s studies. Frequent migration also results in children joining school one or two months after the academic year begins.
The project adopts activity-based and joyful learning methods to strengthen basic reading and writing skills. Gunjan Gavade and other teachers begin with simple lessons such as numbers and letters before gradually introducing academic subjects.
The centre has been named the Shaheed Nagya Mhadu Katkari Learning Centre after a freedom fighter from the community.
According to the project, literacy levels among participating children have improved, with more than 20 per cent additional students now able to read since the centre was established. It currently supports 34 students, including 16 from Classes I to IV and 18 studying from Class V to ITI level.
The first batch of students joined the project in 2014, although activities were suspended for two years during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We found that many Katkari children leave school at the age of 13 or 14 years, usually after eight or nine years of education. Financial problems and poor foundational literacy were identified as the main reasons behind school dropouts,” Morajkar said.
The project is also helping older students continue their education. The nearest primary school is about 1.5 km away, while the high school is located around 3 km from the Katkari Basti, Gawaliwada.
The transition to English as the medium of instruction in higher classes had previously contributed to students discontinuing their education, the project noted.
