The Society for Door Step Schools (DSS)

Supported by: Wipro Cares

About The Society for Door Step Schools (DSS)

Started in Mumbai in 1989 and expanded to Pune in 1993, The Society for Door Step Schools (DSS) has been addressing the problem of illiteracy among children (3 to 14 years) from marginalized sections of society such as those of pavement and slum dwellers, construction site families, migrant families, and other underprivileged communities. Many of these children are not enrolled in school and have limited access to books or even a place to study. Additionally, many of them are forced to drop out of school to work or care for younger children. With neither support nor resources at home, these children often suffer from very low learning levels. At DSS, we are trying to bridge this gap by bringing education to the “Doorstep” of these children by addressing three problems of our public education system: (i) Non-enrolment i.e., children are not enrolled in school. (ii) Wastage i.e., children drop out of school. (iii) Stagnation i.e., even if children are enrolled in school, they suffer from low learning levels and eventually drop out.

Approach

DSS is addressing these challenges through various Community and School intervention programs (For details on programs refer Sec. 2(a) i).  The approach is simple and straightforward as it caters to children according to their age group and learning levels. This is done by running Balwadis for 2-5-year-olds focusing on their sensory and motor skills, and preparing them for school; study class for children (6-14 years) enrolled in school to support them in their studies; reference class (6-14 years) for children to provide reference material and a quiet environment to study; community and school libraries to give children access to variety of reading materials to hone their reading skills.  This is further supported by working with parents and schools towards continued education of children.

In the year 2020-21, we changed our approach as demanded by the situation. We redesigned our programs to have a combination of online as well as offline activities to help children continue their process of learning. Our 20 years of experience in working with schools helped us to be a part of school WhatsApp groups and engage children. Whereas our database of parents and children while working in communities helped us reach them and engage their children in online activities even when centers were closed. Thus, we reached over 55,000 children. We also trained our staff and developed AV materials for teaching and learning.

Locations

DSS mainly works in two cities – Mumbai and Pune and its surrounding areas. At present, through project networking and nurturing, DSS is working in other areas like in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar, Latur, and Raigad districts, and other states such as Bihar and Chhattisgarh in collaboration with other NGOs and volunteers.

Plan for Next 1-3 Years

(i) Change approach from 100% face-to-face intervention to a combination of online and offline intervention, (ii) Aligning programs/teaching methodologies to NEP 2020, (iii) Automation and digitization of processes enabling children and team members to make optimum use of technology, (iv) Enable children to use online resources for self-study. Keep them safe in the online world by conducting awareness sessions about maintaining a healthy mind and body, (v) Focus on conducting classes for teaching fundamental literacy, (vi) After 3rd year of PPCE, continue the program partially in areas with new out-of-school children.