Enabling Stakeholder Voices During A Pandemic | Sujhaav Somvaar
As the world battles a pandemic, our country’s state governments and their education departments have started various initiatives to ensure students can continue their education by bridging the disconnect among pieces of content, activities, and instructions being received by students and teachers. However, the core question needs to be asked — are these programs working for the targeted audience? While initiatives such as the e-Vidya scheme are being designed, there are no active platforms for stakeholders to give feedback on them, especially during this pandemic. Some systems which were working 3 months back — might have been rendered defunct by the current situation.
Introducing The Concept:
In Punjab, an education collective of 4 non-profit organizations: ShikshaLokam, Samarthya, Mantra4change, and Sanjhi Sikhiya working with the Department of Education has started a virtual initiative called Sujhaav Somvaar. Sujhaav Somvaar or ‘Mondays For Suggestions’, gives a platform to parents, teachers, department staff members, and other stakeholders to voice their feedback and suggestions on various projects that the government is working on. The platform also serves as an effective tool for those designing and planning these projects as it gives them new suggestions from the key beneficiaries to make their work better.
Process:
To get the voices of these beneficiaries, a topic is decided every week after consulting with the department. Post this, a questionnaire based on the finalized topic is created and uploaded on Darpan — an app developed by ShikshaLokam, which is used state-wide to capture and make sense of various kinds of data, all the way from support being given to teachers, to challenges faced by parents, to review of content. To make sure there’s greater participation, the team drives various outreach and sensitization efforts across various stakeholder groups. Once the inputs are received, the Sujhaav Somvaar team collates the data, identifies patterns, and sends key insights to the Department of Education
In the first week of this initiative, the stakeholders gave feedback on the TV lessons on Swayamprabha and DD Punjabi where insights like changing the duration for working kids, making lectures available in Gurudwaras, and adding these channels on all dish connections stood out. Below are some testimonials from some teachers who participated in the first Sujhaav Somvaar.
“I think Sujhaav Somvaar is a very good initiative as it gives all teachers a common platform to give their suggestions”- Ms. Manpreet Kaur, Government School Teacher, Bara Pind, Jalandhar
“I think Sujhaav Somvaar will immensely benefit the learning of children in the times of COVID as teachers have a lot of ideas, which can now be shared with the department to engage students better.”- Mr. Navdeep Singh, Government School Teacher, Moga
Value Proposition:
Sujhaav Somvaar allows for a faster yet diverse feedback loop, which in turn, allows the Department of Education to improvise on insights from multiple stakeholders and improve its initiatives quickly. While the end outcome of the process is creating an inclusive education system where all voices are heard and agency of all stakeholders is restored;, the purpose of Sujhaav Somvaar is so much more than that. An initiative that can work beyond the pandemic to register the voice of the people, it has been built on a firm belief to bring those who are making policies and officials who are implementing it closer to the benefitting stakeholders. A belief where all the parties are benefited by making sure that all of their feedback and suggestions are heard and all children receive what they unequivocally deserve.
