Igniting Curiosity, Building Futures: Impact of ChildFund India’s STEM Education Program

ChildFund India

At ChildFund India, we believe learning should bring joy to children. It should make them curious, confident, creative and ready for the future. In Raichur, Karnataka, many children grow up with very few or limited resources. Schools often do not have science labs or smart classrooms. Most lessons are taught only through textbooks. For many children, especially girls, subjects like science and math felt difficult, boring and hard to understand.

To address the aforementioned issue, we started the STEM Education Program in seven government schools. We set up Mini Science Labs, Smart Classrooms, STEM Library, brought in science kits, and trained teachers to make lessons fun and practical. Further, we organized multiple exposure visits for children for hand on learning experience. Recently, we conducted impact evaluation of STEM program in Raichur across 7 intervention schools and taken additional 7 government schools as a control group. We conducted indepth interviews with children and teachers and SMC members. Further, we also spoke with parents and the community to show how important it is for children to learn these skills.

What Changed for Children

An independent study was done to see how the program is helping. The results were inspiring.

Boost in curiosity and interest: About 85 percent of children said they became more curious about science and math after joining the program.
Better alignment with studies: More than 90 percent felt that the new way of teaching made lessons easier to understand.
Confidence in learning: Over 90 percent of students said they feel much more confident in science and math now.
Real learning outcomes: In class 6, children in schools with the STEM program scored 9.8 compared to 7.0 in non-intervention schools. In class 7, the scores were 8.5 compared to 6.4. In class 8, they scored 5.1 compared to 3.6. In class 9, it was 6.1 compared to 4.6. And in class 10, children scored 5.0 compared to 3.7. This shows that in every grade, children with access to STEM labs and smart classrooms performed better than those without.