Background

Education plays an instrumental role in our lives by fostering personal growth and development by endowing us with the requisite knowledge and skills. Recognizing the value of education in empowering individuals, our world order has enshrined the right to education for all in various ways that increase access to educational opportunities for all irrespective of their economic backgrounds. 

However, even as the right to education gets children to schools, for far too many children, it does not lead to learning. In fact, a report by UNICEF estimates that over 600 million children and adolescents across the world are incapacitated to attain minimum proficiency levels in skills such as arithmetic and reading, despite around two-thirds of them being in school. The lack of quality educational opportunities offered to children gravely injures their learning potential in addition to hampering their future chances of employment, and thereby ruining their prospects of social mobility.

A significant reason for this is the common prevalence of learning differences among children. Another report by UNICEF states that an estimated 240 million children globally have learning disabilities. Denied the right to learn, children with learning differences are structurally prevented from participating in the social, political, and economic spheres, along with being subject to discrimination and stigma from their peers, and even their teachers. Thus, creating inclusive educational methods that give fair opportunities to all children is of urgent importance. Project Alt+Lean seeks to work precisely in this direction by enhancing access to inclusive and accessible education for children from underserved communities, in order to allow a diverse set of students to learn and grow side by side, thereby bolstering holistic engagement and social integration.