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SUPPORTING EDUCATION FOR RURAL CHILDREN (THROUGH NON-FORMAL EDUCATION CENTERS)

IN UDAIPUR DISTRICT

End of Term Progress Report (1st January 2012 – 31st December 2012)

SUPPORTED BY –

Asha for Education

Submitted By:

Seva Mandir

Old Fatehpura, Udaipur – 313001, Rajasthan (India).

Ph: 0294 - 2450960 / 2451041; Fax: 0294 - 2450947

E-Mail: edu@sevamandir.org; info@sevamandir.org

Website: www.sevamandir.org

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BACKGROUND

Seva Mandir works in 5 rural blocks in Udaipur district. Of the 5 blocks, ASHA supported the SK programme in Badgaon block starting on 1st October, 2007 and is continuing till date . From 1st January, 2012 the support was renewed for the following three components:

1. 20 Shiksha Kendras (rural schools). 2. Funding for at least 25 out of school children from Badgaon to attend two seasonal

residential learning camps (out of the total three seasonal schools held in a financial year) organized by Seva Mandir.

3. The continuation of 5 activity cum tuitions centers. These centers were set up in collaboration with government schools in Badgaon block.

An annual report on the three initiatives is given in the subsequent three sections below for the period of 1st January 2012 – 31st December 2012.

Section 1 - Shiksha Kendra

Introduction

Seva Mandir works with village communities to establish rural schools called Shiksha Kendras (SKs) or rural bridge schools, in remote rural hamlets with the aim of providing access to quality education to out of school children between the ages of 6 and 14 years old. The SKs offer primary education which enables these children to transit smoothly into Government schools. Since these children are first generation learners it gives them confidence to persist with their schooling. The sound education provided at the SKs help the children become independent learners. Over the years it has been a process of learning and unlearning for Seva Mandir for effective and better implementation of programme. Consistent and concerted efforts were and are made to improve and maintain the quality of education provided by SKs like improving the physical structures, using diverse learning materials, regularly building teachers’ capacity, inculcating an interactive and child-centred pedagogy, and building community participation. The SKs are able to secure the all-round development of children and considerably enhance their learning levels. The programme initiated with 10 SKs and during the course the number scaled upto 200 in year 2009-10 reaching out to 5890 children. In past two years the number of centers has gradually decreased to 178. However the number of children enrolled has remained uneffected with current enrollment of 5861 children. The learning and challenges heiglighted by this trend are mentioned in following sections.

Current Status of SKs

Currently 178 SKs are reaching out to 5,861 children, 43% of which are girls. The 20 centres of Badgaon block currently supported by Asha, have a total enrollment of 576 children out of which 281 (49%) are girls and 295 are boys.

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Table 1: Zone wise details - the number of SKs, teachers and enrollment ofchildren

Block No. of Rural Schools/ SKs Enrollment of children

January 2012

December 2012

Teachers March 2012

Male Female Total Boys Girls Total

Delwara 5 4 4 1 5 52 57 109

Bagdunda 8 8 5 3 8 128 117 245

Dhar 2 2 1 1 2 31 35 66

Godach 1 1 1 0 1 22 12 34

Kadiya 5 5 4 1 5 62 60 122

Total 21 20 15 6 21 295 281 576

The table shows that the number of SKs has decreased by 1 as compared to last year. However the number of children enrolled has increased by 13 children. In the reporting period, due to irregularity of the instructor Negadiya SK was closed. Out of the 24 children enrolled in this SK, 14 were enrolled in nearby Government Primary School, Negadiya and 10 children dropped out.

New Enrolments: As done in the past, Pravesh Utsav (a traditional way of celebrating and encouraging the enrollment of out-of-school children) was organised at all the centers of Badgaon block. Students of the SKs organized rallies in their hamlet encouraging other children to join them. As a result 172 new children were enrolled in the 20 SKs of Badgaon block. In comparision to the last year’s 14 per cent this year the new enrollment has increased from The enrollment of girls was higher (51.7%) than that of boys which is an encouraging sign. The fresh students were welcomed with jaggery, tilak and the tying of laccha (a traditional wrist band). At Dhar and Badanga villages, students of the SKs celebrated the Pravesh Utsav together with the government school.

Graduation to Government Schools: Once the students from SKs are have achieved basic competencies in language and mathematics they are encouraged to enroll in a government school. Every year around 14% from the total students graduate from Shiksha Kendras and are further enrolled in Government schools.

Table 3: Class-wise breakup of mainstream children per zone.

Block No. of Children

Girls Boys Total

Delwara 10 9 19

Bagdunda 41 43 84

Dhar 9 7 16

Godach 3 13 16

Kadiya 20 17 37

Total 83 89 172

Table 2: Zone wise details- new enrollment

Block Class 1 to 3 Class 4 Class 5 Class 6 Total

Delwara 4 1 0 14 19

Bagdunda 7 3 8 19 37

Dhar 1 7 2 0 10

Godach 7 2 0 0 9

Kadiya 11 1 11 1 24

Total 30 14 21 34 99

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As shown in the above table, during the reporting period 99 children have been mainstreamed in the government schools for further education. Out of these around 55% children got admission in class 5 & class 6. This is the second highest number in the last 3 years, signifying first that the efforts made by the teachers at the SKs are showing good results. Secondly, children when receive an enabling environment do better and get enrolled in higher classes. Last year, 102 (63%) children were mainstreamed.

Evaluation of children: To measure the extent to which SK students have been able to acquire new knowledge over the course of the year, standardized tests were conducted twice a year. An attempt was made to make the evaluation process an interesting and learning experience for both the children and ourselves. In the half yearly evaluation of November, 2011, which is before the reporting period, a total of 404 children, out of 563, had appeared. Their level1 wise distribution is given below:

Table 4: Half-Yearly Evaluation – November 2011

Block Level 0 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Total

Delwara 1 21 52 24 98

Bagdunda 3 62 55 20 140

Dhar 1 6 36 8 51

Godach 1 7 8 1 17

Kadiya 3 35 49 11 98

Grand Total 9 (2.2%) 131 (32.5%) 200 (49.5) 64 (15.8) 404

In the annual examination of May 2012 a total of 443 (205 G & 238 B) students out of 576, took the exams. Their level wise distribution is as follows:

Table 5: Annual Evaluation – May 2012

Block Level 0 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Total

Delwara 0 12 72 29 113

Bagdunda 2 74 85 16 177

Dhar 0 15 32 8 55

Godach 0 5 13 1 19

Kadiya 0 24 40 15 79

Grand Total 2 130 242 69 443

1 To identify the progress of a child Seva Mandir has categorized four learning levels from 0 to 3. The levels are roughly equivalent

to government classes. Level 0 is when a child enters the SK and can barely read or write. The child has attained Level 1 when she or he can read and write small words, do simple counting and identify some numbers. When a child can start reading, understand simple sentences, write small/incomplete sentences and do basic counting and simple operations like additions and subtractions with small numbers, she or he is placed in Level 2. At level 3 a child can read and understand simple texts, articulate themselves by writing a group of sentences and understand the concepts of multiplication, division, etc.

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A total of 301 students were common in both the exams. The table below shows the percentage of children in all the four levels. Result shows that out of all the common children many have moved to higher levels as more than 78% children are currently in level 2 and 3 indicating the progress made by them in 6 months time.

Capacity Building of Instructors

Since most of our instructors have studied only up to 8th or 9th class a Certification Course for the instructors of Shiksha Kendra was designed in collaboration with Vidya Bhawan2 and was started in the year 2003. For the past nine years the course had become an integral part of the capacity building efforts of the Education Programme. This course helped teachers improve their academic competencies resulting in their increased confidence in teaching. The course also aimed to set up a mechanism that enables a continuous dialogue and interaction with the instructors on academic issues, in a manner that the instructors found interesting, challenging, and meaningful for their own learning. In March 2011 the course was completed and results and certificates were distributed to the instructors. A review of the course will be done next year and will be restructured and based on the findings and learning if required will be restarted.

Though, this year, the certificate course was not a part of instructor meetings, the meetings were continued on quarterly basis.

Instructor Meeting In each block, at least one instructor meeting was planned for every quarter. Accordingly there were 4 meetings held in Badgaon block. In these meetings, the instructors were provided with an opportunity to interact with the block-level program coordinators, share their concerns, find solutions, discuss new directions for action and review various skills required for running the centers. In the past 3 years a pilot study was done on English Language teaching (ELT) with few centers. On the basis of the positive response to this study, sessions on ELT were conducted during most of the instructor meetings. The focus of the sessions was on enhancing the instructors’ English language level. During the session exercises on small rhymes, commands and vocabulary were conducted. Worksheets and other learning material for both the children and the instructors are being developed by the team of Seva Mandir. The teachers were also given dictionaries to improve their vocabulary.

Annual Instructor Training

In addition to the quarterly instructor meetings held at the block level, annual trainings of instructors form an integral part of Seva Mandir's Education program. Each time new aspects are included in the training agenda, while older topics are revisited. These trainings also provide the

2 Vidya Bhawan is a consortium of educational institutions with special expertise in elementary education

Table 6: Common Children’s Assessment

Exam Nov 2011 (%) Exam May 2012 (%)

Level 0 5 (1.7) 0 (0)

Level 1 86 (28.6) 66 (21.9)

Level 2 162 (53.8) 179 (59.5)

Level 3 48 (15.9) 56 (18.6)

301 301

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much needed space for interaction for all those involved with Shiksha Kendras. The trainings are also a forum where theoretical knowledge meets practical experience enabling both the resource persons from Seva Mandir and the instructors to learn from each other. In the year 2011 it was decided to separate the instructors in 2 groups: one group included new instructors and those instructors who need more assistance on classroom interactions. The second group was for the more experienced instructors. The training for the first group was conducted at the end of January for 6 days: 24 instructors from the 5 blocks participated out of which 5 were from Badgaon block. The training was divided in two main sections; one was observation of actual classroom teaching at learning camps and second was group work and discussion on basic concepts of language learning and mathematics. The second round of training was held in mid-March for 6 days. 80 instructors (11 from Badgaon block) who are long time associates of the SK program participated in the training. The training was designed according to the instructors’ experience. The main focus of the training was to address issues related to teaching. Several interactive sessions like logical reasoning, English language teaching, Sudoku, better classroom, library, use of drama and theatre in education etc. were held during the training.

Camera Monitoring Monitoring of the 20 SKs of Badgaon is also done through digital cameras. This year the instructors have become more comfortable in handling and managing the cameras, taking pictures and associated time lines. These cameras have helped to a great extent in checking instructor’s absenteeism and also helped in improving the monitoring mechanism of SKs. This has also lead to closing of those SKs where instructors were often irregular and impacted the academic performance of the children. The average payment made by instructors during the reporting period is Rs 2,766/- indicating that the centers were open for slightly more than 22 days on average which is almost similar to the previous year. The data is provided for 9 months (April 2012- December 2012) only because this year amendments were made to the stipend structure. As per the new structure, emoluments earned by the instructors have been raised from Rs. 100 a day to Rs. 125 for first 22 days, if the instructor opens the centre more than 22 days in a month Rs. 150 were being paid to him for every extra day (Rs. 50 being a token of appreciation for putting in extra effort) which has now been up scaled to Rs. 175 a day. This means that an instructor can earn a maximum of Rs. 3625, previously it was Rs. 2750, in a month if the centre is open for a maximum of 27 days (excluding 4 Sundays). New structure was enforced from the month of April 2012.

Community Participation

Community participation and ownership, a central component of Seva Mandir’s vision, are also a critical part of the SK programme. This is not only because Seva Mandir strives to translate these principles into norms within its philosophy of constructive work but also because parents and communities at large play a very important role in the well-being of their children. It is for this reason that Seva Mandir works in a more systematic and comprehensive manner to involve communities in the functioning of SKs and to deepen their understanding on quality education. Thus to encourage partnership with the parents and community, and bring a sense of accountability from both the teacher and the community, various initiatives were taken, some of which are described below.

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Shiksha Shulk (Education Fees) In all the SKs, a token fee of Rs. 100, known as Shiksha Shulk, is charged to the parents. If more than one child per family is attending the SK or if the family is economically constrained, the Shiksha Shulk is waived off completely. The prime purpose behind the Shiksha Shulk is to involve the parents in their children’s learning process. As shown in the table, this year a total of Rs. 32,950/- (61%) was collected against the expected amount of Rs. 54,400/-. The collection of fees this year is less than last year’s collection which was 72%, however, as there are 3 more months left for the session to end it is expected that more fees will be received.

So far, depending on the children’s and parents needs, the fee has been used for different purposes such as buying uniforms and sweaters for the children.

Parent Teacher Meeting

Parents-Teachers meetings were organized once in 3 months at each SK. The meetings enabled the parents to get knowledge of the progress of their child and gave an opportunity to both teachers and parents to have a dialogue. During the meetings discussions were held on the collection of Shiksha Shulk (Fees), re-enrolling out of school children, techniques to help irregular students, health and hygiene and the overall progress of the students

Events organized at the SKs Independence Day (15th August) / Republic Day (26th January)

Each year, Independence Day is celebrated in most of the centers by hoisting the national flag and doing a cultural programme. This year in most of the places village committee and other residents of the village also participated in the celebration. Similarly, Republic Day was also celebrated. These events give children to express their views, show their talent in front of a larger group.

Case Studies

Kindly refer annexure 1 & 2.

Block Expected Received

Delwara 10,400 8,200

Bagdunda 22,600 13,150

Dhar 6,400 5,300

Godach 3,400 1,000

Kadiya 11,600 5,300

Total 54,400 32,950

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Section 2 - Residential Learning Camps

Introduction: Every year Seva Mandir organizes three residential learning camps for 200 or more children. These learning camps operate for 50 – 55 days each and are very helpful in reaching out to out-of-school working children. The camps are designed in a 3 part sequence of May-June, November-December and January-February. The 3 camp design gives children a continuity of education. Seva Mandir encourages children to attend the 3 consecutive camps and then enrolls them into school. The camps work to enable children to read and write independently with comprehension, encouraging children and their parents to enroll children in schools for further studies. During the reporting period, 2 residential learning camps were organized at Mohan Singh Mehta Rural Training Center, Kaya in Udaipur with the support from Asha for Education for 25 children from Badgaon block. The purpose of these camps was to bring the most deprived, out of school children under the education net and to enable them to read and write independently. All camps were fully residential for both children and teachers. Most of the children who participated in these camps come from very poor families and either they have never been to school or dropped out at very early age.

A total of 40 children (26 girls and 14 boys) from 2 hamlets of Undithal village participated in 2 Seasonal Residential Learning Camps viz May-June 2012 and Nov-Dec 2012. Of these 40 children, 13 children participated in one seasonal camp and 27 in both the camps. Number of children participated in both the camps is very less due to change in cycle of children attending camps. Seva Mandir holds 3 camps in one fianacial year viz May-June (first camp), Nov-Dec (second camp) and Jan-Feb (third camp) and a child has to complete the 3 camp cycle starting from May-June camp till Jan-Feb camp after which they are enrolled in government school. Previously in the year 2010 after May-June camp (which is supposed to be the first camp of the year) many children enrolled in government school hence new children were identified and brought to the Nov-Dec camp. As these children came for the first time Nov-Dec camp became their first camp (which actually is the second camp of the year) and in order to finish the 3 camp cycle they attended the camp held in May-June 2011. This disturbed the cycle of a child attending 3 camps in 1 financial year. The disturbed cycle continued this year also and in order to reposition the disturbed camp cycle new children will be selected in the coming camp of May June 2013.

Teachers Selection and Training

Teachers’ selection and training is a crucial aspect of the learning camps. Before the beginning of the learning camp, teachers were selected through a written test that tested in basic abilities in Hindi, Mathematics, reasoning and attitudes. After selection, the teachers underwent training on what and how to teach in the camp. The two days teacher training was divided in two major

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parts, Hindi language and Mathematics. In addition to this, sessions were also organised to sensitise them towards the other psycho- social needs of children.

Learning Process

In the beginning of each camp, the children were divided in groups of 10, with each group being assigned to one teacher. The main focus in the camps was on 2 subjects- Hindi and Mathematics. During the second camp, a new initiative was taken to introduce natural phenomenon to the children. Interactive sessions were held on seasonal cycle, Map reading, knowing culture of various states of the country, use of technology like computers, mobile etc. In this camp, the classes of these activities were conducted every week, which were known as ‘learn with fun classes’. These classes became a major attraction for the elder children.

Assessments

Regular assessment is an important part of the camps for ensuring quality of education. One assessment was conducted in the begining, when children arrived, the mid-term assessment was done after one month of their arrival in the camp, and the final assessment took place towards the end of the camp.

The assessments help in assesing the learning levels of children. The children are graded in three learning levels viz - level C are beginners, level B are in the middle of their learning or semi literate and level A is the top level which indicates the child’s ability to be able to read and write indpendently with comprehension.

End-term results of the Camps Table 7: Results

Camps Total Children Level A Level B Level C

May-June 2012 (Camp 3 of old sequence) 26 3 12 11

November-December 2012 (Camp 1 of new sequence)

27 10 7 10

Total Children 53 13 19 21

Comparing the May-June 2012 camp and the November-December 2012 camp one can see 77% increase in the number of A level students.

Results of 13 Children who attended both camps Table 8: Results of Common Children:

Camps Total Children Level A Level B Level C

May-June 2012 (Camp 3 of old sequence) 13 7 4 2

November-December 2012 (Camp 1 of new sequence)

13 2 5 6

Activities for holistic development

Seva Mandir Learning Camps focus on the overall learning and development of a child’s personality. Along with the classroom learning in Mathematics and Language, other activities and

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events were also organized throughout the camp. Below are descriptions of some of the more notable events.

Health

Regular medical health checkups of all the children were conducted by a pediatrician every Sunday. Most of the children who come to camp were very weak and mal-nourished when they arrived. They were provided proper diet including soya milk, fruits, etc. Sessions on health, hygiene, reproductive health and gender equality was conducted for children as and when required.

Visit from St. Christopher School, United Kingdom

Every year group of 10-15 children from St. Christopher School comes to visit the camp for 2-3 days; it provides them an opportunity to witness the alternative options of education to the most marginalized children. St. Christopher children also come prepared to hold sessions on English language, mathematics, science etc. with the camp children. This year a group of 7 boys and 2 girls took sessions on arts & crafts, mathematics, English language and science. Instructors at camp and St. Chris children also had a friendly match of cricket and soccer on their final day at camp.

Closing Ceremony

At the end of each camp, the teachers, students and visitors celebrated a closing ceremony, organised by children and teachers themselves. The ceremonies were followed by many cultural, sports and educational (Bal Mela- Children Festival) activities. During the last ceremony for the November-December camp, two children from the camp led the whole ceremony and called children and teachers on the stage to share their experiences about how the camp has brought transition in their education and confidence level. The children also acted in a small play which brought out the modes corruption in the government schemes and officials and ways to deal with it. Children were very enthusiastic while performing dances and songs.

Section 3 - Activity Centers

Introduction

As per the government's census of 2011, the literacy rate for Udaipur district is 62% - 49% for females and 76% for male. However, our own data suggests that the literacy rates for Seva Mandir’s area of operation are much lower. According to a survey done by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Seva Mandir’s area of operation in the year 2007-08, the self-reported literacy rate among adults (ages 14 and up) was 33 % (female literacy levels were only 20.48% while for men it was 43%). In response to the poor learning levels of children in government schools Seva Mandir initiated 5 Activity Centers (named as Sahyog Kendras), all in Badgaon block, in collaboration with government schools and the village communities, with support from ASHA for Education since February 2009.

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The activity centers are housed within the government schools and are run by Seva Mandir teachers. The main objective of the program is to enable the students to have meaningful and joyful education by providing various opportunities and exposures to learning which they are not able to get in mainstream schools. Through these centers Seva Mandir is trying to build conceptual understanding of children in the subjects of Math and Hindi. Table 9: Details of activity centers

Village/Zone Classes in School

No. Of teachers in School No. of children enrolled in July 2011 December 2012

Negadia/ Delwara 1st – 5th Class 4 teachers (including head teacher)

80 (37 Girls -43 Boys)

Selu/ Kadia 1st – 8th Class 6 teachers (including principal) 101 ( 49 Girls – 52 Boys)

Peepad / Kadia 1st – 8th Class 6 teachers (including head teacher)

197 ( 63 Girls - 134Boys)

Undithal / Bagdunda 1st – 10th Class

6 teachers 199 (90 Girls and 109 boys)

Maruwas/Kadia 1st – 8th Class 6 teachers (including principal) 233 (103 Girls and 130 Boys)

Capacity Building of teachers Annual Training

10 facilitators are associated with the Activity Center programme including 1 new facilitator and 8 who have been associated with the programme for more than one year. Before their joining, new facilitators participated in the annual instructor training of Shiksha Kendra (see details in the SKs section under “Instructor Training”). During the summer vacations all the new facilitators were also placed in residential seasonal schools for one week for classroom lessons. Facilitator Meeting

4 facilitator meetings were held during the reporting period. These meetings provide them a platform where they can share their concerns and experiences amongst each other and with the block level program co-coordinator. The prime agendas of these meetings were inclusion of drop out/out of school children in schools, reasons and possible solutions regarding irregularity of children meetings in the period and better use of available resources.

Special Activities

Last year 3 children from Negadiya School were selected for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalay after appearing in a district level examination. This year 2 more children got selected, taking the toll to 5 children. Based on merit, selected children are enrolled in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalay which falls under Central Government. These schools provide a conducive environment to children with ample of learning materials and activity based learning and are completely free of costs.

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A panchayat level, Kabaddi (a traditional Indian sport) competition was organized and the team of Negadiya School stood first. Teachers of Activity Center helped them to prepare for the competition.

Government officials of Sarv Siksha Abhiyaan (SSA) visited Selu, Negadiya and Peepad centers and very keenly enquired about the concept, functioning and use of teaching learning material available. They were impressed by the involvement and good learning levels of children and appreciated the initiative.

Environment day was celebrated at Peepad school, 10 saplings were planted by children and children were delegated the responsibility to look after them.

Case Study

Kishanlal, a 14 years old lad, lives in Maruwas village which is situated at a distance of 45 kilometers from Udaipur. He dropped out of school when he was in class 6th and went along with his father to work at a marble extraction site. Instructors of Activity Centre visited his home on many occasions but he was never available. This year a rally was organized in the village at time of new enrolments in the school, the instructors again visited Kishanlal’s home and fortunately he was home. Both the instructors had a long round of conversation with Kishanlal and his parents and were successful in convincing them for sending him to school. Kishanlal enrolled in the school on 13th July 2012 and since then has been regularly attending school. Happiness can be seen on the faces of instructors who helped a child to continue his education for his own and his family’s betterment.