Pratham Bengal

SHISHUMELA, BOLPUR, 2008

2010-02-02T23:40:00.000-08:00

Shishu Mela

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Quiz Competition,DRC, Purulia, November 14, 2009

2010-02-02T00:51:00.000-08:00

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COMBINED ACTIVITIES FOR MAXIMISED LEARNING (CAMAL)- The New Operating Programme

2010-01-30T01:07:00.000-08:00

About 92.10%[1] children are enrolled in school in West Bengal but do they really attend school every day? Are they regularly taught by their teachers in their respective standards? Do they know their text books well? It should be taken for granted that the 92.10% of children should at least know to read letters, words, paragraph or small stories in their mother language; and should be able to identify single numbers, two digit numbers, do minimum addition and borrowed subtraction. But, according to the ASER 2008, it is seen that only 84% can read letters, words or more and 84.8% can identify numbers from 1-9 in standard 1 and 2; while only 67.7% can read level 1 text and 55.5% can do subtraction or more between standards 3-5. Interesting facts were that only 36.9% children can tell time and 74% can do currency task between standards 3-5. The new programme this year, focuses on children of specific standards that are from class 1-5 including the focus on story and para level children. The Achha Padho, Accha Likho, Achha Gino (DRC, BEP Program) aims at increasing the level of the quality of education among the concerned target group in three subjects- language, mathematics and English through CAMAL(Combined Activities for Maximised Learning) activities and methodologies.

Objective:

The District Resource Centre (DRC) and the Block Excellence Programme (BEP) incorporated in Achha Padho Achha Likho Achha Gino Program aims to:

· Increase familiarity with the standard specific text books in Language, Mathematics and English.
· To increase comprehension, reading, pronunciation skills.
· Capacity building of the teachers in teaching three subjects with equal efficiency.

Target Area:

Unit	District	Block
District Resource Centre (DRC)	Purulia	Jhalda II, Balarampur, Arsha
Block Excellence Programme (BEP)	Darjeeling	Takdah
	Jalpaiguri	Rajganj
	Coochbihar	Mathabhanga I
	Birbhum	Mohammadbazar
	Bankura	Sonamukhi

District Resource Centre (DRC): The centre is located in Jhalda II Block of Purulia. The primary reason for choosing Purulia for this strategy was its socio-economic backwardness among all districts in West Bengal. Purulia is the district with maximum percentage of out of school children between 6 to 14 years of age rising up to 11.8% as per ASER 2008 data with the least motivation in the community level. It is aimed to reach out to at least 1000 villages throughout the year creating centers in the community level for teaching the three subjects. Purulia was chosen for the DRC as Purulia is the economically, socially and educationally backward district among all districts in West Bengal and Jhalda II being the backward of all blocks in West Bengal. However, the programme is now being expanded to 9 more blocks of Purulia.

Block Excellence Programme (BEP): Each block besides having a resource centre aims to reach out to at least 100 villages creating centre in each village teaching the three subjects. The districts for setting up the BEP were selected on the basis of the first five socio-economically and educationally backward districts among all districts of West Bengal as per ASER 2008 West Bengal.[2]

Target Group:

Primary Target Group	Children from classes 1-5, young teachers in the community.
Secondary Target Group	Government schools, Panchayats, Parents and other stake holders

[1] This is according to the DISE Data of 2007-2008.

[2] Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) publishes State Report through Pratham since 2005 which is done throughout 17 districts of West Bengal in randomly sampled households. ASER 2008 is done across 10,200 households of 501 villages. www.asercenter.org

Articles on Bengal Dailies on ASER 2009

2010-01-29T02:28:00.000-08:00

RIGHT TO EDUCATION

2009-12-10T22:21:00.000-08:00

Right to Education Act

"What is the act about?"
•Every child between the ages of 6 to 14 years has the right to free and compulsory education. This is stated as per the 86th Constitution Amendment Act added Article 21A. The right to education act seeks to give effect to this amendment
•The government schools shall provide free education to all the children and the schools will be managed by school management committees (SMC). Private schools shall admit at least 25% of the children in their schools without any fee.
•The National Commission for Elementary Education shall be constituted to monitor all aspects of elementary education including quality.

History of the act
December 2002
86th Amendment Act (2002) via Article 21A (Part III) seeks to make free and compulsory education a Fundamental Right for all children in the age group 6-14 years.
October 2003
A first draft of the legislation envisaged in the above Article, viz., Free and Compulsory Education for Children Bill, 2003, was prepared and posted on this website in October, 2003, inviting comments and suggestions from the public at large.
2004
Subsequently, taking into account the suggestions received on this draft, a revised draft of the Bill entitled Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2004, was prepared and posted on the http://education.nic.in website.
June 2005
The CABE (Central Advisory Board of Education) committee drafted the ‘Right to Education’ Bill and submitted to the Ministry of HRD. MHRD sent it to NAC where Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is the Chairperson. NAC sent the Bill to PM for his observation.
14th July 2006
The finance committee and planning commission rejected the Bill citing the lack of funds and a Model bill was sent to states for the making necessary arrangements. (Post-86th amendment, States had already cited lack of funds at State level)
19th July 2006
CACL, SAFE, NAFRE, CABE invited ILP and other organizations for a Planning meeting to discuss the impact of the Parliament action, initiate advocacy actions and set directions on what needs to be done at the district and village levels.

FAQs
1. Why is the Bill important?
The Bill is important because it is the first step in the direction of the government’s active role in ensuring implementation of the Constitutional Amendment. And as important, the Bill:
•Legislates provision of free and compulsory elementary and secondary education
•Provides for a school in every neighborhood
•Provides for a School Monitoring Committee – elected representatives of the community to ensure proper functioning
•Mandates that no child in the age group 6-14 shall be employed
All this are right steps to lay the foundation for the development of a common public school system that can provide quality education to all the children, thus preventing exclusion of socially and economically disadvantaged population.
2. Why is the chosen age group 6 - 14?
The bill focuses on providing primary to high school education compulsorily to all children and also the education given in this age group would be the ground work for their future.

India clears right to education bill
Six years after an amendment was made in the Indian Constitution, the union cabinet cleared the Right to Education Bill. It is now soon to be tabled in Parliament for approval before it makes a fundamental right of every child to get free and compulsory education.
More than six decades after Independence, the Indian government has cleared the Right to Education Bill that makes free and compulsory education a fundamental right for all children between the ages of 6 and 14.
The Union Cabinet has cleared the long-pending Right to Education Bill, which promises free and compulsory education to every child. The move should provide a much needed boost to the country’s education sector.
Key provisions of the Bill include: 25% reservation in private schools for disadvantaged children from the neighbourhood, at the entry level. The government will reimburse expenditure incurred by schools; no donation or capitation fee on admission; and no interviewing the child or parents as part of the screening process.
The Bill also prohibits physical punishment, expulsion or detention of a child and deployment of teachers for non-educational purposes other than census or election duty and disaster relief. Running a school without recognition will attract penal action.
Observing that it was an important promise to children, as education would become a fundamental right, India’s Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that it would be the legally enforceable duty of the Centre and the states to provide free and compulsory education.
He added that the human resources ministry would release the text of the Bill after consulting the Election Commission, in view of assembly polls in some states.
The Group of Ministers (GoM) entrusted with the task of scrutinising the Bill cleared the draft legislation early this month without diluting its content, which includes the contentious provision of 25% reservation in private schools at the entry level, for disadvantaged children in the neighbourhood. Some see this as a way of getting the private sector to discharge the State’s constitutional obligation.
The Right to Education Bill is the enabling legislation to notify the 86th constitutional amendment that gives every child between the age of six and 14 the right to free and compulsory education. But it has been 61 years in the making.
In 1937, when Mahatma Gandhi voiced the need for universal education he met with the same stonewalling about cost that dogs the issue today. The Constitution left it as a vague plea to the State to “endeavour to provide free and compulsory education to all children up to age 14”, but access to elementary school still remains elusive today.
It was only in 2002 that education was made a fundamental right in the 86th amendment to the Constitution.
In 2004, the government in power, the NDA, drafted a Bill but lost the elections before it could be introduced. The present UPA’s model Bill was then lobbed back and forth between the Centre and the states over the matter of funding and responsibility.
Critics of the Bill question the age provision. They say children below six years and above 14 should be included. Also, the government has not addressed the issue of shortage of teachers, low skill levels of many teachers, and lack of educational infrastructure in existing schools let alone the new ones that will have to be built and equipped.
The Bill had earlier faced resistance from the law and finance ministries on issues involving the states’ financial contributions. The law ministry expected problems to arise from the 25% reservation, while human resource development ministry estimates put the total cost at Rs 55,000 crore every year.
The Planning Commission expressed its inability to fork out the money; the state governments said they were unwilling to supply even part of the funding. The Centre was thus forced to think of footing the entire bill itself.
The draft Bill aims to provide elementary schools in every neighbourhood within three years – though the word “school” encompasses a whole spectrum of structures.
A set of minimum norms have been worked out as there’s the usual barrier of paperwork in remote rural and poor urban areas. The State is also obliged to tide over any financial compulsions that may keep a child out of school.
“Laws and Bills don’t make children go to school. Initially, there will be problems because while everyone must understand their social responsibility, what matters is whether the right children will have access to this programme. They say the fee component will be given by the government, but it’s not fair to put that cost on others,” says Lata Vaidyanthan, Principal, Modern School, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi.
Still, educationists who’ve rooted for the Bill argue that sharing social responsibility should be seen as a privilege, not a burden.

Ref: http://www.indg.in/primary-education/policiesandschemes/right-to-education-bill

READ INDIA & APAL IN BENGAL

2008-11-24T23:23:00.000-08:00

CHALO PADHI- READ INDIA IN WEST BENGAL

2008-11-17T04:58:00.000-08:00

Read India Campaign was launched on an all-India scale by Pratham Mumbai Education Initiative in January 2007, to complement the programme of Sarva Siksha Abhijan of the Government. The avowed motives of Sarva Siksha Abhijan are to enroll, every 6-14 year CHILD in school, to ensure their attendance and also to uplift their educational status. But unfortunately, such lofty ideals faltered at the altar of reality. A reality-check of the present scenario of Indian primary educational system depicts that, ‘Children are going to school but they are not able to achieve the level specific competency’. Due to this reason many children lose there interest in learning and after a certain period of time most of them become drop-out. Herein, Pratham has stepped in with its Read India Campaign or Chalo Padhi Abhijan as it is known in West Bengal. The motto of the campaign is ‘Every child in school and learning well’.
Chalo Padhi Abhijan targets those children who are either not enrolled in schools or those children who are lagging behind in spite of attending schools. The main objective of the Chalo Padhi Abhijan is to invigorate the primary educational level of each children in terms of basic languages and computing basic maths and to make the children gravitate towards education through some model games which is simple to implement and easily replicable. As a result, children can concentrate more easily and their attendance in school gets ensured.