Actions for Education of Adolescents and Out- Of- School Children

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    Actions for Education of Adolescents and Out- of- School Children

    We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count

    - Albert Einstein

    We taught world how to count but today our own children does not know about ZERO. This is the fact Indiais burdened with in the present scenario. The worlds oldest civilization and the largest democracy, is

    blessed with the highest number of children but unfortunately they are not taken care of, the way they

    deserve to be Illiteracy, gender discrimination, child labor, homelessness, health issues etc are taking away

    their childhood and ultimately forcing them to be lost in the weird architecture of life.

    Overview:

    January 2010; amid the mid winters, I visited around 25 villages of Chittaurgarh and Bengun blocks of

    Chittaurgarh district in Rajasthan, India, as a Project Coordinator of the UNICEF and SSA supported

    project Ensuring Access to Elementary Education to Still Out Of School Children implemented by

    Social Association of Awareness Training and Human Improvement [SAATHI]. My early experience and

    exposure to the rural areas helped me identify the following problems which were common to all present

    there (especially girls and women).

    Village: Misro ki Peepli (Chittaurgarh)Purnima (Me): Apne bare me kuch batao? (Repeated several times)

    Pinky (age 14 years): Mera naam pinky hai .. silence

    Problem: Hesitation,Poor communication skills, Lack of self awareness

    Village: Barli ka Jhopda (Begun)Purnima (Me): Sagar and Devi (age 10 years; only girls in the basti) school kyun nahi jate hain?

    Grandmother of Sagar and Devi: Chorin ne ko nahi padhawe (Girls are not allowed to go to school)

    Problem: Gender Inequality

    Village: Lal jee ka Kheda (Chittaurgarh)Purnima (Me): Indradhanush me kitne rang hote hain aur kaun kaun se?

    Deviram (age 16 years): saath rang hote hain; lal, peela, hara, neela (Unable to recall the other

    three)

    Problem: No Practical Exposure of the theoretical concepts

    In order to address all the problems identified, the following strategies were adopted

    Life Skill Training (to tap the skills one has for ones own betterment)

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    Child Rights & Leadership Training (to let children know their basic rights and duties to help

    them achieve their goals)

    DISCOVER (to create curiosity in young minds through the concept of Learning by Doing)Along with the above strategies Siksha Mitra Kendras were into action at various places. The children

    were motivated and out of school children and adolescents were streamlined by celebrating Pravesh

    Utsavs for their enrollment.

    Introduction

    Project: Ensuring Access to Elementary Education to Still Out Of School Children

    Supporting Agencies: United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan

    (SSA)

    Focus Areas: Chittaurgarh and Bengun blocks of Chittaurgarh district of Rajasthan, India.

    Coverage Areas:

    Villages in Chittaurgarh block: Ochadi, Chanderia, Suthmal, Lal jee ka Kheda, Misro ki Peepli, Sokhiya,

    Bassi Indra colony, Bassi Kanjar Jhopda, Devdungri.

    Villages in Bengun block: Bhalka, Palka, Dorai, Chechi, Raita, Motipura, Khelpura, Barli ka Jhopda, Gabla ka

    Jhopda, Bhuiyon ka Jhopda, Mankeshar, Mandawari, Jodha Patel ki Khedi.

    Population of Adolescents (above 13 years):

    Chittaurgarh block (nine villages): 250

    Bengun block (thirteen villages): 500

    Strategies and Interventions Implemented:

    As mentioned earlier the following strategies and interventions were implemented in every quarter of the

    project tenure in order to address various requirements in the focus areas. The followings are the brief of

    the contents in one of the module of the quarterly trainings provided by us. Combined training programs

    were organized for the children and adolescents studying at the Government schools of the focus areas

    while others (especially out of school adolescents, women and parents) were motivated through Life Skill

    Education provided at the Sikhsha Mitra Kendras SMC meetings etc and daily visits by our community

    mobilizers visiting all the villages individually. A total of 750 children and adolescents were benefited from

    both the blocks during the project tenure.

    I. Life Skill Education: Life Skills empower young people to take positive action to protect them and

    promote health and positive social relationships. It teaches blooming young minds to keep a balance

    between Knowledge, Attitude and Skills.

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    Hindi modules were provided to every child and all the teachers present during the session. We focused on

    the following skills for training purpose. Each skill in turn consisted of one or more practical activities for a

    better understanding.

    I. Understanding SelfII.

    Observational skills

    III. Communication SkillIV. Self learning SkillV. Co-operation and team building skillsVI. Problem solving and decision makingVII. Crisis Management

    a. Situation 1 Internal injuryb. Situation 2 Outer wound and bleedingc. Situation 3 When a person faintsd. Situation 4 - When a person gets burnt (By tea/coffee or crackers)e. Situation 5 When a dog bites

    VIII. Time management and stress managementIX. Healthy LivingX. Recreational Skill

    XI. Budgeting, Money management and entrepreneurial skill

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    II. Child Rights & Leadership Training

    Child Rights

    y Right to life y Right to good health y Right tonutritious food

    y Right to cleandrinking wat

    y Right to security inparents custody

    y Right to a name thatone likes

    y Right tonationality

    y Right to free,qualityeducation

    y Right to love andaffection as a child

    y Right to social security y Right to rest y Right to play

    y Right to relaxation y Right to participate incultural activities

    y Right not to beeconomically

    exploited

    y Right not to bhumiliated

    y Right to be treatedhumanely

    y Right to be respected y Right to beappreciated

    y Right to befreed from ch

    violence

    y Right to protectionfrom war

    y Right to a childsopinion

    y Right to express y Right toinformation

    y Right to thinky Right to choose ones

    religion

    y Right to actaccording to

    ones concience

    y Right to loveand friendshi

    Responsibilities

    If every child, regardless of their gender, ethnic origin, social status, language, age, nationality or religion has

    these rights, then they also have a responsibility to respect each other in a humane way.

    If children have a right to be protected from conflict, cruelty, exploitation and neglect, then they alsohave a responsibility not to bully or harm each other.

    If children have a right to a clean environment, then they also have a responsibility to keep theenvironment clean.

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    If children have a right to be educated, then they have the obligation to learn as much as their

    capabilities allow and, where possible, share their knowledge and experience with others.

    If all children have a right to a full life, then they should shoulder the responsibility to lend help sothe needy, the disadvantaged, and the victims of discrimination also enjoy this right.

    If children have a right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, then they also have theobligation to respect others thoughts or religious principles.

    Leadership

    Leadership skills were taught under the following sub headings. Prizes were given to motivate the children

    present their along with special prizes for the winners of the activities.

    I. Behavioral attitude: Behave with others properly and in the manner we want others to behavewith us.

    II. Communication: A good leader is a good communicator as well as a good listener.III. Team Work: Unity is Strength and a good leader should always be a team player.IV. Negotiation and Compromising: The need to compromise to situations beneficial for long term

    without losing patience was explained.

    V. Strategic planning: Effective planning leads to an impactful implementation thereby leading tosuccessful completion of a task. Children were explained the importance of preparations before

    their examinations.

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    III. DISCOVER

    Creating curiosity in young minds through Learning by Doing methodologies

    The basic learning of a child i.e., to walk, talk, climb, run etc, happens by allowing him/her to actually do it.

    Parents dont give a series of lecture to prepare them for all these activities. But when it comes to schools,

    instead of allowing students to learn things by doing we create a theoretical course.

    DISCOVER, thus wishes to express that doing of the task is equally important as the theory of the task.

    Objectives:

    To make children realize the Power of their thoughts. To help children know How things work in reality. To increase Who, What, When, Where, Why (Ws) in young minds. To provide young minds with Opportunities to use their senses and ask questions. To increase their Curiosity and make things they encounter an investigation. To make each child Sad when the last bell is rung at the end of the day in the school.

    DISCOVER KIT consisted of 6 activities related to Science andGeography. The activities were:

    Magnet World Candle Fun Tug of War Compass Rainbow Colors Basic Astronomy

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    Outcomes:

    Children become irregular and out of school basically out of reasons viewed from two aspects. These are:

    y Family aspect: Child interested but Family restrictsThrough our Monthly Cluster level meetings and SMC meetings we were successful in convincing parents to

    send their children to schools (as analyzed by the attendance of irregular students and high enrollment

    rates)

    y Childs aspect: Child himself/herself not interested in going to schoolThe initiatives taken in both the blocks through DISCOVER activities, Life Skill Education and Child Rights

    and Leadership trainings helped children to learn things by actually doing it and it also increased their

    motivational levels as analyzed at the successive trainings programs. The children learnt the importance of

    communication, they now know themselves in a better way, they have learnt to work in groups, to prepare

    their own budget and manage themselves during the crisis at their levels.

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    Challenges and Lesson Learnt:

    Though every effort bore fruits but each was followed by many challenges. The following are few challenges

    and learning learnt from the ground reality:

    1. From the communities:The illiteracy that prevails among the parents of the children becomes the major reason for the

    children to remain out of school and get engaged in wrong habits (boys) and early marriages (girls).

    Proper literacy programs as well as an effective communication with reinforcement can lead to

    community participation for overall objective.

    2. From the Children:Children are the elixir and Lovely portraits. They are a self sustainable tool for community interface

    and continual improvement in then and motivation and out of box strategies do work for them to get

    them understand the importance of education and various others aspects of life. Every child must

    be given the wish to learn. It is their basic need which should be fulfilled.

    3. From the Project:Such an intervention has lead to the empowerment of the children of the deprived communities as

    well as the community as a whole. The project has enabled children to get connected back to schools

    by overcoming all the unfavorable conditions. Strategies adopted under the project if implemented

    at the school level on continual basis can certainly improve the quality of education , children and

    help increase the retention of children at schools.

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    Case Studies:

    Seema (13 years) was very excited to attend the training

    programs. She won prizes for her efforts many times. In one ofthe training sessions she was not able to bag any prize home.

    Before leaving she asked me for a prize which she could takehome. On my denial she replied papa fir kal nahi aane denge,

    wo sirf inaam milta hai isliye bhejte hain(father would not

    allow me to come tomorrow if I do not get any prize today). Even

    on my personal request to her school teacher I could not seeSeema on the very next day.

    Later on when I visited her village and met her father, he realized

    his mistake buthow far is this realization going to last???

    Kashiram and Raju (11 years) loved singing and dancing. Theircommunity wrapped up by all the social abuses. They do not

    concentrate on studies. The only counting they know, have learnt

    in our training programs saying aise padhne me aur inaamjeetne me mazza aata hai. Can such an ideal situation be

    created for them at their school? Where will their future lead

    them to? Will they become a dancer, a singer or just a thief

    like their fathers and other community members ???

    Sagar (14 years); the most cheerful, energetic and motivated

    girl. On the last training session she came to me andsaiddidi

    meri shaadi ho rahi hai. As soon as I replied that Child marriageis a crime she replied haan didi un logon ko aap jail me band

    kara dena. The words show her innocence but her mother

    showed her helplessness fearing we will report against her. Sagar

    got married to a person 10 years older than her. Will ChildMarriage ever Stop!

    Purnima Kashyap