BERCY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION INITIATIVENAWNIHAAL CHATHAAL

Nawnihaal Chathaal is a community based Early Childhood Education(ECE) center at Ratnipora Village in Kakapora Block of Pulwama District.

It was inaugurated on February 14th, 2014

Nawnihaal Chathaal is established under the Block Employment and Resource Center for Youth (BERCY) , a pilot of Ministry of Rural Development, initiated in April 2013.

The center caters to educational needs of children from poor families, between 3-4 years of age who cannot afford private kindergartens or pre schools.

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ECE center was a felt need of the community during the initial community needs survey done in May 2013 . Existing Anganwadis are unable to provide good quality early education to the community childrenChildren from poor families do not have access to private kindergartens and play schoolsPoor parents are in labor intensive occupations like carpentry, cooking and masonry work and are unable to provide much educational support during early yearsChildren from poor families miss out on learning in early years and the gap widens once they enter the formal primary education

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NUMBER OF BATCHES OF STUDENTS2TOTAL NUMBER OF STUDENTS AT THE CENTER32NUMBER OF FACILITATORS AT THE CENTER3AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD INCOME OF THE PARENTS Rs. 3513OCCUPATIONS OF PARENTS OF ENROLLED STUDENTS LABOURERS, COOK, BREADMAKERS, SHOPKEEPERS

To provide joyful learning to children in their early years and encourage all round development

To involve parents and larger community in management and expansion of the program

To prepare a field level research based model of ECE curriculum and teaching , parenting education and community involvement which can be adopted in state level programs like UMEED and ICDS

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*STAGE 1NEEDS AND FEASIBILITY ASSESSMENT

NEEDS ASSESSMENT SURVEY IN MAY 2013From data gathered in door to door survey, 89 children from Ratnipora -a between ages 3-5 years were not attending any ECE programPILOT ON ECE BETWEEN OCTOBER- NOVEMBER 2013 BERCY started a pilot ECE batch with 22 children between ages 3-5 in October 2013 Children from both BPL and non BPL families were enrolled A BERCY trainer with prior ECE teaching experience was acting as facilitatorMothers of children volunteered as helpers for the center on a weekly basisBasic counting and alphabets were taught to students through songs and rhymes Local government school teachers were involved in activities of the center

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KEY LEARNINGS FROM THE PILOTHigh demand for ECE programs for children from poor families, better attendance of children from BPL familiesMothers involvement is keyChildren learn best through activity based methodsCurriculum should be contextualized in local language and village life for ease in learning

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STAGE 2CURRICLUM DEVELOPMENT AND FACILITATOR TRAINING

Learnings from the pilot batch and interactions with mothers of young children, Anganwadi workers and local government school teachers helped in designing Nawnihaal Chathaal curriculum

BERCY team studied the existing state school curriculum under SSA, practices in private play schools, best practices of organizations like Center for Development and Research, Andhra Pradesh and Teach for India in ECE

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A core group comprising of local teachers, 2 mothers and 2 community volunteers developed a compendium of Urdu and Kashmiri songs and activities to teach alphabet , counting , moral values and familiarity with village life

All these resources have been developed into video modules for scaling up of ECE initiative in future

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STRUCTURE OF NAWNIHAAL CHATHAAL CURRICULUM10 month long activity based curriculumChildren will be taught Urdu, English Alphabet and concept of numbers(1-20) in 10 monthsFocus on identification, comparison, reading and writing No use of pen/ pencil or paper, writing is done through items like water, chalk and stonesLesson plans and learning goals are set for each month keeping in view the class progress and factors like weather, holidays and festivalsTeaching learning material is prepared by facilitators themselves

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SELECTION OF FACILITATORS

The 3 facilitators for this program are from the same gram panchayatThey were part of the core group which developed the curriculum for the program and was involved in initial field work They were selected based on their contribution as core group, fluency in local language and sensitivity towards the needs of the communityAll facilitators have attained at least a high school diploma

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TRAINING OF FACILITATORSFacilitators have been provided 3-day foundation training from NRLM team in Nawnihaal Chathaal mission vision, activity based teaching methods, conducting themselves in classrooms, center management and engaging with parents and larger communityDaily support is provided by BERCY resource person who have experience in training In addition to foundation training, every month a 2 day curriculum workshop is done when the next months syllabus is discussed and mock practice is done by teachers before finalizing it

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STAGE 3IDENTIFICATION OF BENEFICIARY

3- step process was followed to identify children from poorest of poor families6 Mohalla level awareness meetings were done to increase awareness about the Nawnihaal Chathaal program Registration and form filling sessions were held over 2 days at the BERCY center and responsibilities of parents and BERCY center in the ECE initiative were discussed with each interested parent. 45 children from BPL families registeredHome visits were undertaken by ECE facilitators to identify poorest of poor households based on per capita income, living conditions and family assets. 35 families were found to be most deserving

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STAGE 4 IMPLEMENTATION OF PROGRAM

CENTER LOCATIONBERCY center with the help of the Block Development Office established 2 ECE classrooms in the nearby Rural Information Center building which was not being usedRepairs and renovations of the facilities were completed before inauguration dayBUDGET FOR THE PROGRAMThe budget for setting up the ECE center was prepared by BERCY team and items were procured in accordance with procurement norms of JKEDI. The annual costs including facilitators salary, monthly expenses and miscellaneous costs have also been approved in advance

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CENTER SET UP The physical setup of Center is very friendly, walls of the room are decorated with colorful learning charts , mostly prepared by the facilitators. Different walls are for different subjects. Each class has a separate Urdu, English and counting wallINAUGURATION DAYBERCY team invited all parents of enrolled children on inauguration day. The center was inaugurated on February 14th, 2014. Local school principals and Anganwadi supervisor, important community members like Sarpanch and Awkaf body members attended the inauguration

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STAGE 5 OPERATION AND MANAGEMENT

Nawnihaal Chathaal offers a five day per week program from Monday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.

Each facilitator always follows these basic rules while teaching Always make children stand or sit in a circle so that every child is involved At one given time, one facilitator should teach and the other should maintain the childrenGive each child equal attention, make everyone participateEnergize your sessions by playing drums and making children clap their hands periodically

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RESPONSIBILITIES OF FACILITATORS To reach Nawnihaal Chtahaal half an hour before students and ensure each student leaves for home safely with an appointed guardianIf a child does not come to class continuously for 3 days then facilitator should do a home visit to understand what the problem is and to make parents understand that it is important that a child attends classes on a daily level.Do a monthly check of height and weight of the studentsFacilitators maintain records like attendance and home visit register, inventory record and visitor registerOn Saturdays , facilitators work on TLM for next month , undertake home visits and complete any other pending work*

RESPONSIBILITIES OF PARENTSTo drop and pick up their child on timeTo give them packed lunch in the morning, parents should not bring lunch during lunch time to the centerTo attend all meetings and workshops organized by the Nawnihaal Chathaal centerIf a child is absent from class, parents should inform their facilitator in the morning itself Proper drinking water facilities and toilets are maintained. One of the mothers works as helper to clean the center on daily basis. BERCY provides Rs. 1000 as honorarium

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MONITORING OF ECE CENTER ACTIVITESMONTHLY MEETINGS WITH PARENTS: Monthly review meetings are held at Nawnihaal Chathaal every last Saturday of the month where children present their learning's for the month in front of their parents. Feedback is taken from their parents and incorporated into the programSUPPORTIVE MONITORING OF FACILITATORS ON A DAILY BASIS: BERCY resource persons and trainers do daily visits to the ECE center and closely monitor work of the trainers and also provide assistance to them in their activities.REVIEW OF TRAINERS WORK: Monthly review of trainers is done on basis of class attendance , quality of TLM and class observations of BERCY and NRLM team

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MOTHERS EMOWERMENT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Since a mother is the primary care giver and plays a very important role in the development of a child, BERCY Centre has started a MOTHER EMPOWERMENT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM for women whose children are enrolled at Nawnihaal Chathaal.

This is a parenting education program through which BERCY provides the space to community women to discuss important child development issues like health, hygiene, nutrition and milestones development. This also provides a platform to discuss myths and age old practices of child rearing.

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KEY FEATURES OF THIS PROGRAM ARE : This program will be offered through role plays and group discussionsA local expert like a doctor or a teacher will be invited to every session to increase community trust and have a open conversationThe first phase of this program will be completed in 5 sessions . Each session will be of 2 hours. The program sessions will be held on alternate Saturdays from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the BERCY CenterThe first phase of the program will cover the following topics Growth and MilestonesNutrition for young childrenHealth and Hygiene issuesTill date two sessions , one each on nutrion and hygeine have been completed*

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KEY LEARNINGS AND PLANS AHEAD

Community has been very responsive and supportive for this program. Requests have come from surrounding gram panchayats to start similar initiativeMothers involvement with the empowerment program and in parent teacher meetings is key in child retention and attendance at the centerChildren enrolled at the center are developing on a daily basis and their association with the facilitators is very deepDuring the height weight check and also in discussion with mothers during the empowerment session on nutrition it has been observed that many children have not attained their ideal levels ( 20 of 29 students are below their ideal height weight levels as suggested by WHO). These children are from very poor families and their families are unable to afford supplementary nutrition.

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SUPPLEMENTARY NUTRITION PROGRAM: This will be started in April. The program will be supported by mothers who will take care of cooking and related tasks. A roster of weekly duties will be made and 3 mothers will be responsible for managing this activity each week.MONTHLY HEALTH MONITORING: Regular health checkups will be held every month for continuous healthy overall development of childrenINTRODUCE SYSTEM OF ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS: This is required to test the effectiveness of our curriculum and methods as much as the learning levels of studentsINTRODUCE A FATHERS INVOLVEMENT PROGRAM

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CREATE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRODUCTSas resource for spreading this initiative in other blocks under UMEEDGREATER COMMUNITY INVOVEMENTCONVERGENCE WITH ICDS SYSTEM

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