Pratham, an NGO aiming to promote Universal Elementary Education (UEE), is heading towards revolutionising education in the slums of Mysore.
Launching its operations in Mysore during 2002, Pratham is today assisting more than 7,500 poorest of the poor in about six slums of Mysore by partnering with the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Government of Karnataka. It has plans to expand its services to all the slums.
In fact, Pratham’s annual budget of about Rs 50 lakh makes it one of the largest NGOs in Mysore. Well-known actress Waheeda Rehman is the ambassador of Pratham.
“Pratham’s approach is innovative, informal, cost effective, and easily replicable. It is based on balawadi, balasakhi and bridge course programmes along with mobile libraries. Despite the size and reach of the programmes, Pratham is still not known to Mysoreans. But the silent revolution started by Pratham has certainly caught the imagination of the slum dwellers,” say Dr Bhamy V Shenoy and Ashvini Ranjan, who are associated with Pratham.
By the end of this academic year, Pratham will have 200 balawadi schools providing pre-school education to more than 4,000 slum children aged between three and five years. This will add another 2,500 children to the existing 7,500 children.
Pratham learning centres are not the ‘convent’ type of schools where reading and writing are forced with ‘robotic discipline.’ “Children are taught using play way methods using low cost toys and learning tools made out of industrial waste. The child is made to enjoy the school going experience. Such a child is bound to pursue studies and less likely to drop out,” opines Dr Shenoy, advisor, Pratham told Deccan Herald.
Pratham recently conducted a ‘house-to-house’ survey covering 5,000 houses in different slums of Mysore like Kesare, Aziz Sait Nagar, Shanthi Nagar, Ghousia Nagar etc. This baseline survey was to study the educational level of 14,000 children aged between six and 14. A shocking 75 per cent could not read and write.
“Pratham’s Balasakhi programme focuses on slow learners at the primary and secondary school levels through specially trained tutors. A team of volunteers, teacher monitors and programme coordinators are a valuable source of information to assess its teaching methods constantly. This enables to develop new tools for training and teaching content,” they explain.
According to Dr Shenoy, the DPI had sent primary school teachers for specialised training using the innovative models of teaching. “Every year teachers are trained from our trainers to improvise teaching skills for reaching out to the children better.”
Dr Padmini, a retired head of the department of education at Mysore University, and a trustee of Pratham has been instrumental in developing several innovative teaching methodologies.
Her math package is popular with the students and teachers. According to Pratham, the package is also in demand in the Pratham centres across the country.
How does one assess the value of a product or service that is available for free? Put a cost to it and count the number of takers. “Pratham just did that. It selected a group of Balawadi teachers and asked them to collect a nominal fee. To our surprise, parents willingly paid and now we have a new breed of educationists in the slums,” points out Ashvini Ranjan, managing trustee, Pratham.
Another initiative started by Pratham since a year is the mobile library. It is under the leadership of Vedha Anilkumar, a small scale industrialist. A teacher goes from house to house with a set of carefully selected books. Thus instead of children going to the library, the teacher goes to them. The teacher also sits with the children, reads them books and tells stories. The library will not only expand the reading capabilities of the children but also arouse their curiosity.
Kannda learning
Pratham is making efforts to popularise Kannada in the slums where Urdu is the mother tongue of the majority. Not so surprisingly all their parents also want their children to improve their Kannada, they add.
It has also developed a special English teaching programme and ‘Do and Learn’ programme to foster scientific attitude under the initiative of Dr Krishnan, a retired scientist.
Pratham has now started a catalytic programme of working with the government school teachers to improve reading ability of government school children both in Mysore and rural areas.
Currently 25 schools in Mysore have agreed. They will have special periods to implement the special Kannada reading programme developed by Pratham. “This is a good example of public- private partnership. It was possible thanks to the interest shown by DDPI, Block Education Officers, Deputy Project Coordinator of Serva Shiksha Abhiyan and government school teachers. This is a remarkable development,” they maintain.
Today, Pratham is meeting less than 40 per cent of the needs of the slum children. But this itself has resulted in starting a silent educational revolution in the slums.
“Imagine what Mysore can achieve if more talented and concerned educated citizens join the Pratham movement to universalise the primary education? Pratham’s volunteers and teachers numbering more than 250 are paid only a small honourarium. We need more involvement of educationists, teachers to achieve our goals,” Dr Shenoy said.
According to him, Pratham needs more volunteers to help raise donation, to monitor the operations of various programs, to conduct surveys, document results, train Pratham teachers etc.
Launching its operations in Mysore during 2002, Pratham is today assisting more than 7,500 poorest of the poor in about six slums of Mysore by partnering with the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Government of Karnataka. It has plans to expand its services to all the slums.
In fact, Pratham’s annual budget of about Rs 50 lakh makes it one of the largest NGOs in Mysore. Well-known actress Waheeda Rehman is the ambassador of Pratham.
“Pratham’s approach is innovative, informal, cost effective, and easily replicable. It is based on balawadi, balasakhi and bridge course programmes along with mobile libraries. Despite the size and reach of the programmes, Pratham is still not known to Mysoreans. But the silent revolution started by Pratham has certainly caught the imagination of the slum dwellers,” say Dr Bhamy V Shenoy and Ashvini Ranjan, who are associated with Pratham.
By the end of this academic year, Pratham will have 200 balawadi schools providing pre-school education to more than 4,000 slum children aged between three and five years. This will add another 2,500 children to the existing 7,500 children.
Pratham learning centres are not the ‘convent’ type of schools where reading and writing are forced with ‘robotic discipline.’ “Children are taught using play way methods using low cost toys and learning tools made out of industrial waste. The child is made to enjoy the school going experience. Such a child is bound to pursue studies and less likely to drop out,” opines Dr Shenoy, advisor, Pratham told Deccan Herald.
Pratham recently conducted a ‘house-to-house’ survey covering 5,000 houses in different slums of Mysore like Kesare, Aziz Sait Nagar, Shanthi Nagar, Ghousia Nagar etc. This baseline survey was to study the educational level of 14,000 children aged between six and 14. A shocking 75 per cent could not read and write.
“Pratham’s Balasakhi programme focuses on slow learners at the primary and secondary school levels through specially trained tutors. A team of volunteers, teacher monitors and programme coordinators are a valuable source of information to assess its teaching methods constantly. This enables to develop new tools for training and teaching content,” they explain.
According to Dr Shenoy, the DPI had sent primary school teachers for specialised training using the innovative models of teaching. “Every year teachers are trained from our trainers to improvise teaching skills for reaching out to the children better.”
Dr Padmini, a retired head of the department of education at Mysore University, and a trustee of Pratham has been instrumental in developing several innovative teaching methodologies.
Her math package is popular with the students and teachers. According to Pratham, the package is also in demand in the Pratham centres across the country.
How does one assess the value of a product or service that is available for free? Put a cost to it and count the number of takers. “Pratham just did that. It selected a group of Balawadi teachers and asked them to collect a nominal fee. To our surprise, parents willingly paid and now we have a new breed of educationists in the slums,” points out Ashvini Ranjan, managing trustee, Pratham.
Another initiative started by Pratham since a year is the mobile library. It is under the leadership of Vedha Anilkumar, a small scale industrialist. A teacher goes from house to house with a set of carefully selected books. Thus instead of children going to the library, the teacher goes to them. The teacher also sits with the children, reads them books and tells stories. The library will not only expand the reading capabilities of the children but also arouse their curiosity.
Kannda learning
Pratham is making efforts to popularise Kannada in the slums where Urdu is the mother tongue of the majority. Not so surprisingly all their parents also want their children to improve their Kannada, they add.
It has also developed a special English teaching programme and ‘Do and Learn’ programme to foster scientific attitude under the initiative of Dr Krishnan, a retired scientist.
Pratham has now started a catalytic programme of working with the government school teachers to improve reading ability of government school children both in Mysore and rural areas.
Currently 25 schools in Mysore have agreed. They will have special periods to implement the special Kannada reading programme developed by Pratham. “This is a good example of public- private partnership. It was possible thanks to the interest shown by DDPI, Block Education Officers, Deputy Project Coordinator of Serva Shiksha Abhiyan and government school teachers. This is a remarkable development,” they maintain.
Today, Pratham is meeting less than 40 per cent of the needs of the slum children. But this itself has resulted in starting a silent educational revolution in the slums.
“Imagine what Mysore can achieve if more talented and concerned educated citizens join the Pratham movement to universalise the primary education? Pratham’s volunteers and teachers numbering more than 250 are paid only a small honourarium. We need more involvement of educationists, teachers to achieve our goals,” Dr Shenoy said.
According to him, Pratham needs more volunteers to help raise donation, to monitor the operations of various programs, to conduct surveys, document results, train Pratham teachers etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment