Fwd: [se-ed] QUERY: Status and Challenges of Educating Children in Urban Slums - Experiences; Examples. Reply by 23 February 2010

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Shikha Jain" <shikha.jnu@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 4:08 PM
Subject: Re: [se-ed] QUERY: Status and Challenges of Educating Children in Urban Slums - Experiences; Examples. Reply by 23 February 2010
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>

Dear Members,

I understand that this is a complicated question and really encourages practitioners as well as academicians to reflect on the educational experience of the urban poor. The most defining characteristic of the urban students that the government schools cater to is that they belong to the poor migratory population, and are usually the first generation school goers, especially in the formal school setting. The parents of such children often thrive on manual work, and are day to day labourers in various occupational settings. This background becomes rather important to be able to aptly reflect on the questions raised herewith.

While talking about the current educational scenario it is best not to directly discuss statistical data as not only is it freely available it also speaks for itself. What one would rather like to do here is to talk about those 'invisible' classrooms and school processes that such a child is subjected to.  Alienation from the school environment or school culture happens because of all or some of the following, for most of such students,

• Socio-cultural differences between teachers and students due to the fact that these children are from other region and not locals.
• The gap between the home context and school context if often huge. Not only the child misses his language, social and cultural practices and other elements related to his day to day home life in the school, but also is intimidated with the unfamiliar language, social situation and practices.  Pedagogically speaking the gap between the known and unknown is so huge in such schools , that learning becomes a very challenging task for young students , who often receive less pedagogical support from parents , as the parents themselves may not be educated.
• Stereotypes related to the regional identities, is often the call of a day in urban settings. unfortunately the weak and underprivileged often get subjected to subtle , and sometimes not so subtle , forms of verbal and physical abuse due to set notions of their regional , linguistic , social and cultural identity
• Urban areas have also witnessed an interesting trend where a lot of primary school teachers are women who come from affluent families. The reasons and implications of this is a subject for another discussion altogether. What is relevant here is the resultant social (and financial) gap between the teacher and the students which is so high that the teacher almost always looks down upon the students, and the latter never relates to the teacher.

The above factors lead to a deprived and disadvantaged school experience for the students.  For a young child who is also a first generation learner, this can become the reason for a huge trauma and depression. It can also lead the child and his family into thinking that the learner himself has a low IQ( I see something like that also being said in an earlier reply to the query – how we define IQ and the methodology for testing it needs to be scrutinized and socially evaluated before making such derogatory remarks) , and hence drop-outs happen.

As I understand Government has made a laudable effort in making the teachers and Head masters focus on enrolling children and making schooling accessible to children , spent considerable resources in improving the physical infrastructure of the school and activating incentives for students and even their families. What it has not been able to do is to examine, improve and improvise classroom processes in particular and school processes in general to infuse positivity into the overall educational experience of the children to ensure they relate better to the school, develop interest and curiosity and feel confident about the learning experience and their own ability to 'learn and grow'.

This is where the role of civil society bodies becomes rather important. NGOs like Katha can,

• Make available child friendly context specific and locally relevant reading and learning material available to such children. Room to Read India Trust , where I work , sets up 'reading rooms' ( libraries as one may understand) for children of Government Primary schools and bring relevant and interesting children's literature closer to a child's learning environment to arouse interest , curiosity and print richness in the school environment
• Engage with teachers, in reflective sessions to brainstorm on issues and concerns and look for solutions. Of course , this will require the NGOs to work with the Government
• Engage with the students in learning activities, which are not just curricular in nature but also vocational & extracurricular activities to inculcate trust and confidence in students.
• Set up dialogue and work in tandem with like-minded bodies to enable an effective synergy and converge resources to maximize the results.

The above might just be one perspective to look at the situation, but is important because of the sheer callousness by which we have ignored it so far!

Regards

Shikha Jain

Room to Read India Trust

New Delhi

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Moderator's Note: Dear Members, we are posting this query to understand the status and challenges in education of Urban deprived children. With the ever growing urban population and the emergence of urban slums in a more rapid manner than ever before as a result of increasing migrant population, the challenges of offering the basic essential services has become huge. Education is of course one of the important essential service to be provided to all children irrespective of their place of residence. It is a major agenda for planners, policy makers, implementers and larger civil society. This query is intended to add to the knowledge base required to plan for effective educational interventions for children living in urban slums.

Amongst you, quite a few members and their organizations are working towards this goal. We would like to hear from you. Do share with us your experiences of work in this field and the challenges you are faced with. Strategisation of the education of urban deprived children is bound to get the priority in the coming years as there is no escape to the fact that they exist in huge numbers around us.

We look forward to your active participation in response to this query. The last date of the current discussions on " replicating innovative experiences in India to implement RTE" has also been extended till 10^th, therefore till 10^th both these queries will run simultaneously and we are sure, on both the issues our members' have lot to offer.

Shubhangi

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Dear Members,

I work with Katha, a nonprofit organization that works for education of children living in urban poverty. We run 96 schools in slum communities and work with the government to bring the joy of reading to more than 200,000 children and bring communities into safeguarding child interest's vis-à-vis quality education and preventing dropping out etc.

Today, we help bring positive change into the lives of children and their mothers, living in 72 slum and street communities across Delhi; and in the tribal villages of Arunachal Pradesh. As a result, 52,242 children have come into the fold of sustainable education through Katha Schools and 39,846 children have been weaned away from labor into quality education.

A 2008 sampling of salaries show 430 Katha alumni earned a total of Rs. 42 million (their family incomes were Rs. 600-800/month in 1990, according to a government survey).

Since last year, at the invitation of the Delhi Government, we have been working in a 100 schools, helping students gain reading skills for fun and for better grade level academic performance.

Over the last many years we have realized that sharing best practices will make the work of nonprofits and people in the voluntary sector better and more effective. Katha shares its own practices through capacity building workshops, thus avoiding too much time being spent on reinventing every single wheel that turns our commitment to children and communities and curriculum. But many questions do constantly come to mind:

Hence, I request members of the Education Community to share their thoughts and experiences on the following:

• What is the current scenario of education for urban disadvantaged children especially living in slums?
• What are the measures have been adopted by government to prevent children living in urban areas or who are disadvantaged from dropping out of school?
• What do you fee the role of civil society organizations (CSO) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) should be in preventing children living in urban slums from dropping? Please also share any successful experiences from CSOs and NGOs.

Also, we are looking for evidence/documentation showing a clear co-relation between increased income of urban poor families and education of their children?

Your examples and experiences will help us in developing our strategies further in relation to sustainable education of urban slum children. It will also better understand the kind of work, which can be undertaken to ensure that children living in urban slums receive education that empowers them and gives them skills for future employment after they complete their studies in enter in labor market . 

We thank you in advance for supporting our research and action on child education and urban poverty reduction.

Regards,

Amita Tandon

Katha

New Delhi

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