Fwd: [se-ed] QUERY: Status and Challenges of Educating Children in Urban Slums - Experiences; Examples. Reply by 4 March 2010

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amit Kumar <amit.kumar@dfmail.org>
Date: Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 2:10 PM
Subject: Re: [se-ed] QUERY: Status and Challenges of Educating Children in Urban Slums - Experiences; Examples. Reply by 4 March 2010
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>

Dear All,

I agree to most of the points raised by friends and would like to bring in another important dimension to this discussion.

On one hand I do agree that education, as an issue, cannot and should not be seen in isolation to other pressing needs viz. health, livelihood etc, but at many a times it dilutes the issue itself. My own experience of working with slums population in Kolkata tells me that more focused approach (to education per se) have shown better results than integrating it with other issues viz. health. The results were still better when family was the unit of intervention and different converging issues were dealt separately rather than as a 'package', and education always focused on children.

Another disturbing fact is the way the issue of education is dealt in some of the project (in peace mill) and out of the two/three hours allotted for education, 70% goes in arranging 'nutrition' and 'quality materials' and distributing among kids, which is great but education suffers and we build undue expectations at the community level. It is not community's fault as they might need everything but the agency intervening should realize their own strength and focus higher achievement level in the same instead of being 'Santa'.

On the other hand, I have worked with organizations who only talk of developing education level of children with a skill focus and community has contributed space and share management responsibility. They (community) even have raised funds and are sustaining the intervention with little technical support from promoting institution and the learning achievement has grown almost two times in 3/4 years.

Bottom line is issue need to be addressed with best possible solutions and strong sustainability dimension and not in typical 'trying all and succeeding in none' kind of approach. There is no point starting from 'creating demand' approach, which in my opinion is wasting precious time, energy and resources and leads nowhere.

Regards,

Amit Kumar

Deshpande Foundation

Karnataka

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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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