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From: Shubhangi Sharma <s.sharma@unesco.org>
Date: Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 5:06 PM
Subject: [se-ed] Consolidated Reply: Status and Challenges of Educating Children in Urban Slums - Experiences; Examples
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>
It is therefore very pertinent that teachers should be properly trained and asked to be patient towards these children. Right type of teacher training and education can play a significant role in helping us to achieve the goal of literacy among the urban children.
Just a few things I'd like to draw attention to:
Perhaps a thorough understanding of the government schemes with education should be our first step towards understanding what role civil society needs to play to ensure children get a proper education.
From: Shubhangi Sharma <s.sharma@unesco.org>
Date: Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 5:06 PM
Subject: [se-ed] Consolidated Reply: Status and Challenges of Educating Children in Urban Slums - Experiences; Examples
To: Education Community <se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in>
The PDF Version of this Discussion can be downloaded at: http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/education/cr/cr-se-ed-1203105.pdf (Size 264 KB)
Education Community |
Solution Exchange for the Education Community
Consolidated Reply
Query: Status and Challenges of Educating Children in Urban Slums - Experiences; Examples
Issue Date: 16 March 2010
Posted 09 February 2010
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.
Responses were received, with thanks, from
2. Shikha Jain , Room to Read India Trust, New Delhi
3. B.L.Kaul, Progressive Educational Society and Society for Popularization of Science, Jammu
4. Alpan Kumar Sinha, Centre for Development & Population Activities, Ranchi
5. Sanjay Gupta, CEDPA India, New Delhi
6. Avinash Verma, CARE India, Lucknow
7. Amit Kumar, Deshpande Foundation, Karnataka
8. Suman Swarup, Independent Consultant, New Delhi
11. Shubhangi Sharma, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, New Delhi
12. Umesh Chandra Gaur, Confederation of Community Based Organizations of India, New Delhi
13. Hiren Dharamshi, Janhit Drishtee Foundation, Mumbai
14. A. R. Vasavi, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore
16. Anjela Taneja, Actionaid India, New Delhi
17. Kannan Srinivasan, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum*
*Offline Contribution
Further contributions are welcome!
The challenges of the education of Urban Slum children are of distinct nature. One of the reasons being that these children belong to largely disadvantaged communities and a range of enabling processes are required for them to be able to fully engage in and take advantage of education. Most of the urban slum children also are part of migratory population working as daily wage laborers in various occupational settings which presents understandable obstacles in their formal schooling. A large part of this population keeps shifting from one place to the other in search of better livelihood options and doesn't stay at one place for long time, this makes their education all the more challenging.
The fact which needs to be kept in mind while designing educational intervention for them is that they are generally first generation learners. Their parents' generally haven't had gone through any schooling experiences which makes it rather difficult for them to support their children in studies. The parents generally work through the day to make two ends of the day meet, in their absence the older children bear the responsibility to look after younger siblings, girls especially take care of household chores.
The current scenario of education for urban slum children
The above are some of the reasons related to family and household which make their education difficult. There are reasons within the system as well which are counter productive for an urban slum child to avail of educational opportunities. First and foremost is the 'quality' which schools offer. The opportunity cost of schooling in the present context seems so high that parents rather feel comfortable in sending their children for work then in schools. There are many more which include
- The mismatch between linguistic and socio- cultural background of students' is another issue because of which these children feel problem in connecting with whatever is being taught to them and resultantly drop out. The huge gap between teachers' and children in terms of their social background also in some sense is detrimental for their education. There are prejudices in the minds of teachers' which stop them to build a rapport with these children and neglect them and their presence. The verbal, physical as well as subtle forms of abuse by teachers' and fellow students', due to set notions about their regional, socio- cultural identity, make them feel alienated and drop out.
- As the case is, in many of the government schools in urban areas where these children study in general the high pupil- teacher ratio is another problem because of which teacher feel incapable to attend to the concerns of individual child and a sense of neglect is felt by the child which becomes the reasons for her not being able to cope up with the studies properly.
- There are also problems with the appropriate engagement by the community. The reasons could be many, beginning from their being wage laborers to the unwillingness of the system to engage to the negative attitude of teachers towards the engagement of so called uneducated parents.
- In a lot of places bridge courses are run to facilitate the smooth entry of such children in mainstream schools. However, the absence of cohesive and coherent syllabus of such courses makes it difficult for children to cope with the studies further once admitted in appropriate classes.
- The hidden cost of education also required to be factored in when the discussion is to be taken to a level where reforms are possible.
- On quantitative term one limiting factor is the non availability of enough government schools. The reason given for this often is the absence of unreliable estimates of urban children living in slum areas due to the influx of migratory population. Also, as the urban planning process doesn't generally factor in school in its planning, there are unmet needs for schools. If the extension is needed that also becomes difficult in such a scenario as the physical space is not available easily to build the essential infrastructure.
- The constant threat of dislocation and replacement of urban slum population to remote areas also negatively effects the educational activity as children especially girls, tend to drop out because of the distance of school from their place of residence.
- A number of times insufficient provisioning of secondary schools also hinders the educational opportunities and pushes children out of the education system
- The accountability of the system also has been a major issue in the urban area with Municipal Corporations not being made accountable in the similar way in which panchayats have been made accountable, through the 73rd amendment in the constitution.
Measures adopted by Government to prevent drop- out
Though there is a lot more to be done to improve the overall scenario of education of such children, government in States as well at the central level has taken a couple of steps to enable urban deprived children to avail education opportunities some of which include
- Provision and availability of schools in close proximity of slum children and better motivation of teachers so that they could in turn motivate children to come to school and study as was done in Tamil Nadu.
- Provision of mid day meal to all children studying in Government, Local Body and Government-aided primary and upper primary schools and the EGS/AIE centers of all areas across the country This has to some extent, contributed in enhancing enrollment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children., free text books, uniform and activation of various other forms of incentives such as free bicycles to girls and boys in several places is a big draw for children
- Orientation of maximum 3 persons for each school/habitation in the urban areas for two days to ensure the participation of Community in School Management and Children's Education.
- Provision of up to Rs.1,200/- per child for providing all kind of needed support including aids and appliances, resource teachers to Children With Special needs to run short term Bridge Courses, Back to school camps with a focus on mainstreaming of all Out-of-School children into regular schools.
- Remedial Teaching for children mainstreamed from bridge courses/back to school strategies and children already in formal schools particularly in the areas with high concentration of SC/ST population and minority communities.
Delhi claims to be the first state to implement a couple of innovative interventions/projects under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which include Chalta Firta Schools, Khulja Sim Sim Project – Computer based learning station; Alternative Innovative Education Centers for out of school children and adult learners, Initiating implementation of Building as Learning Aid (BaLA) experiment in all Government Schools; setting up of multimedia classroom/lab in all government schools.
This is supplemented with the development and implementation of YUVA-School Life skills Programme; In house development of multimedia animated classroom content and implementation of online modules for Online School Management; Constituting and Empowering Vidyalaya Kalyan Samitis with the participation of community and students; Online collection of DISE data and so on which is said to have benefited the urban slum children.
However, all the above efforts are largely sporadic in nature and don't seem to be directly impacting the 'quality' of schooling experience for urban slum children. There is lot more to be done at the level of implementation to improve the access, retention and quality of education for these children.
Role of civil society and NGOs in reducing drop out rate
There are examples throughout the country that wherever civil society has played an active role conditions have improved considerably. Poverty as a legitimate corollary or an argument of illiteracy is a gone conclusion. If education offers what is desired, the poverty factor tends to be subdued and the experiences have demonstrated it successfully. Based on the experiences so far, some of the roles which civil society can take up along with the community are stated as under:
- Robust advocacy to spread the message about every child's Right to education to create an enabling environment
- Monitoring of intervention taken by the government through their workers and volunteers
- Additional support to children in terms of remedial teaching and coaching as well as running of mid day meal scheme as is experimented by Vigyan Vijay foundation and couple of other organizations.
- Help in improving and improvising classroom practices through engaging with teachers to infuse positivity in the overall system of education
- Engage with children through varied activities outside the school premises to inculcate confidence and self esteem in them.
- Collaborate with like minded organizations to ensure synergy and convergence of resources directed towards the cause.
- Organize community for better running of schools and monitoring of teachers'
- Develop life skills amongst these children and also engage in running of counseling centers
- Work with mothers of such children to develop a support structure around them
- Serve as 'watch dog' on the functioning of the state as was done in the case of MV Foundation in AP and Bihar addressing urban education as a governance issue and setting up child Rights protection forums to ensure that every child is in schools.
- Concurrent liaison with states in various forums such as use of RTI for understanding and assessing the state of education of urban children as was experimented by pardarshita, New Delhi.
- Tracking the performance of children along with working directly in government run urban school to support the government efforts which Bodh, Rajasthan attempted through its engagement in Janshala programme.
What additional government should do?
- Formation of 'child welfare committees' at the district level to look after welfare and growth of children
- Adoption of focused approach, taking family as a unit of intervention rather than just focusing on the child,
- Proper training of teachers to sensitize them towards the issues of these children and develop in them the empathy towards them
- Teaching of various vocational and life skills to substantiate the subject learning
- Making available context specific and children friendly material to inculcate interest in learning.
- Relate the living of these children with teaching to develop interest and curiosity for learning material
- Setting up of schools in the slums itself in the 'Basti Vikas Kendra' or 'community centre'
Overall the challenge to deal with is to make education relevant and adequate for children along with improving the poor administration and monitoring system. Education for such children has to have a lot of activities, games, films etc to ensure interactivity and engagement.
With that, putting in place a dynamic system of regular community audit is a must which will pave the way for improvement in the educational scenario of these children. The ultimate challenge is of accountability and quality which will get resolved only if planned holistically.
Deprivation of Education in Urban Areas: A Basic Profile of Slum Children in Delhi, India
Discussion Paper ; by Tsujita. Yuko; The Institute of Developing Economics ; Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO); New Delhi;
Available at http://ir.ide.go.jp/dspace/bitstream/2344/841/1/199_tsujita.pdf (PDF 99.8 KB)
This paper showed the basic educational status of slum children between 5 and 14 years old.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan -An introduction and progress made so far (from Shubhangi Sharma, UNESCO, New Delhi)
SSA Broucher on its major achievemts;
Available at http://www.edudel.nic.in/ssa/Brouchure_SSA.pdf (PDF 594 KB)
SSA Broucher on the introduction and progress made so far by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and its different programmes all arcoss Iindia.
Introductory Document ;Available at http://www.education.nic.in/Janshala/intro.pdf (PDF 86.7 KB)
An introductory document on the Janshala Programme, its aim and coverage
Poverty And Exclusion Among Urban Children
Innocenti Digest; by United Nations Children's Fund Innocenti Research Center Florence, Italy;
Available at http://www.childfriendlycities.org/pdf/digest10e.pdf (PDF 343 KB)
This Digest addresses the reality of the children living in miserable circumstances and lacking access to basic social services and It highlights the chronic poverty and marginalisation they face
The Urban (Dis) Advantage: Slums, School and Children's Work
Research Paper;by Lewis. Valerie; Harvard University;
Available at http://paa2010.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=101440 (PDF 308 KB)
This Research paper examine how children living in slums fare in terms of educational attendance and work for pay compared to other urban and rural children.
Universalizing Elementary Education in India's Mega-Cities- Issues from Mumbai & Delhi
Report; by Pratham Resource Centre/UNESCO,New Delhi; Pratham Resource Centre, New Delhi / UNESCO, New Delhi; New Delhi; October 2005;
Available at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001431/143154e.pdf (PDF 693 KB)
This report represents one more step in Pratham's efforts to realize its mission of 'every child in school and learning well
Strategies of Urban deprived children under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Report; by Khan SH.Altab; Planning unit technical support group;
Available at http://ssa.nic.in/urban-planning/Urban%20Deprived%20children%20-%20Urban%20Innovation.pdf (PDF 746 KB)
Report on Strategies of urban deprived children under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Basic Education for Urban Working Children - Bangladesh
Report; by United Nations Children's Fund;
Available at
With the Government of Bangladesh, UNICEF runs a project called Basic Education for Hard to Reach Urban Working Children (BEHTRUWC).
Report Document (6 Volumes);
Available at http://edudel.nic.in/yuva/Yuva_Preview.htm (PDF Documents 420 KB & 179 KB)
The complete YUVA School Life Skills Programme (SLP) is contained in 6 Volumes covering over 1400 pages.This Preview is a glimpse into the world of the YUVA SLP.
India Literacy Project, Location
India Literacy Project, 27, 3rd Floor, Narayani Apartments, 2nd Cross, Ramakrishnappa Layout. Geddalahalli, Sanjaynagar, Bangalore -560094; Tel: 080-23519693; ilpindia@gmail.com ; www.ilpnet.org ;
India Literacy Project, ILP, is a volunteer based non-profit organization dedicated to the cause of literacy in India.
A3 .Sarvodaya Enclave, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi . 110017; Tel: 011-26868193 . 26521752/ 26524350; Fax: 011-26514374 katha@katha.org;www.katha.org;
Organization impacting social injustice and economic poverty in urban India. Quality education for children & innovative programme that hones reading ability in children is the core of work.
Room to Read India, E 18-A, East of Kailash, New Delhi.110 065; asia.pacific@roomtoread.org; www.roomtoread.org;
Working in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments, Room to Read develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children.
Child Rights and You, New Delhi
CRY - Child Rights and You, 189/A Anand Estate, Sane Guruji Marg, Mumbai 400011;Tel: +91-022-23096845/2306 3651 /3647;Fax:+91-022-23080726cryinfo.mum@crymail.org; www.cry.org;
Child Rights and You exists today to amplify the voice of children with a belief that children are citizens in their own right, entitled to the full spectrum of human rights.
Confederation of Community Based Organization's of India, New Delhi (from Umesh Chandra Gaur, Confederation of Community Based Organizations of India, New Delhi)
7-A, Ground Floor, Vijay Block, Laxmi Nagar, New Delhi 110092; Tel: 011-22514200; ccbos_india@rediffmail.com;www.ccbos.com;
A National Level Confederation of Community Based Organisation's of India promoting its ideas and philosophy through the country with the help of various committees.
F-185-186, New Seemapuri, Delhi-110095 ; Tel: 011-22356476; pardarshita_india@yahoo.com; www.pardarshita.blogspot.com;
Pardarshita is a non-profit organization founded by activists associated with Parivartan .It got formed with the aim of fighting corruption, ensuring transparency & accountability in Public Governance Systems so as to empower the marginalized sections of society
Project Why, New Delhi
C 15 Chiragh Enclave, New Delhi 110048;Tel:9811424877;anouradha.bakshi@gmail.com; www.projectwhy.org;
Project Why was initiated with the objective of enhancing school performance and arresting the drop out rates of children from urban slums in Delhi.
Pratham, Mumbai
Pratham Education Foundation, Y.B. Chavan Center, 4th Floor, Gen. J. Bhosale Marg. Nariman Point, Mumbai, Maharashtra-400021; Tel: 022-22819561;Fax: 022-22819563 mumbai@pratham.org;www.pratham.org;
Pratham is the largest non governmental organisation working to provide quality education to the underprivileged children of India
Central Office & Urban Resource Centre,SP-41, Road No 6,RIICO Institutional Area, Kukas (Amer), Jaipur -303101; Tel: +91 1426 247456/7/8; Fax: +91 1426 247456 centraloffice@bodh.org;www.bodh.org;
The school, initiated in 1987, was the result of a unique partnership between the Gokulpuri urban slum community and a group of likeminded men and women
United Nations Children's Fund, New Delhi
UNICEF, 73 Lodi Estate, New Delhi 110 003; Tel: 011 2469-0401, 2469-1410; Fax: 011 2462-7521, 2469-1410 newdelhi@unicef.org; www.unicef.org;
UNICEF is fully committed to ensure that each child born in this vast and complex country gets the best start in life, thrives and develops to his or her full potential.
Smile Foundation, New Delhi
V-11, Level - 1, Green Park Extension, New Delhi - 110 016; Tel: 011-41354565, 41354566; Fax: 011-41354454;info@smilefoundationindia.org;www.smilefoundationindia.org
Smile Foundation works as a catalyst to change the lives of underprivileged children and youths. It facilitates individuals, corporates and institutions to invest in social initiatives aimed at the welfare of poor and needy children.
Akanksha Foundation, Mumbai
Voltas House 'C',TB Kadam Marg,Chinchpokli, Mumbai 400 033; Tel: 022 23700253/23729880; website@akanksha.org;www.akanksha.org;
The Akanksha Foundation is a non-profit organization with the vision to one day equip all students with the education, skills and character they need to lead empowered lives.
Deepalaya, New Delhi
Human Resource Centre (HRC) 46, Institutional Area,D-Block, Janakpuri,New Delhi - 110058; Tel: 011-28520347,28522263,28525326;Fax:011-28520546support@deepalaya.org; www.deepalaya.org;
Deepalaya is a non - government development organization working on issues affecting the urban and rural poor, with a special focus on children.
Save the Children, Bal Raksha, Bharat, New Delhi
4th Floor, Farm Bhawan,14-15 Nehru Place,New Delhi - 110019; Tel: 011-4229 4900; Fax: 011-4229 4990info@savethechildren.in;www.savethechildren.in;
World's leading independent organization for children that works to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.
Oxfam India, New Delhi
2nd Floor,1, Community Centre,New Friends Colony,New Delhi - 110 065; Tel: 011 4653 8000; Fax: 011 4653 8099 delhi@oxfamindia.org;www.oxfamindia.org;
Oxfam India is a newly restructured Indian non-governmental organisation integrating the 60-year-old India operations of 6 separate International Oxfam affiliates working in the country.
Actionaid India, New Delhi
R-7,Hauz-Khas,Enclave,NewDelhi110016;Tel:011-40640500;Fax:011-41641891; indiasite@actionaid.org; www.actionaid.org;
ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency operating in over 40 countries, working with poor and marginalised people to end poverty and injustice together.
Ankur-Society for Alternatives in Education, New Delhi
Ankur - Society for Alternatives in Education 7/10 Sarvapriya vihar, New Delhi - 110016; Tel: 011-26523395.;http://www.learningnet-india.org/lni/data/groups/delhi/ankur/index.php;
Ankur has been working in the field of experimental pedagogy with children, young people and the communities in underserved worker's settlements in Delhi
Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy, Hand in Hand Micro Finance Limited, Chennai
This is an interesting and important query. I may not be in a position to answer all, but let me attempt on some aspects of the query.
What is the current scenario of education for urban disadvantaged children especially living in slums?
Down in the southern states, the situation probably is a wee better than some other counterparts, elsewhere in the country. The awareness is better and in general the attendance in schools also is better. A few factors mentioned below, on a majority scale, drive this possibility.
- The parents living in these slums too wish their children to be better educated than they are and so insist on schooling. They are able to easily compare the children of the slightly and certainly better off families being benefited from education, with better jobs, earning capabilities and status.
- In states like Tamil Nadu, the governments certainly seem to be more pro-active, ensuring good education through Government Schools, also located nearer to slums etc. (I myself have been educated in a State Government affiliated School situated in a very close proximity to a slum in Chennai). Most of the teachers in these Government schools do appear to be quite motivated enough to motivate their students to study well. Year after year, in Chennai, where I live, we read that students from several Government schools excel and Top in the Examinations scoring very high marks, especially the girl students.
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?
Motivation from parents, schemes like the free Mid-day meals, free books, uniform and free bicycles introduced and practiced by the Tamil Nadu Government(s) are a big draw in ensuring low or no drop outs from these schools.
Drop outs still may continue on three counts;
- Repeated failures in exams due to very low IQ and thus disinterest/disenchantment setting in
- Migration of parents
- Circumstances forcing the student to become the breadwinner/mantle-bearer of the family
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?
- Advocacy
- Monitoring (directly or through volunteers)
- Additional support in coaching for the needy students, all Hand in Hand.
Shikha Jain, Room to Read India Trust, New Delhi
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!
B.L.Kaul, Progressive Educational Society and Society for Popularization of Science, Jammu
This query is very timely. Educating urban poor children is not an easy task. These children suffer from many disadvantages.
Illiterate parents: The most important disadvantage that they suffer from is that their parents are illiterate and not in a position to know how and where to send them for learning. The most obvious choice given their circumstances are Government or Municipal schools. The children learning in these schools come mostly from lower middle class who are also disadvantaged in many ways. Going to private schools for urban poor is almost impossible because they are not able to pay fee. There are indeed private schools run by well meaning individuals but their number is insignificantly small and the poor parents are not always able to locate them for their wards.
Absence of educational atmosphere: The second most important disadvantage suffered by urban poor children is the absence of educational atmosphere at home i.e. the jhuggi or the slums where they put up. The parents are too tired after work and generally do not ask what the kids are doing at school. They have no time or inclination or both even to visit the school and ask the teachers about the progress of their children.
Irregularity and drop outs: The working parents ask their school going children especially girls to miss school in order to help them look after their siblings. So they are irregular at school.
Lack of Nutritional food: The food and nutrition received by these children is inadequate and lacks essential elements like proteins, vitamins and minerals. So they are physically and mentally weak.
Lack of resources does not allow them even to buy uniforms, text books and note books. Apathy and taunts of teachers' affects their self esteem .This is the most important disadvantage that the poor fellows suffer silently and is a cause of drop out.
It is therefore very pertinent that teachers should be properly trained and asked to be patient towards these children. Right type of teacher training and education can play a significant role in helping us to achieve the goal of literacy among the urban children.
Alpan Kumar Sinha, Centre for Development & Population Activities, Ranchi
Depriving poor children or children residing in the slum areas from basic education is going to be the violation of their fundamental rights under Right to Education. So Civil Society has to be more proactive, honest and sensitive towards providing education to the last child of the community now.
Firstly, we have to understand that why the parents/guardian of the slum children avoid sending schools/educational centres to their wards. It is basically because of the feeling of insecurity that they will be deprived from whatever, small support they get from their ward in leading their day today life if they will send them for education. So our first priority has to be that let the parents/guardians make assure that they will get all the required support from their ward even if they send them school. There will be a problem of school timings. If we start teaching these children in evening time when the parents/guardians come back home from their work and can take care of their siblings and other works. I think they will not have any problem in sending their children for education. It is basically problem of the matching of timing.
So, there is a need to think on this line also.
The teachers teaching these special children also have to have greater amount of patience and the quality of delivering the subject matter in easy and understandable language by sitting examples of the things/surroundings about which the slum children are familiar. They have to have the empathy and not the sympathy towards their students to make the learning joyful for their students.
Sanjay Gupta, CEDPA India, New Delhi
I fully endorse the point of view from Mr. Alpan Kumar Sinha.
In my opinion, there are certain other issues that also need to be considered as detailed below:
- Parents should be sensitized and made felt about the importance of education for their children not only for the Jobs their children will do, but also for their quality of life and making positive decisions at all fronts of life.
- If NGOs or other agencies are working with Children's education in Slums, they should also think about the mainstreaming of these kids with the regular government. schools
- NGOs should also pay attention to the generating funds for the expenses to be incurred on continuing education for the slum children.
A suggestion, a kind of public forum should be formed involving those people who really want to do something for kids voluntarily and can contribute in taking the needful actions for the education of the children in urban slums.
These are my personal views and I wish that efforts being put in by several members must yield something concrete and positive for the slum children.
Avinash Verma, CARE India, Lucknow
I think B.L.Kaul, Amita and Alpan are too right to raise some important points regarding the depriving of poor children or children residing in the slum areas from basic education.
I don't know very much about the state level/country level policies for the education of these children but my observation about the children residing slum areas is that no one is responsible or accountable for these children. I have a work experience with them in Lucknow, Gomti riverside area.
Their economy and family background are the major factors involved in it but government should bear its own responsibility regarding the education. There are government schools with free education but there is a lack of responsibility. In the present scenario the question is who is responsible for the education of these types of children?
Government is creating alternatives but not trying to reorganize the education setup. There are many schools in the city areas but there is very low enrollment because no one is trying/responsible for the needy children.
I think the education of the children residing slum areas should be an important part of Right to Education. The other point that I would like to highlight here is that education is going to be a right for all children so we all should try to ensure it not only to discuss. I have a request to all community members of this discussion that we should come forward for ensuring the act of Right to Education.
Amit Kumar, Deshpande Foundation, Karnataka
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.
Suman Swarup, Independent Consultant, New Delhi
What distinguishes slum children from others is financial deprivation and lack of support from parents. This manifests itself in reluctance of parents to send the children to school as they are contributing to the family income as earners and looking after the siblings, especially the girl child who is also doing the housework, and the cost involved in travelling to school and attending classes.
Parents are also reluctant as the children who have passed primary or secondary school do not find better employment opportunities and perforce take up the same low level employment that their parents found as illiterates. The problem of school drop outs and primary school educated youth who turn to criminal activities in frustration is huge.
To overcome these challenges, it is suggested that:
- Schools be set up in the slum itself or close to the slums
- The timings be adjusted to suit the working hours of the majority of the parents in the slum
- For providing the midday meal the women in the slum be involved
- Teaching of some skills relevant for better employment opportunities be made an essential part of the curricula
- Teaching of English be made essential from class I itself to prepare such children for better quality employment and higher education. It is their inability to communicate in English which becomes a big handicap later.
In Delhi most of the slums were provided a basti vikas kendra or a community centre which was not only used for community activities but was partly leased out to NGO'S and others willing to run schools , crèches, skill training classes for the slums .
Situation of children of poor families in so called slum or other areas in small and medium town is very dismal. They are socially and economically backward and unable to get out of poverty and backwardness.
In terms of education in small and medium town, city slum and other areas children's are more out of school than in government schools. Learning level is very poor and they are unable to read simple word and sentences. Department of Education and department of women and child development are unable to do much as they are unable to recognize the problems of these children. Civil Society Organizations (CSO's) are in a position to do some good action for these children. Government should take help in getting all children in schools, CSOs can organise community for better running of the schools and monitoring on teachers.
Ajit Seshadri, Vigyav Vijay Foundation, New Delhi
We write in response to the response of Ms. Shikha Jain from Room to Read. This response has given a vivid- account of the reality of the current scenario. We can definitely confirm the validity of what she shared, as in our NGO, we have also experienced the same.
The Vigyan Vijay Foundation works in three bastis in South- West Delhi in Palam Area, on issues related to early child care in education (ECCE) and associating with young-ones to enroll and mentor them in MCD Schools, and remedial teaching. We have a mid-day meal scheme also, which motivates children to attend the educational centers. For urban- needy youth we have computer literacy programs and are taking care of these communities for around a decade.
We have had satisfying successes, but it has been tough relishing the results.
Shubhangi Sharma, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, New Delhi
We all are aware that there are an ever increasing number of slums in all major cities in India resulting in tremendous growth in slum population. Children form a sizeable proportion of this number. In the coming years it is bound to increase given the large scale migration of rural population to urban areas and places requirement to focus on the essential services to be provided to the slum children to tackle the deprivations they go through in terms of accessing these services. Education is one such important service rather entitlement of children in Urban Slums in the context of RTE act. It is bound to be instrumental in answering to the issues of exclusion of children in slums from a range of opportunities available to other children in big cities.
What is the current scenario of education for urban disadvantaged children especially living in slums?
The challenges are many as discussed by couple of other members. Hidden Cost of education is a big constraint. In addition, slum children often work as domestic workers or street vendors or engage themselves in any available job to contribute to their family incomes. Schools are also not conducive due to the inflexible school syllabi, attitude of teachers' toward these children and the lack of support at home. Issues behind dropping out Girls are rather complicated. They are pulled out of school to manage the house or care for siblings.
These children coming from diverse backgrounds and region speak a different language than what is used at school and fail to follow classroom activities. The adverse teacher-pupil ratio and lack of effective child tracking system is another problem. Absence of a mechanism of audit by the community and lack of extra academic support for first generation school goers, are grave concerns. A large number of these children face difficulty in Math and Science subjects which many a times becomes reason for their drop out. Inadequate bridge processes for not-enrolled or drop-out children, insufficient programs to involve urban street children and child laborers, Bias / security / hygiene issues with regard to girls, no options for children before and after school hours, are detrimental to the cause of Education.
What measures have been adopted by the government to prevent children living in urban areas or who are disadvantaged from dropping out of school?
There is no dearth of measures taken by government to ensure the education of these children in schools some of which are-
- The mid day meal programme covers all children studying in Government, Local Body and Government-aided primary and upper primary schools and the EGS/AIE centers of all areas across the country. This has to some extent contributed in enhancing enrollment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children.
- Maximum 3 persons for each school/habitation in the urban areas are supposed to be oriented for two days to ensure the participation of Community in School Management and Children's Education.
- Up to Rs.1,200/- per child is made available for providing all kind of needed support including aids and appliances, resource teachers to Children With Special needs; to run short term Bridge Courses, Back to school camps with a focus on m ainstreaming of all Out-of-School children into regular schools.
- Remedial Teaching for children mainstreamed from bridge courses/back to school strategies and children already in formal schools particularly in the areas with high concentration of SC/ST population and minority communities.
- Early Childhood Care and Education(ECCE), Girls, SC/ST children, Urban Deprived children and Minority Children are given priority : There are provisions for four innovative projects within the ceiling of Rs.15 lakhs per district for a particular sub area up to a maximum of Rs. 50 Lakh per district per year for all four areas.
- Delhi is the first state which claims to implement a host of innovative interventions/projects under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan including Chalta Firta Schools, Khulja Sim Sim Project – Computer based learning station for as Alternative Innovative Education Centres for out of school children and adult learners ; Initiating implementation of Building as Learning Aid (BaLA) in all Government Schools ; Setting up of multimedia classroom/lab in all government schools; Development and implementation of YUVA-School Life skills Programme ; In house development of multimedia animated classroom content ; In house development and implementation of online modules for Online School Management ; Constituting and Empowering Vidyalaya Kalyan Samitis with the participation of community and students and Online collection of DISE data which are also seen as enabling for educaiton of slum children in urban areas.
However, to what extent ,at larger level the measures thought about and rolled out by the governments ' in different states are being used and applied in the schools where large number of slum children go for their education, is a question worth researching about
What do you feel 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.
The CSO can play a very significant role in view in terms of
- Offering additional academic support to the learners to cope with the pressure of studies in schools, with home work and other related tasks
- take up activities to develop set of life skills in such children including activities which gives them an opportunities to develop their creative skills
- Offer then exposure to the wider world through organization of interaction with relevant people / organizations in the vicinity such as hospital, police stations etc.
- Work with the mothers of these children to create a sound support structure around them to continue their studies in all circumstances
- Engaging in setting up facilities to take care of their young siblings to free these children for participating in schools
- Running of counseling centers to help them deal with their physiological concerns. Identifying peer as counselor for immediate support with a capacity to identify referral needs
Of the smaller projects for educating slum children, there are many worthy examples. Efforts are required to supplement and stimulate the formal education system. Children who attend afternoon school need to have spaces to engage with after school hours to inculcate among slum children a sense of responsibility, purpose, and optimism.
Finally, all the interventions need to be informed of the fact that the challenges of the children in urban slum are many fold as the exposure around is both facilitative as well as distressing for these children. They require very delicate and specific measures to deal with even in the course of their regular education
Umesh Chandra Gaur, Confederation of Community Based Organizations of India, New Delhi
I want to say that the situation of slum area's children is very undesirable. It is sad to say that our Government started many programme for the children but it can't reach to them. The Government of India regards education as the basic element for overall development of its citizen.
Confederation of community based organization of India (CCBOS) an apex body. It is working for grass-root level development. CCBOS will make a Education community for needs of education to all special children and girls child.
CCBOS desire to ensure that the Government commits 6% of the gross domestic product (GDP) to public expenditure to education. My suggestion is that we should make a Child Welfare Committee in every district. By this committee the government can easily know that the actual condition and growth of the children of the each district.
In opinion government should be give some attention to these following points and trying to solve the problems:
· Quality of education and performance of teachers are two areas of urgent concern.
· Number of schools has increased yet facilities are far from satisfactory.
· The Public Private Partnership being proposed by the government will make education more and more inaccessible to the poor and also undermine the present govt. school system as only the poorest who will have no way of ensuring a quality education, will be attending the government school.
The big problem is only this that in slum area the poor people have not shown there interest for education. They sent their children to Aanganwadi only for food provided by Government. In the end I would like to say that the all government programme will only be successful by the cooperation of people who live in slum areas and the social workers of that areas.
There is lot done but more required as the fast growing child population in and across Metros in India is poising challenge to the Education system.
Further, the bulging cost of education due to influx of sophisticated studies has resulted in education being for the class & mass is still deprived at large. The scenario has become more of a challenge for parents on how to get the reasonable & efficient education for their ward. In the event of specialization of education & government's limited reach it becomes of paramount importance for various institutions to come forward to the part responsibilities.
The issue for Metros is most challenging as huge number of migrant is getting settled in & around these metros due to abundance in employment opportunities. But there is limited or no access to basic education, also difficult to have a place where a Child can enhance/explore & widen his thought process.
We have personally experienced that there is willingness of the family to send their ward for primary education. But the next stage of education & its cost is a huge setback. Most NGO's want the kids to start the educational process & they have the required funding to run the basic of everything, but the challenge here is whether what percentage enters the stage 2 & further.
One problem we faced was of local politicians who wanted us to give books, Computers, Sewing machines etc to their own people and not to the children from migrant communities. Also they wanted a job post Computer and sewing classes. We really had a difficult time till we mend the situation.
A. R. Vasavi , National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore
This is in response to Ms. Amita Tandon's query related to education of children in urban poverty areas. Many of the questions she raises are pertinent and indicate the lack of comprehensive research and innovative programmes in such areas. Based on our research in some of the poverty areas in Bangalore and in one district town (Chamarajnagar), I strongly feel that the larger pool of Out of school children and those with education deprivation (and related problems of disadvantage) will be in the urban poverty areas. The problems emanate not so much from the inability of families to pay for schools or schooling as much as from the sharp deterioration in the administration of government schools and the failure to provision adequate and relevant schooling (even as cities expand) to people who are the working poor. In addition, the urban poverty areas are now home to an odd and very disturbing trend; that of literate parents but non-literate children.
There is a detailed study titled "Urban Poverty and Basic Education Deprivation" Local Education Report, 2002, Bangalore City, Karnataka, on the research conducted by National Institute of Advanced Studies, available with the Resource Team which can be shared with the interested members' on request . I do hope it helps answer some of the key questions raised by Ms. Tandon.
Havovi Wadia, Child Rights and You, Mumbai
My experience with issues related to education in urban slum pockets bears out some of what has been mentioned by others in their responses - that migrant populations particularly struggle to access education, that the system seems more comfortable with one time grants of books/desks etc rather than investing in a sustainable and accountable programme that imparts equal and quality education for all children.
Just a few things I'd like to draw attention to:
- In slums in Mumbai and Thane, almost invariably, schools are up to Class VII - most parents know they cannot afford to pay for their child to complete Class X in private schools and depend heavily on charity for this purpose. Many, knowing that this is a hurdle, refuse to enroll their children in the first place. There is an urgent need for us to complete the loop on primary education by ensuring that there are schools for children to go to.
- The Bridge schemes in place currently do not have a cohesive or coherent syllabus, simply requiring teachers to cram into 2/3 years the syllabus from nursery to Class V, so that children can then be mainstreamed into municipal schools. As a result, most children are unable to keep up; many cannot be mainstreamed at the end of the bridge course. Teachers (in bridge schools) are handicapped by lack of training and very poor pay packages.
- Under the SSA, coordinators are hired, to devote special attention to enrolment and retention. Their task is to work in communities around the school and address cases where education is being refused or cannot be accessed.
Perhaps a thorough understanding of the government schemes with education should be our first step towards understanding what role civil society needs to play to ensure children get a proper education.
Anjela Taneja, Actionaid India, New Delhi
I would like to start my response with the second part of the Query, specifically the connection between family income and education, before going into the specific response. Based on my experience there is no clear relationship between family income and child education. There is also ample research to back this argument. (eg. GK Lieten, The Causes of Child Labour in India:
A poverty Analysis-
At the same time, I am rather uncomfortable with the possible implication of such a question, namely that the poverty is the cause that keeps children out of school which by implication would need to be remedied through an income generation program (rather than an education centric one). Another corollary of this is that child labour may be permitted to exist until the "underlying" economic problems are resolved. The "Poverty Argument" for the continued existence of Child Labour and children out of school has been disproved both in research and practice (eg work of MV Foundation). Furthermore, as has been pointed out by a previous poster, programs on education are most likely to succeed if they take the issue of education (and in the initial stages child labour) in the focus of the work, and not fall into the temptation of trying to address the issue in a piecemeal manner. An intervention that establishes a community norm that all children (rich and poor) have to be in school, combined with an intervention that holds the State to account for delivery of education forms the best strategy (with short term support being extended to either community or the government- including the teachers as a distinct category- to enable them to play their respective roles) is what I would recommend.
What is the current scenario of education for urban disadvantaged children especially living in slums?
- First of all, there are not enough government schools to cater to the needs of the urban poor population. Whereas the majority of the providers of education in the rural areas has been that of government, private (fees charging) schools tend to take the lead in cities, especially metros. There are atleast two factors that are in operation here- on one hand, there are few reliable estimates of children in urban slum areas (especially in unauthorized and smaller slums), especially considering the fact that the population tends to be migratory in nature. This means that the government often doesn't have an accurate idea of the extent of the problem. At the same time, in a lot of cities there is no place for development of schools in the urban planning process. As a result, even when strong demand for additional schools is created, there is no space to establish them, or to upscale the existing schools with additional classrooms. If new schools do come up (which takes longer than it does in rural areas), these come up at a distance and often in a middle class locality- resulting in greater alienation in the absence of any preparation. The net result of all this is that there is a huge unmet need for schooling. It also means that the few schools that do exist tend to be operating over their normal capacity which results in poor quality. While this is a matter of definition of what is a slum, one may also want to take a look at the provision of education for children of parents employed on construction sites, the urban homeless and children residing on platforms. Provisions for these categories are almost non existent. It may be pointed out at this junction that with increased urbanization of the country, this is a problem that is going to become progressively worse in the years to come.
- With the government promising "Slum-free" cities by 2020, it is not possible to talk about provision of education to urban areas without addressing the question of displacement. Relocation has tended to be to remote areas at a distance from the existing schooling facilities of children and to sites without functional schools. This has overwhelmingly resulted in dropout of the children affected.
- In view of the failure of the state to provide education and since the urban population is upwardly mobile and seeks education for the next generation, this gap is being filled by "budget" private schools. These are usually unrecognized, have untrained teachers and function out of buildings with extremely poor infrastructure. There have been instances of such schools violating safety standards as is evident from the TN school fire tragedy a few years back. However, they do exist (unlike government provisions) and offer quality time with the children, have more decent PTRs and operate on the doorsteps of the families.
- When the State intervenes, there is a tendency to rely on non formal options- instead of investing in setting up full fledged schools (for which there is no space, and which are not set up since the urban slums are legally temporary entities). These tend to be of poorer quality. Another trend has been to rely on NGOs for service delivery instead of investing the time and effort that the State should to ensure education for all its citizens.
- Where schools exist, there tends to be considerable imbalance between secondary and primary schools. There is an overwhelmingly greater percentage of government schools at the primary level, with the government aided and private (recognized) schools being more prevalent at the secondary level and above. This pushes out poor children who are unable to pay fees out of post-elementary schools. Needless to say, being educated till the 8th Standard is not adequate in today's urban India .
- A frequent mechanism of ensuring systemic accountability has been through setting up mechanisms for parent participation. However, there is a clear difference in the operation of these school level bodies and local governance structures in urban and rural areas. Thus, PTA/SDMC members in rural areas reside in a geographically limited area and can easily come together around a school issue. The same level of cohesiveness doesn't exist in an urban area making mobilization of parents more difficult. At the same time, while the village Panchayat set up under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment have a clear and unambiguous mandate and mechanism for ensuring education for all, the mechanisms for the bodies in urban areas tend to be somewhat nebulous. The same level of accountability of the Municipal Corporation simply doesn't exist in the normal course of events.
- A lot of issues pertaining to quality of the delivery have been already raised by Shikha Jain, hence I would not repeat them. However, I would add that in view of the constant influx of migrants there is a need for setting up ongoing bridging mechanisms for the children. Standards of education are not uniform in different parts of the country and many of the newcomers may have dropped out long before their arrival in Delhi which means bridge courses are essential. At the same time, I would like to reiterate the need for provisions for children with a linguistic background different from that of the host city. The urban government schools often fail miserably to cope with issues of tribal dialect or to impart education for Tamil speakers in Northern India (and vice versa).
- What cannot be ignored is that education comes into conflict with possibilities of alternative employment available to children. The lax enforcement of the Child Labour Act (and gaps in its provisions that permit child labour in a majority of occupations) makes the rampant prevalence of child labour possible. On one hand is the absence of or adequate quality in schools with parents and children feeling that not much learning gains are being accrued by children. On the other is the possibility to atleast earn a day's wage. Faced with such an option, parents tend to opt for the latter alternative. The nearly complete failure of the state to persecute anyone violating the Child Labour Act on clauses like employment of children in dhabas, shops, and as domestic workers makes the choice easy for everyone concerned.
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.
- The Government response has been different from State to State, however, by and large, the response has been inadequate.
- It would be essential to plan programs that are holistic in nature since dropout would not be stopped until the issues of quality and accountability are resolved. This is something that should apply to both government and NGO initiatives. The schooling system (both government and private) as it applies to children from poor families at present can be described as a leaking pot. Unless the systemic reasons why dropout happens are plugged, continued enrollment would not work since the seepage would continue. NGO interventions would also need to go beyond soft and stopgap measures like after school tuition and supplementary reading classes. Above all, however, the role of Civil Society should be that of a watchdog on the functioning of the State which has the prime responsibility of ensuring delivery of education while simultaneously challenging the community to send their children to school and track their children's performance.
- One may consider looking at the example of MV Foundation in AP and Bihar for some examples of addressing urban education as a governance issue. This has included ongoing process of community mobilization, setting up Child Rights Protection Forums, and ongoing liaison with the State to ensure education for all. At the core of their work in the belief in the non negotiable principle that all children should be in school and that child labour is not morally permissible to continue.
- An innovative example of the use of RTI for understanding and advocating for provisions for the education of urban poor children in Delhi has been that of "Pardarshita" one of ActionAid India's partners in Delhi. Ensuring transparency in the provisions is a first step to demanding them.
- Bodh Shiksha Samiti, Jaipur has a long history of working with urban poor populations in Rajasthan. It was also the resource agency for Janshala in that state.
Kannan Srinivasan, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum
I was working with Environmental Society, Madras during 1995-97 as Project Officer. During my tenure I was conducting Environmental Education to Urban school children studying in Corporation of Chennai(formerly Corporation of Madras) schools. Most of them belong to Lower Socio-Economic Status. During my class room sessions and eco-camps I observed few things. The methodology went like this. We use to have comprehensive 15 hours programme for five weeks. Each week we use to have 3 hours session in a fixed day. During sessions, we use to have lectures, documentary films, demonstrations, games, slide shows, songs and so on. The children were very participative. The course end with a comprehensive examination at the end of 15 hours course. All who were passing the examination were given a certificate. We also use to conduct eco-camps during weekends. In the camps we use to have games, lecture sessions by experts of environmental sciences, and so on. All were in the Tamil language.
The children were very participative and the feedback from the examination showed their deep understanding in the subjects. Things such as green house effect and global warming were not easy to understand. But they were just reproduce what we taught. The quizzes we conducted were also very interactive.
My point here is, if we make the education very interesting irrespective of the socio-economic background, it will reach the students. The games with songs on environment were very much enjoyed by the students. I remember, when we played the Video cassette on Beauty without cruelty(about the ill effects of animal products). A student pointed out that we should not wear leather products. It was a lesson even for me to avoid leather products whenever possible. This proves how much the topics have registered deep in their mind.
Many thanks to all who contributed to this query!
If you have further information to share on this topic, please send it to Solution Exchange for the Education Community in India at se-ed@solutionexchange-un.net.in with the subject heading "Re: [se-ed] Query: Status and Challenges of Educating Children in Urban Slums Experiences; Examples. Additional Reply."
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