Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India): LAMP Annual ......Children’s Festival in Bhimora In...
Transcript of Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India): LAMP Annual ......Children’s Festival in Bhimora In...
LAMP Annual Progress Report (April 2014-March 2015) 13
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India):LAMP Annual Progress Report (April 2014-March 2015)
AGA KHAN RURAL SUPPORT PROGRAMME (INDIA)A PROGRAMME OF THE AGA KHAN DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
LAMP Annual Progress Report (April 2014-March 2015) 1
BACKGROUND
Enrollment in primary schools throughout India has increased impressively over the past couple
decades, and especially since the passage of the landmark Right to Education (RTE) Act in 2009. In
many parts of the country, however, a variety of social and economic obstacles to universal enrollment
in high-quality primary school remain.
In Surendranagar and Morbi districts of rural Gujarat, poverty rates are high and adult educational
attainment levels are low. Many villages are home to high percentages of socially marginalized
families. Some of these families are caught up in seasonal migration cycles that take them away
from their home villages for months at a time. Moreover, the economy of this rural part of Gujarat is
dominated primarily by cotton, whose harvesting season often involves child labor and negatively
affects attendance at school.
AKRSP(I)’s educational interventions, collectively known as the Learning and Migration Programme
(LAMP), have been crafted to respond to this mix of social and economic challenges. In partnership
with the American India Foundation (AIF), AKRSP(I) implemented LAMP in 120 villages across
Sayla, Chotila, and Wankaner blocks of Surendranagar and Morbi districts from April 2014 to March
2015. Overall, the education programme aims to:
1) Increase community awareness of children’s right to education,
2) Build the capacity of school management committees (SMCs) and other groups to play
meaningful roles in school governance, and
3) Improve primary school students’ learning achievement.
OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES
To achieve these objectives, AKRSP(I) has implemented a variety of initiatives in its target areas.
These projects include:
• The Learning Enrichment Programme (LEP)
• RTE awareness activities, including bal melas and mass awareness campaigns
• Training SMC members, PRI members, and citizen educators for participation in school
governance
• Supporting village-level data collection for village education registers
• Supporting SMCs’ preparation of school development plans (SDPs)
• Holding workshops and events for SMC federation members
• Establishing seasonal hostels for migrant children
2 Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)
REDUCING LEARNING GAPS THROUGH THE LEARNING ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME (LEP)
The primary objective of the Learning Enrichment Programme (LEP) is to enable children in Standards
III-V in target communities to achieve age-appropriate learning. AKRSP(I) has implemented LEP in
15 villages throughout Sayla and Chotila blocks of Surendranagar district.
Through a baseline assessment of literacy and
numeracy levels, students with the greatest need
for academic intervention in each village were
identified and enrolled in LEP. AKRSP(I) then
recruited and trained community volunteers (bal
mitras, or “child friends”) to serve as LEP
classroom teachers. Bal mitras provided two hours
of extra instruction on a daily basis to the selected
students over the course of two six-month classes
or “levels” (L1 and L2). To date, 525 students have
been enrolled in LEP classes; nearly 500 of these
children completed the full two-level cycle of the
LEP curriculum.
Bal mitras are trained to use child-centered,
activity-based methods and engaging, attractive teaching-learning materials to develop students’
core literacy and numeracy skills. Lessons are designed to maximize peer-to-peer learning through
grouping strategies and other interactive techniques. Along the way, AKRSP(I) provides in-depth
coaching and support to LEP teachers through weekly meetings to develop lesson plans, discuss
challenges, and reflect on teaching practices. Moreover, the project aims to improve the primary
school system through wider adoption of its methods and through outreach to parents as a
demonstration of quality teaching and learning.
Despite the challenging social environment in which LEP operates, it has ushered in some key
successes over the last year in terms of students’ learning progress. Improvements in student
achievement have been documented throughout the course of L1 and L2, as measured by AIF-
designed baseline, midline, and endline tests. The graphs below show the average increase in student
scores over the intervention period: from 10.9 to 33.7 (out of 50) in language and from 12.2 to 38.3 in
maths. In both language and math subjects, L2 endline scores were more than three times higher
than baseline scores. In practice, these data mean that, at baseline, the average LEP student could
barely do Standard I-level work; after a year of LEP classes, however, she was capable of Standard
V-level work. (L2 corresponds to Standards III, IV, and V in the standard government curriculum.)
Just as important as the test scores are other changes LEP has brought about in intervention
communities. In a recent evaluation of the project, parents reported positive changes in their
children’s level of interest in school, their homework habits, and their confidence in their ability
to learn. Furthermore, government teachers at five of the 15 partner schools have begun to adopt
LEP’s teaching-learning materials and child-centered techniques in their own classrooms. This
LAMP Annual Progress Report (April 2014-March 2015) 3
“mainstreaming” of LEP’s effective approaches has multiplied its impact on students in rural Gujarat
and ensure the benefits of the project are sustained.
Average Language Scores, Baseline to L2 Endline
Baseline L1 Endline L2 Endline(Oct 2013) (Jul 2014) (Feb 2015)
Aver
age
Scor
e(ou
t of 5
0)
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Average Maths Scores, Baseline to L2 Endline
Baseline L1 Endline L2 Endline(Oct 2013) (Jul 2014) (Feb 2015)
Aver
age
Scor
e(ou
t of 5
0)
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
33.67n=49830.54
n=444
10.92n=499
12.15n=499
35.09n-445
38.32n=498
Children’s Festival in Bhimora
In August, AKRSP(I) organized a children’s festival at Bhimora village for all LEP students in the
seven villages of Chotila block. The primary objectives of the festival were to bring students and
LEP facilitators from different villages together and to provide opportunities for students to practice
their public speaking, cooperation, and communication skills through games, contests, and group
activities. Students from each class prepared a unique activity to share with the large group, which
exposed LEP teachers to new ideas to facilitate learning in their classrooms. Perhaps most importantly,
the students, some of whom had shown little interest in learning prior to the festival, were
disappointed when the event ended, suggesting that they had experienced it as a fun way to learn
new things and get to know new people.
RAISING AWARENESS OF CHILDREN’S RIGHT TO EDUCATION
A wide variety of RTE awareness activities have been carried out throughout the duration of LAMP
in the 120 intervention villages. This year, AKRSP(I) has employed two main strategies to spread
and amplify key messages related to India’s RTE Act. One has involved a focus on government
schools as the locus of RTE awareness activities and is exemplified by bal melas; the other has entailed
partnering with other organizations and groups to achieve maximum coverage.
Bal Melas
An example of the first strategy is the 60 children’s festivals (bal melas) AKRSP(I) has held in the past
year. A bal mela takes place at a government primary school and is a day-long event facilitated
jointly by AKRSP(I) staff and school principals. The twin purposes of these festivals are (1) to build
rapport with partner schools and SMCs and (2) to nurture students’ creativity and eagerness to
learn.
4 Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)
SMC members and teachers act as co-
facilitators during bal melas, helping children
participate in activities and providing
encouragement, thus building school-
community relationships and normalizing
parents’ participation in school activities. Bal
mela activities also reinforce positive messages
while giving students creative outlets for
expression. For example, drawing contests are
often held in which groups of students
imagine and illustrate their schools or
communities according to themes such as
hygiene, the environment, and school attendance. Bal melas give students space and time to explore
their environments, work together in groups, and participate in activities that are both fun and
educational.
Partnerships
AKRSP(I) has recognized that reaching more
people with important information about RTE
requires strategic partnership. Awareness-
raising events, including RTE tent displays
and meetings with teachers to discuss
enrollment drive efforts, have been staged at
the Rajsobagh Ashram as part of a partnership
with Premni Parabh. In Wankaner block, RTE
messages have been incorporated into
AKRSP(I)’s long-standing work with self-help
groups (SHGs) and cotton farmer
cooperatives (part of the Better Cotton
Initiative project), whose members have, in
turn, become key advocates for universal education in their villages.
Woven through all of these activities, AKRSP(I) has also maintained a consistent awareness-raising
presence in the 120 intervention villages through frequent displays of the RTE tent, distribution of
pamphlets and handouts promoting RTE, and use of a roving vehicle equipped with a sound system
to project RTE messages to a wide audience. It is estimated that, through all of these activities,
AKRSP(I)’s mass awareness campaigns have reached over 10,000 people with information on
children’s right to primary education.
BUILDING A NETWORK OF UNIVERSAL EDUCATION ADVOCATES
Through its efforts to sensitize and train a variety of village-level actors, AKRSP(I) is systematically
building grassroots support for universal access to school. In the past year, the education team has
LAMP Annual Progress Report (April 2014-March 2015) 5
facilitated training sessions with over 500 SMC members, over 300 members of local assemblies
(PRIs), and about 300 citizen educators (village volunteers) to:
• Increase stakeholders’ understanding of the roles and responsibilities of community members
in school governance,
• Provide forums for community-wide discussion of educational issues, and
• Motivate groups and individuals to take meaningful actions toward ensuring universal school
enrollment and attendance.
Taken together, these trainings have equipped community leaders to share important RTE messages
and advocate for universal enrollment and attendance in their villages. Further downstream, the
trainings and subsequent actions taken by SMCs, PRIs, and citizen educators, have wrought important
changes in attitudes and behaviors at the village level. Anecdotally, AKRSP(I) staff and other
stakeholders have observed the following changes:
• Parents of all backgrounds now visit schools more frequently and interact on a more regular
basis with teachers and principals.
• A larger number of parents now participate in special events held at schools, such as Republic
Day and Independence Day ceremonies.
• Increasing percentages of SMC members now insist that SMC meeting agendas and notes be
stated explicitly and orally before offering their signatures in the official records.
In short, this network of village-level groups have used their influence and the information gained
from AKRSP(I)’s RTE trainings to broaden parents’ participation in educational affairs and school
governance. Parents are now more likely to believe and understand that they share responsibility
for their children’s education along with teachers and the government—and are more likely to act
in accordance with this empowering belief.
Kanpar Case Study
Nyamakbahen, a native of Kanpar village in Wankaner block, was selected to be trained as a citizeneducator volunteer this year. As a result of the trainings she attended, she has embraced herresponsibility to serve her community and use her voice to improve the educational opportunitiesand outcomes for children in her village. At Nyamakbahen’s insistence, for example, the preschoolteacher in Kanpar agreed to keep the Anganwadi open more frequently so that Kanpar’s youngchildren could more consistently benefit from age-appropriate care and nutritional supplementation.This intrepid citizen educator has also initiated conversations with her neighbors to make sure theysend their children to primary school; at least one child in Kanpar is now attending school as a resultof Nyamakbahen’s efforts.
6 Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)
ACHIEVING UNIVERSAL ACCESS AND RETENTION
According to AKRSP(I)’s school monitoring records, enrollment across all 120 intervention primary
schools stands at 97%, on par with the latest statewide and national enrollment figures. Attendance
at those schools averaged about 80% overall, with significant variations in attendance rates throughout
the year. These attendance figures compare favorably with national attendance rates (71% in 2014),
but are slightly under average rates in Gujarat state
(82.5% in 2014).1 The high prevalence of child labor
during cotton harvesting season remains a
persistent obstacle to more consistent attendance,
especially among the poorest and most vulnerable
families.
The following three stories illustrate AKRSP(I)’s
commitment to achieving universal coverage and
retention. Each case represents a different
approach to educational intervention, but the
results have been striking: improved access for
marginalized families; a greater focus on retaining
girl students; and better learning environments.
Samatpar: Ensuring Educational Access for the Marginalized
SMC-led actions in the village of Samatpar, supported by AKRSP(I), have expanded educational
access to many of the community’s most disadvantaged families.
The Case: At a Glance
1 ASER Centre. (2015). The National Picture: 2014 Annual Status of Education Centre Report (Rural).
• High rate of irregularschool attendance(80 students)
• Many families livingfar from the primarychool
CONTEXT
• Community meetingto discuss causes oflow attendance
• Request for transportfunding included inSDP
• Reduced rate ofirregular schoolattendance by 50%
• Increased levels ofparental involvementin SMC activities
INTERVENTION
RESULT
LAMP Annual Progress Report (April 2014-March 2015) 7
Samatpar: The Context
Throughout its implementation of LAMP, AKRSP(I)
has remained focused on the people whose lives it
aims to improve: students and their families. The
story of the village of Samatpar illustrates
AKRSP(I)’s commitment to ensuring that all
children, especially those from socioeconomically
disadvantaged communities, have access to
education.
About 1,300 people live in Samatpar, a village
located 18 kilometers west of Sayla. A high
proportion of poor, lower-caste families (members
of the chuvaliya koli caste) live in Samatpar. These families have experienced social and economic
marginalization for generations and thus have low incomes and low levels of educational attainment.
Until recently, most such parents were unaware of their children’s right to education; some, too,
were unconvinced that school attendance is important and beneficial for children’s growth and
development and a key to their future success and prosperity.
When AKRSP(I) first started working with Samatpar and its government primary school, irregular
school attendance was extremely common and parental support for education was generally low.
In a school with a total enrollment of 256 (129 boys and 127 girls), about 80 children were identified
as irregular attendees and at high risk of dropping out of school altogether. Project staff developed
a strong relationship with the school’s principal, Mr. Ramchandrabhai Thakar, as well as with key
SMC and community members who believed in the promise and importance of education. The key
question that drove AKRSP(I)’s involvement in Samatpar was this: How can the organization most
effectively support community-led efforts to improve access and retention in school?
The Intervention
In conjunction with the school principal, SMC
members, citizen educators, and the local assembly,
AKRSP(I) hosted a community meeting in Samatpar
to discuss the importance of regular school
attendance and to understand the obstacles parents
face in ensuring their children go to school. After
listening to parents’ experiences, AKRSP(I) learned
that one of the main factors contributing to low
attendance at school was that many families,
particularly those with disadvantaged
backgrounds, lived far from the school—as many
as five kilometers.
8 Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)
To address this issue, AKRSP(I) worked with Smatpar’s principal and SMC members to send a
formal request (through the School Development Plan process) to the district education department
for special transport arrangements to ensure that families living far from the school were not excluded
from education.
Results
Since this change was implemented, the number of students with irregular attendance records
has been reduced by 50%. As a result of the community’s efforts, supported by AKRSP(I), 41
children in Samatpar who were at high risk of dropping out are now attending school on a regular
basis. Instead of staying home or working in the fields, these children now have the chance to learn
how to read and do math, to interact with their peers, and, eventually, to become healthy, productive
citizens of India.
Moreover, as a result of AKRSP(I)’s relationship with Samatpar village, Mr. Ramchandrabhai reports
that parents have become more supportive of their children’s attendance at school, more involved
in their students’ learning, and more engaged in school governance activities.
Ultimately, this story illustrates AKRSP(I)’s vision for education in Gujarat: that every child would
have the opportunity to attend a school with a high-quality learning environment led by caring
teachers and supported by active, engaged parents. It is a vision worthy of India’s Right to Education
act, and AKRSP(I) considers it a privilege to be part of bringing about this vision in rural Gujarat.
Lunsar: Supporting Girls’ Education Beyond Primary School
Like many villages in rural Gujarat, Lunsar faces a critical shortage of educational opportunities for
students, particularly girls, who complete primary school (Standard VIII). Lunsar is home to 3,000
people of mixed caste and religious identities and a government primary school, but no secondary
school. Out of fear for their daughters’ safety, many parents are reluctant to send girls to high schools
outside their home villages. Most girls who finish Standard VIII, then, regardless of their academic
potential, are unable to continue their
education beyond the primary level. In
Lunsar, an average of 15 girls finish Standard
VIII each year, write their exams, and then
drop out of school to assume various
domestic roles.
To address the issue in Lunsar, AKRSP(I)
gathered a small group of citizen educator
volunteers, PRI members, and teachers to
visit the homes of parents of several girls who
had completed primary school and
encourage them to consider allowing their
girls to attend the nearest high school (about
22 kilometers away). Four families agreed to
LAMP Annual Progress Report (April 2014-March 2015) 9
do so; within weeks, these four girls had gained admission to Wankaner High School. All four are
still attending and are about to finish Standard IX.
This simple intervention worked in Lunsar because AKRSP(I) had built a network of local partners
whom families trust. AKRSP(I) hopes to build on this success story to ensure equal access to
educational opportunities for girls throughout Surendrangar and Morbi districts.
Thoriyali: Supporting Educational Excellence
Among all of AKRSP(I)’s partner schools, the transformative potential of its education programme
is perhaps best illustrated in the village of Thoriyali. In partnership with AKRSP(I), school and
community leaders in Thoriyali have created an ecosystem that supports student growth, learning,
and achievement in exemplary ways. The school principal has nurtured a culture of professionalism
among his teachers, encouraging experimentation and positive teacher-student relationships.
Teachers employ child-centered and project-based learning methods that engage their students and
give them a voice in their learning process.
Members of the local assembly are deeply
involved in school governance and have taken
concrete steps to improve the school’s
learning environment. Indeed, Thoriyali
Primary School was named the Most
Outstanding School in Sayla block by
district education department officials this
year.
Critical to Thoriyali’s success has been
AKRSP(I)’s support, both through the LEP
and RTE projects. The community member
selected to serve as the LEP facilitator, Mr.
Rameshbhai Makwana, has embraced his role not only as a teacher but also as an advocate for
educational access and quality. Rameshbhai’s consistent presence and devotion to children has helped
many of Thoriyali’s most at-risk students gain confidence in their ability to learn. He has also
developed close relationships with school teachers, SMC members, and parents, mobilizing
community support for school initiatives such as water infrastructure improvement and the adoption
of new teaching-learning materials through LEP. Rameshbhai’s enthusiasm has effectively maximized
the impact of AKRSP(I)’s interventions, creating a foundation of community and institutional support
upon which further improvements in educational quality can be built. The future of Thoriyali’s
children is brighter because of these locally led efforts, and thanks in no small part to AKRSP(I)’s
bottom-up, relationship-driven approach to educational development.
10 Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)
EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES TO EFFECT EDUCATIONAL CHANGE
Using Data to Write School Development Plans
According to India’s Right to Education Act (2009), SMCs are responsible for compiling data on
their schools and villages in the form of a Village Education Register (VER) and, in consultation
with primary school teachers, for submitting school development plans (SDPs) to their block resource
coordinators. In many rural villages, SMCs lack the capacity to carry out these functions. With
technical assistance from AKRSP(I), SMC members in 30 villages conducted comprehensive
household surveys to collect important pieces of data, such as the total population of children aged
6 to 14, the number of migrant families, and the number of children with special needs. This
information was compiled in VER form, presented to communities, and submitted to school
principals. Importantly, AKRSP(I) staff have made efforts to ensure that VERs can be accessed by
parents and other stakeholders at any and all times to promote transparency in school governance.
Instead of being kept under lock and key, as is typically the case in government primary schools,
registers are made available and visible in principals’ offices.
Furthermore, AKRSP(I) has supported these
30 SMCs to use VER data to write meaningful
proposals into their schools’ school
development plans (SDPs). SMC involvement
in writing SDPs has made the process of
educational planning more participatory and
user-oriented. In other words, it has given
parents and community members—those
with the highest stake in educational
outcomes—a chance to articulate their needs
and priorities for the allocation of government
resources. AKRSP(I)-supported SDPs have,
for example, called for additional spending
on school transportation for children from remote settlements, seasonal hostels for children of
migrant families, and improved drinking water facilities.
Mini-ASER Survey
In February 2015, AKRSP(I) field staff conducted a small survey of about 180 students’ learning
levels in 15 villages across Sayla, Chotila, and Wankaner blocks. The survey borrowed assessment
materials and sampling methodologies from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), a yearly
survey of rural children’s math and reading skills led by Pratham’s research arm. The goal of this
undertaking was twofold: (1) to identify children’s current levels of learning achievement and
potential areas of future intervention; and (2) to serve as a way to start conversations with parents
about the quality of education their children are receiving.
Full findings from the survey are forthcoming, but early results indicate that significant percentages
of primary school children are not capable of doing grade-level math and reading tasks. As AKRSP(I)
LAMP Annual Progress Report (April 2014-March 2015) 11
seeks to mobilize stakeholders around
issues of educational quality, these
statistics will serve as useful indicators of
current learning achievement levels
against which future projects can be
measured. Indeed, the survey was simple
and cheap to carry out, which makes it
highly replicable as a data collection
instrument.
Moreover, the ASER-style survey was
administered in families’ homes, not in
schools. This community-based approach
allowed parents to see firsthand the kinds
of skills their children are (or are supposed to be) learning at school. The survey tasks—including
reading words and sentences in Gujarati and doing simple mathematical calculations—gave parents
a glimpse of their children’s skill levels and allowed AKRSP(I) staff to initiate conversations about
the importance not only of attending school but of the quality of their children’s learning. Eventually,
as such conversations become more common, it is hoped that newly-empowered parents will be
able to better support, as well as demand, higher-quality education and better learning outcomes
for their children.
STRENGTHENING SMC FEDERATIONS
In addition to convening SMC federation meetings and trainings throughout the year, AKRSP(I)
has supported additional federation activities that have built federation capacity to address local
challenges and take meaningful collective actions.
State-Level SMC Convention
On 24th November, 2014, 125 SMC and
federation members from AKRSP(I)-
supported villages participated in an AIF-
hosted SMC Convention. Designed to
bring together SMC representatives from
various districts in Gujarat to share
experiences, discuss educational
challenges, and consider promising
practices and strategies, attendees listened
to and interacted with education officials,
experts, and stakeholders from across the
public and private sectors, including the
Education Minister of the Government of
Gujarat. Panel and large-group discussions
12 Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)
provided members with the opportunity
to identify key challenges and highlight
solutions they have tried and found
effective in their respective villages. SMC
federation members expressed satisfaction
with the opportunities to meet, socialize,
and share experiences with parents from
other villages and other parts of the state,
and with the chance to raise concerns in
the presence of authorities, to be heard, and
to listen to others’ ideas for how to improve
education. Perhaps most importantly, the
convention helped members see
themselves as part of a larger network of
actors working toward the goal of improving education in Gujarat. The event represented a helpful
step forward in building the identity and self-efficacy of SMC federations and their constituent
members.
Seasonal Hostel Applications
Another area in which SMC federations have been active is in migration mitigation efforts. With
support from AKRSP(I) staff, all three SMC federations have consolidated information from village-
level SMCs and filed formal petitions with the relevant block resource centers and the state education
department urging authorities to follow through on their commitment to reducing migration rates
through the establishment of seasonal hostels. The seasonal hostel approach has been shown to be
effective in other states and requires government resources and partnerships to be properly
implemented. Thus far, the petitions have not yielded swift results; they have, however, united
SMC federation members in common cause around the important issues their community members
are facing, suggesting that federations are likely to continue to serve as important vehicles for
demanding and taking meaningful action to improve educational opportunities in Sayla, Chotila,
and Wankaner blocks.
REDUCING MIGRATION
Despite the best efforts of SMC and SMC federation members to establish seasonal hostels, only one
such hostel in Chotila block has thus far opened. As a temporary measure to reduce the burden of
migration on children, AKRSP(I) has called upon parents, PRI members, and SMCs to find ways to
retain migrant children in the homes of extended family members or fellow villagers. This strategy
has allowed 40% of children who would have migrated with their families to remain in their home
villages and continue to attend school.
AGA KHAN RURAL SUPPORT PROGRAMME (INDIA)A PROGRAMME OF THE AGA KHAN DEVELOPMENT NETWORK
9th -10the floor, Corporate House, Opp. Dinesh Hall, Off Ashram Road, Ahmedabad – 380 009, Gujarat, IndiaTel: 079-6631 2471 Email: [email protected] Website: www.akdn.org/India