Report

On

Global Action Week - 2006

Prepared by

Maitrey Environment Education & Research

Association

Organised By

ActionAid India, Catholic Relief Services,

Christian Children Fund, CARE, Oxfam
(GB) India Trust & Their Respective
Partners.
Real education has to draw out the best from the boys and girls to be educated. This
can never be done by packing ill-assorted and unwanted information into the heads of
the students. It becomes a dead weight crushing all originality in them and turning
them into mere automata. Mahatma Gandhi (Harijan 1 December, 1933)

Background
Right now over 100 million children and over 800 million adults in the world, wake up every
day without the hope that education offers. Every day that people are denied an education,
leaves them in ignorance and in poverty.
Global Campaign for Education was formulated in 1999 as a body constituting of Oxfam,
Action Aid, Education International and Global March Against Child Labour in influencing
the framework that emerged from the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000, creating
more space for civil society to engage in future education policies. Global Action Week
(GAW) celebrations had been integral part of the efforts being made every year by Global
Campaign for Education and its networks both nationally and regionally.
Sadly the world remains off-track for achieving even the minimal targets agreed in the
MDGs. 100 million children do not attend school; 60% are girls. At current rates of progress,
some 86 countries are off track to reach the target of giving all children a complete primary
education by 2015i. And the picture is even more bleak when analysed on a regional basis; on
current rates of progress, Africa will not succeed until 2150. Furthermore, this year the one
Millennium Development Goal set for 2005 to achieve gender parity in primary and
secondary education – was missed in over 90 countries.
However, major challenges remain; where access to education has improved, systems are
struggling to meet increased demand and the quality of education can suffer. And there
remain many countries where fees, charges and lack of education infrastructure keep large
numbers of children out of school. It is therefore imperative that GCE keeps up the pressure
that is starting to see some positive, if slow results.
This Year Global Action Week is called ‘Every Child Needs A Teacher’1. It is our
opportunity to continue demanding that politicians and officials keep pledges made to ensure
that every child is not only able to go to school, but is also taught by a well-qualified teacher
in a class no bigger than 40 pupils.
The key messages behind the Global Action Week are:

• Achieving EFA depends on having enough teachers (1:40)

• Teachers need to be professionally trained, adequately paid and well-motivated
for this to happen
• In order to achieve this, there must be sufficient financing for the expansion of
education systems

Global Action Week 2006 demands focus on recruitment, training and retention of teachers
to enable the expansion of education systems without compromising quality. Both access and
quality issues need to emphasised given that poor enrolment and high ‘push-out’ rates are
linked to the poor quality of education, as well as discrimination that girls and ethnic and
other minority children experience in the classroom. If the world is to get back on track for
achieving Education For All, leaders must face up to, and tackle, the looming crisis in the
teaching profession.

1
In this context, GCE uses ‘Teachers’ to encompass all those who educate others in formal and or non-formal settings. The term
therefore refers to facilitators, educators, tutors and animators within the formal and non-formal education system.
Uttar Pradesh
Since Independence Uttar Pradesh has witnessed several, central/state government
educational programmes aimed towards achieving the goal of Universalization of
Elementary Education (UEE). The impact of these efforts became more visible
during the previous decade (1991-2001) when there has been a steady and significant
growth in the literacy status of the State. With the launch of UPBEP (UP Basic
Education Project) in 1993 the efforts to achieve saturation at Primary level by 2007
and at elementary level by 2010 gained tremendous momentum. Since then the
State's Education Programmes were being implemented through UP Education for All
Project Board. Presently DPEP III is being implemented in 36 districts (2000 – 2005).
SSA that commenced in 2001 covers all 70 districts of the State. Hereby all the
educational initiatives in the State are implemented under the aegis of SSA.

In 1999-2000 the Department of Education and the Government of Uttar Pradesh,

took the initiative to formulate a more focused, State specific Education Policy. This
process involved the State Education Department, the State Project Office, SIEMAT,
experts from NIEPA and eminent educationists from U.P. Despite this good
beginning, which lead to formation of an interim policy document, the State
Education Policy is yet to be finalised. There have been no concrete steps to endorse
the State Education Policy in the legislature and to involve the larger political
leadership in accepting it as a formal policy document of the Government. The need
for a clear policy is self evident in a State such as UP that continues to lag
educationally despite concerted efforts in the recent past.

The State has made efforts to make education both qualitatively and quantitatively
accessible by expanding the schooling system, opening more schools, providing for
maintenance, organising training of teachers, administrators and teacher educators and
revising curriculum. Given that primary schooling is gradually emerging as a social
norm and people want their children not only to go to school but to receive quality
education as well. However, their efforts to enroll children in the educational
mainstream are in vain when learning is not happening in schools. The status of
several lakhs of children in primary schools across the State gets assimilated in one
single statement of a disappointed parent in Sitapur district - “ Earlier class two pass
could read postcards, now they can’t even write their names”. Those in school are in
no better position that those who dropped out – it is estimated that at least one third of
those enrolled drop out before they reach class 5. Of these the majority are girls
irrespective of social group.

Some Facts on Scenario of Teacher affecting Education in Uttar Pradesh

• Uttar Pradesh ranks 27th position Female Literacy out of 31 states.

• Female Literacy rate – 42.2% compared to Male Litercay-68.8% (Approx-
2/3rd of Male Literacy)
• Rural Female Literacy rate- 36.9% compared to Rural Male Literacy –66.6%
(1/2 of male literacy rate)
• Dalit Female Literacy rate in UP is only 10.69%
• There is adverse teacher:pupil ratio at 1:55 impacting on the quality of
education.
• 16.1% Schools with single teacher
• Only 13.3% enrollment in Schools with single teacher
• 39.8% schools have no female teacher where total no. of teachers is greater
than or equal to 2
• 49.6% schools have Student-Classroom Ratio(SCR) greater than 60
• Enrollment in schools with SCR>60 is 66.1%
• Drop out rate for Scheduled Cast students for class 1-5 is as high as 56.88
and 1-8 is 72.41
• Only 8% of girls complete 8 years of education in UP (A world Bank report –
Filmer and Prischett, 1998).
• Drop out rate for Poorest household is 4 times of the richer (as per world bank
report)
• 28 lacs children do not have physical access to elementary school (world bank
report 2002 poverty in India – challenges in Uttar Pradesh
• The caste profile of teachers is a critical issue as many teachers carry
discriminatory attitudes and baggage that affects their interactions with
children in classrooms expressed through verbal and behavioural signals.
• Teachers are not bothered about disciplining the children.
• Classroom practices continue to reflect rote learning, bleak and bare learning
spaces, poor activity sessions, and corporal punishment. They are also unable
to use multi- grade teaching practices to reach out to all children.
• While recruitment of teachers has been prioritised by the government, their
deployment is highly politicised due to which placement in far flung schools,
more needy schools, in remote rural areas is difficult. Even if they do get
posted they may not join, or take long leave or use political connections to get
transferred to a place of their choice.
• Even with more teachers and para teachers the schools continue to have high
PTR.
The Need for Focus on Teachers

• Without quality teachers there will be no EFA - they play the pivotal role in
education reforms and systems
• Teacher salaries make up the biggest part of national expenditure on education
and are therefore critical within the EFA financing gap
• Teachers are under pressure – rising enrolments, pressure from HIV/AIDS,
low salaries and poor living conditions. Poor conditions have an especially
negative impact on female teachers
• Well trained teachers are the critical factor in providing access and quality in
education, yet rarely are their voices listened to by education policy makers.
• Receiving quality education is highly dependent on sufficient numbers of
teachers.
• Uttar Pradesh has resorted to hiring ill-trained and badly paid teachers (often
called para-teachers) as a cost saving strategy. However this has resulted in
declining levels of quality, especially in rural or disadvantaged areas, where
such schemes tend to be put to trial, further exacerbating and reproducing
educational inequalities.
• Including girls and children belonging to ethnic and other minorities requires
education that is relevant and free of discrimination. Teachers need training to
sensitise them to learners’ diverse needs, and teacher recruitment needs to
ensure women and teachers from ethnic and other minorities are adequately
represented.
• Good teachers, especially female teachers, are particularly important for
helping girls stay in school
• Issues around supply, quality and valuing teachers apply to varying degrees in
rich an poor countries

Our Demands are:

• Increase domestic financing to get to a pupil to teacher ratio of 40:1

• Increase the supply of professionally trained teachers
• Improve teachers’ terms and conditions to attract more competent and
dedicated people to the profession
• Ensure teachers have a central role in education support networks: PTAs,
SMCs, district and regional EFA fora
• Ensure that all dialogue on education policy and practice includes teachers and
their representative associations
• Ensure proportionate representation of women and ethnic and other minorities
in the teaching force by introducing positive discrimination measures in
teacher recruitment procedures.
• Ensure support for female teachers (especially those working in remote rural
areas) and gender sensitive teacher training
Every Child Needs A Teacher Campaign – Uttar Pradesh

Action Aid, Care, CRS, CCF, Oxfam their respective partners and other NGOs like
Maitrey ERA, AIM, etc have come together to organize and campaign for ‘Every
Child Needs a Teacher’ in the state of Uttar Pradesh. This way the campaign is being
built in around 40 districts of Uttar Pradesh with a similar number of voluntary
organizations providing the impetus at the Districts. The campaign is an ongoing
process until the EFA benchmarks are achieved, however from 10-30 April, 2006 a
focused and intensive campaign on the theme of ‘Every child needs a teacher’ has
been carried out.

Agency and their Activities

partners
Oxfam Nukkad Natak, Children’s Parliament, Procession, Painting
CCF competition , Workshop of Media and civil societies,
CRS Testimonials of Children, Signature Campaign, Shikshak
CARE Jagrukta Rath
Action Aid

The activities at District Level were collated at State Level in the form of:

Photo Gallery

The Photo Gallery was put up for public viewing on April 27 – 28, 2006 at Gulistan,
Hotel Gomti, Sapru Marg, Lucknow.

The photo gallery consisted photographs depicting the following themes:

 The state of the building/ space it covers.
 The infrastructure i.e. state of classroom- blackboard/ sunlight
availability/ windows/ doors/ walls/ roof
 Outside i.e trees/toilets/
drinking water/ boundary
wall etc.
Teacher conducting a class
 Teacher managing the
children
 Teacher - pupil ratio
 Teacher-classroom ratio
 Teaching learning material
if any displayed in school
 Photograph of the case
study success- failures
 Activities during the month
of April 2006 for GAW.
 Activities done throughout
the last year for working on
the issue
of education.
The Photo Gallery was inaugurated by Hon’ble Minister for Basic Education, Uttar
Pradesh, Shri Kiran Pal Singh who agreed that teachers are an important pillar for
foundation of quality education. He informed that in the current financial year 50,000
teachers have been
recruited to improve
the teacher:pupil ratio.
He praised the
organizations working
on the issue of
education and coming
together of them to
focus on the issue. He
also suggested that a
panel be made of the
organizations from
different regions who
may meet him with the
scenario on Education
as viewed by organisations and suggestions thereof. This would give government first
hand information of the gaps if any of their efforts being made inorder to achieve
Millennium Development Goals and more than that every child gets educated and
they are not left in ignorance and in poverty.

Research & Photo Documentation

Purpose:
Qualitative and quantitative analysis of existing scenario of Teacher related issues
in Primary Education.

Objectives:
•To collect and understand the facts related to existing scenario of Teacher and
children
•To investigate gaps in quality education keeping in view school improvement.
•To identify successful and replicable practices in primary schools.
•To collect the evidences for advocacy.
•To identify effective inputs and facilitation areas for School Improvement.

Methodology:
• Participatory Rural Appraisal
• Focus Group Discussion
• Observation

Sources and
Areas for information collection:
District, Village and Community Profile, School Profile, Parents Teachers
Association, Villages Education Committee, Status of school going children,
People’s Organization Status and Views of their representatives.
 • Majority teachers are irregular and
TPR: there is significant correlation
General 1: 39 (ranges 1:11 to 1:84) between distance of teacher’s
Dalit 1:263 (ranges 1:140 to 1:712)
Female 1: 83 (ranges 1:29 to 1:127) residence from school and their
attendance.
PTA/ MTA: Passive • Shikshamitra are regular and
VEC: Formed but Non Functional teaching better.
• Percentage of female teacher is
visibly high (76%)in urban areas.
• Teachers are burdened with additional workload.
• In Jaloun dacoit problem is one of the major constraint in school functioning.
• All Shikshamitra and three fourth teachers are trained but quality of teaching
Mr. J.S. Deepak, Secretary, Basic Education, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh to Chair
Dr. Rakesh Chandra, Lucknow University to rap-up the session
Ms. Neeraj, CEF Country Incharge,
is questionable.
• Quality of education is one of the major reasons of low attendance and drop
outs .
• One-fourth teachers expressed the need of quality training.
• Parents are not aware of need and importance of education in the life of their
children resulting in indifferent attitude.
• Children support their parents in source of income-generation.
• Poverty of parents.

State Level Workshop

A State Level workshop was held on April 28th, 2006 at Hotel Gomti, Sapru Marg,
Lucknow.

Participants

*Chief Guest : Mr. J.S. Deepak, IAS, Secretary Basic Education

*Panel Members
Ms. Kanchan Sinha, Programme Manager, Oxfam(GB) India Trust- Facilitator
Dr. Rakesh Chandra, Lucknow University - Chair
Mr. Abhimanyu Tiwari, UPPSS,
Mr. Jayant Krishna, TCS,
Mr. Ashish Tripathi- TOI

*Action Aid and their partners

*Care and their partners,
*Catholic Relief Services and their partners,
*Christian Children Fund and their partners,
*Oxfam(GB) India Trust and their partners
*Other NGOs like Maitrey Environment Education & Research Association, AIM etc.
The Programme
 Presentation of State Scenario & GAW Activities
 Panel Discussion on Joint efforts of Government and Civil Society to put an
end to the crisis of providing quality as well as access and also fulfilling the
GAW theme of 2006 ‘Every Child Needs A Teacher’
 Sharing of Regional Experiences/ Learning’s of GAW/ Open House
 Press Briefing with NGO and Regional Partners

The workshop started with the welcome note by Ms. Sunita Siddharth Shanker
thereafter Photo Documentation was screened for the participants of the workshop
giving an insight into the status of education with emphasis on impact on education
due to teachers and how the organizations present had worked to organize
communities to take up the issue to the policy makers.

Ms. Kanchan Sinha invited the panel members on the dias

i