GLOBAL LEADERSHIP CENTRE

(Batch 2011-13)

B-Model To Sustain Pratham Learning Centers

Name: Chester Fernandes: 06 Faculty Guide: Nikky Kumari: 10 Samie Ahmed Sayed Roshni Nair: 46

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report is based on finding out solutions for sustaining the pratham learning centers. There are several pratham learning centers in various parts of the country. But its not enough just opening centers but its also important to keep them running, increasing the reach of it and also to some extent making in self-sustained and self financed. In this report we have discussed the various problems faced by the students, the learning heads and the institutions. The report also highlights the comparison of problem in various slum pockets (slum areas) each having its own different problems. Here interaction with various people has brought various solutions to the ongoing problems and also problem that can arise in the further run.

Table of Contents Topics 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 Introduction History About Pratham Mission & Vision Objectives Activities undertaken Description Project Objectives Major Activities Outputs/ Outcomes/ Result Pictures Case study Recommendations Page No 3 3 3 5 5 5 8 8 8 9 12 16 19

INTRODUCTION

HISTORY
Unlike most other NGOs which are born out of the enterprise of only a few individuals, Pratham was established as a Public Charitable Trust in 1994 by the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, UNICEF and several prominent citizens of the country. Over the years, the network has been expanded to various other cities where like-minded people wanted to replicate the Pratham experience. Central to this massive expansion of Prathams work has been a whole new way of approaching the education problem in India and a new way of implementing programs to create a national impact. We outline below the key milestones in Prathams journey.

ABOUT PRATHAM
Pratham is the largest nongovernmental organization working to provide quality education to the underprivileged children of India. Pratham was established in 1994 to provide pre-school education to the children in the slums of Mumbai city. Since then, the organization has grown both in scope and geographical coverage. Today, we reach out to millions of children living in both rural and urban areas through a range of interventions. All our programs are designed to ensure that: 1. Enrollment in schools increases. 2. Learning in schools and communities increases. 3. The education net reaches children who are unable to attend school. 4. Models are replicated and scaled up to serve large numbers of children to achieve a large scale impact. Pratham firmly believes in working with the government to bring about large scale change and therefore our programs are aimed at supplementing rather than replacing governmental efforts.

MISSION AND VISION

Prathams mission is to ensure Every Child in School and Learning Well. The organization is founded on the firm belief that education is the fundamental right of every child and no child should be deprived of this basic right simply because he/she does not have access to it or does not have the resources to realize his/her dreams. The principal focus of our programs is to ensure quantum and visible improvement in the enrolment and learning levels of the underprivileged children.

OBJECTIVES
1. Generating a societal mission is a necessary means of achieving the broad goal of universal pre-school and primary school education. 2. Creating an impact on a large scale is essential to bring about a perceptible change. 3. Creating low cost models is critical to ensure sustainability and reliability of interventions.

ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN
1.

Urban learning centers: Pratham establishes Learning Centres in communities where it is possible for us to find space to start one, as well as get children who can pay a nominal fee. These learning centres are a one or two room structure on a rental basis, where classes run from morning to evening at regular hours. Programs conducted in the Learning Centre Learning support classes for Std. I to VII: Subject specific learning support classes for children from Std. V to VII are conducted within the Learning Centre. English: Pratham designed English conversation classes would be conducted at the centres. Excellency Classes (Scholarship Classes): These classes are conducted for Std. IV children to prepare them for the Government conducted Scholarship exam. Classes for the Pre-Primary Children (age 4 to 5 years): Pratham conducts classes for children between the age group of 4 to 5 years to prepare them for Std. 1.

Classes for Std. 10 children who are dropouts and help them to appear for exam: The Mumbai team deals with children who are drop outs and prepares them to reappear for the Maharashtra State Board conducted Std. 10 examination.

1.

Read India: Prathams flagship program, Read India, helps to improve the reading, writing and basic arithmetic skills of the children in the age group of 614 years. Read India was therefore launched on a national scale in 2007 to help achieve the following objectives: * All Std I children know at least alphabets & numbers. * All Std II children can read at least words & do simple sums. * All Std III-V children can at least read simple texts fluently & confidently solve arithmetic problems. Read India II, focuses on higher grade-specific learning competencies, where basics have been achieved.2010 onwards, Read India II moved from our previously used model of short-term large-scale learning campaign mode to a longer, more sustained presence in the villages that we work in, in order to bring about a deeper more permanent impact.

2.

ASER: Facilitated by Pratham, ASER is the largest household survey undertaken in India by people outside the government. ASER is carried out by a local organization or institution in each rural district in the country, using a common set of tools and a common sampling frame. The Pratham-ASER approach visualizes measurement as the first stage for action. Both tools and findings are used to propel action at different levels. Involving large numbers of people in identifying and quantifying a problem is the first step in enabling action. The next step is to create a demand for better services at the ground level. PCVC: The Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children started its outreach program in Mumbai in the year 2001. The focus was on working children in the city of Mumbai, who were mainly found to have been trafficked from different parts of the country. PCVC Objectives Reach out and address issues of all vulnerable children Prevent children from entering the labour market Withdraw child workers and other vulnerable children from work or any exploitative situations. Prepare children to be mainstreamed and sustained into Formal School Monitor and improve their learning level Raise awareness on child rights issues (child labour, child abuse, disability) Advocacy with the Government. English Program: The English Program targets children in the age group of 8-14 years and helps build their basic conversational skills and their ability to read simple texts with comprehension. At the end of this 8 month program children

3.

1.

learn to pronounce alphabets and known words correctly and build a vocabulary comprising of approximately 750 words and 1000 sentences.
2.

Computer aided literacy: This is a school based program which caters to school going children from 6-18 age groups with about 40% children in secondary school age. The objective of this program is To impact childrens basic learning levels using IT and To give them relevant IT knowledge and skills. Vocational skill program: This program is targeted at the economically disadvantaged youth in the 18-30 year age group. Prathams Skills Training Program tries to train youth in market relevant skills such as banking, agriculture, hospitality etc. and help them start their own businesses. ECCE: Pratham has been running a successful Balwadi program and in this process worked with and trained thousands of volunteers and pre-school teachers. The center is an attempt to consolidate and share the learning in this area through an institutional framework. Trainings in early childhood care and education is the key activity of the resource centre. Pratham Books: Pratham Books is a not-for-profit organization that publishes affordable and quality books for children in multiple Indian languages. Their mission is to see "a book in every childs hand and democratize the joy of reading.

3.

4.

5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT & AREA

The project is to construct a business model to sustain the current operating Pratham learning centers. The low enrolment of students is making it hard for the institutions to sustain along with the rise in competition from private institutions who are just bulling low income people by aggressive marketing with high fees. The project is focusing on creating a business model that can help pratham institutions to be self sustained and also try to be self financed. The area allocated to your group was south Mumbai.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES
Plan for self sustaining pratham learning centers. Increase the enrollment of students.

MAJOR ACTIVITIES

Visiting different Pratham Learning Centers: Its very important to first understand the base at which Pratham works. This could only be possible by actually going and visiting the centers, spending time with the children understanding what are their problems Helped in conducting survey for kids between the ages of 3 to 5 years: The main objective of the survey was to find out how many kids between the ages of 3 to 5 years attend any educational institute (Balwadi) and how is his progress. Her kids were asked few basis tests like reading, arithmetic, paragraph reading etc. Interacting with various Pratham heads: This not just enough to understand what are the problem of students but also to know what are the steps taken by pratham and what are the problem that learning heads are facing while delivering their service. So we interacted with the learning heads few of them are Naseem Sheikh, Sharda Khare, Jabeen Sheikh, Anil etc.

OUTPUTS/ OUTCOMES/ RESULTS Centers Visited

Center 1 Name: Marathi Shala Location: Matunga

Medium: English and Marathi Description: The center is in a Marathi shala. Here they make students ready for the 10 th STD exams (S.S.C). Students are taught in both the mediums English as well as Marathi. There are in total three teachers who teach various subjects. They also teach students with the help of e-learning (Sundharam E-learning kits) this has made it much easier for the students to understand the subject. The classroom environment is quite suitable for learning.

Center 2

Name: Wadala slums, nursery Location: Wadala Incharge: Sharda Khare Medium: English & Marathi Programmes: Nursery & Vocational Programmes Description: The center is a big area on the first floor. Here there is a good no. of students enrolled for the programme. The facilities for the kids are also well maintained and the play area is quite spacious. They have their own MY OWN SCHOOL uniforms give to them by Pratham. They also have a well maintained register about the information of the students enrolled and his performance. After three they have the vocational programmes which include Parlour, Sewing & Mehendi. Problems: According to the survey conducted there are many students to are interest in studying but are forced by their parents to work. Also sharda says This is one of the dangerous slum pockets after 5 p.m. This is because it is situated in the remote area.

Center 3

Name: Antop hill Location: Vijaynagar, Antop Hill Incharge: Sharda Khare Medium: Marathi Programmes: Nursery & Library Description: This place is not at all suitable for studying in a small room with 11 kids there is hardly any space to move. There is no proper lighting in the room also. The surrounding is completely unhygienic. Teaching was the only good thing about the

center. The studied through games which were really working. The class had a good response. Problems: The main problem faced over here is the amount of space allocated to the center which is very less. Kids required more of open area. Another problem noticed over here was the continuous disturbance for other children in the surrounding. Also there were very few books in the pocket library.

Center 4

Name: Naya nagar Location: Mahim West Incharge: Hasina Sheikh Medium: English and Urdu Programmes: Nursery (Room 1) & Tuition Classes for 1st to 7th STD Description: Here in Mahim there are two rooms one is a spacious room with ample of space for the kids to play and study the other is close by in a place called Naya nagar, here the room is very small and the students are more. In this place there are more of Muslims. This place in been consider a little dangerous area. They have the library system. Problems: Here the parents are working so the teachers have to personally go and bring the kids from their houses. Also here the parents dont send their daughters to study. Even if girls are studying they study only till the age of 7 th or max 8th. Also its been seen that the students over here are more interested in vocational training. But there are n teachers who are ready to work in that area.

Center 5

Name: Band Bawdi Location: Sewri Incharge: Anil Medium: English & Marathi Programmes: Nursery, Tuition classes, 10th classes, library and computer classes. Description: The area is small for so many programs in it. The nursery has 18 students, tuition class has 10 students, 10thclasses has 12 students and the computer class has 10 students. There are a lot of toys and games for the kids but are not used because of the area constraint.

Problems:

Center 6

Name: Dharavi nursery Location: Sion Incharge: Neha Thakur Medium: English Programmes: Nursery, Library, Tuition classes Description: The room was too small a place to study. Nursery class takes place in the morning then tuition classes start in the afternoon. Survey was conducted by going to each house inorder to know how many kids have enrolled in anganwadis. Problems: Space problem. Very unhygienic with rats and cockroaches roaming around.

Survey Conducted
We also were taken on survey rounds by one of the guides for balwadi. We had to collect information regarding parents information and whether they have a child between 3 to 5yrs of age. The kids were given a reading test in order to rank them according to their reading ability. Problems: parents were less interactive. Many kids were not available as they were attending other balwadis. Convincing the adults inorder to provide information. Language barriers as many Maharashtrian families were not well versed with HINDI.

Pictures

There was one more task given to us, which was, to do case study on two of the students. We interviewed both of them and we also interviewed their teachers, just to know about the behaviour of the students in the class and his/her performance in studies. The case study is given bellow.

A large percentage of our population lives in urban slums. Millions of who live in slums faces a hard time to meet the basic needs required to survive. Majority of these people are migrants from the other states of India, like Utter Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan, etc. they come to city in search of work. While the adults are busy working, most of their children spend their days not in school but doing things like picking rags, hanging around with their parents or simply wandering the streets. The irony is that most of the slum colonies of Mumbai have several schools within the walking distance where these children could study easily. The reason for them not being in school, however, have more to do with the society in which they live in. Even if a number of these children are going to schools, it becomes difficult to keep them interested in continuing the schools. The number of drop out at very young age like 5-6 is very huge. Many NGO are working on how to stop the drop outs and also on how to attract more number of children towards education and PRATHAM is one of them. PRATHAM is the largest non-governmental organization working to provide quality education to the underprivileged children of India. It mostly works on the pre-school learning for the children belonging to the slums. We had the opportunity of visiting some of these places and students belonging to these localities. Every child was different from other and each of them had a unique story tell. Two of those unique children we met are Dhanashree Jadhav and Kiran Vasantpujari. There life is so much similar in class both of them are in same class, and are of same age, but their life is totally different in the world outside the classroom.

CASE STUDY
DHANASHREE JADHAV

When we first saw her she was busy studying with her friend and discussing on something related to the book that was opened in front of them. When one of the teachers introduced her to us and told her that we will be taking her interview she got nervous at first, she was very much uncomfortable in answering to the questions that were most probably never asked to her before. She explained the meaning of her name that is goddess of wealth even though she doesnt have any intension in being rich or earning wealth. She just wants to serve people. She was left on the doors of SHRADDHANAND MAHILA ASHRAM at a very young age. She does not remember her parents or she doesnt even have any faded memories of them. As she is always surrounded by the people who serve others called social workers, she is very much inspired by them and wants to become one, after she finishes her studies. She not only wants to help others but also wants to go a step further and wants to specialize in this field by doing Masters in Social Work (MSW). Even though she is just 17 years of age and in class 10th only yet she is very much clear about her life, like what she wants from it and what she wants to become. When she answered our one of the question how your average is like we were amazed by the answer. We came to know that she is very determined and works equally hard to achieve her dreams. Her average day starts at 4 in the morning and ends at around 11 in the night. From 4 to 6 she studies on her own. Then she gets ready to attend PRATHAM classes from 8:30 to 5:30 and when she comes to the ashram at around 7 she does her ashrams work. And after her dinner at 9 pm she goes to her room and revises all the things that she had studied that day. She likes to write poems and read books a lot. These two things are her favorite time pass. She likes to read fiction stories. She had gained a lot from PRATHAM. When we talked to her teachers about her behavior and her performance in studies, they said that earlier she was very much shy and introvert but now there is a change in her personality, now she is confident and talks to almost everyone n the class. Dhanashree told her how she became good in English and mathematics, although her favorite subject remains science. She likes the teachers of PRATHAM, who are very much helpful and they make studying fun. She likes the session where a video explains the topics of science and mathematics. According to her, those animated clippings on the topics make her understand them more and are easy to remember. According to her, growing up in mahila ashram has prepared her for almost anything. At the age of 17 she knows things like embroidery, sewing clothes, handloom works like candle making and knitting and many other crafts, she likes to cook but as she is not allowed her to cook, she just wishes if she could.

KIRAN VASANTPUJARI
We met him in MARATHISHALA that is one of the centres of Pratham. He was one of those students who were constantly focusing on the computer screen, where a video was

being played, and making notes out of it. When one of his teachers introduced him to us and told him to talk to us about himself, at first he hesitated but after a minute or two he became comfortable talking to us. He is just 17 years of age but has seen many problems in his life. The biggest problem in front of him is financial problem. He has already lost his mother and his father is unemployed, their earnings come from the rent of the house. He has a bigger brother who is not so well educated and is working as a caterer, wants him to study further and fulfil his dream. Kiran wants to be an office guy, who goes to office in the morning at 9 and comes back at 5pm. He says that the attire of an corporate worker seems very fascinating to him. He wants to earn money just to uplift his current financial status and he is willing to work very hard for it. Its not like he is a kind of kid who doesnt have fun, he loves to play cricket, and he is a big fan of our Indian cricket teams captain Mahindra Singh Dhoni. His favourite television show is DID (Dance India Dance), he never miss this show not even a single episode. Unlike Dhanashree he has many friends. When we asked his teacher that is he like this shy all the time? She answered no; he is not always like this. When he is with his friends he is completely different and mischievous. And when we asked about his performance in studies she said he has improved a lot in English and mathematics after joining Pratham. We hope he keeps on getting support from his brother and one day he fulfils his dream.

Recommendations

Teachers should be well trained. As observed in few canters teachers were not well versed with English pronunciation Library program should be conducted properly. The center heads should make sure that kids are reading the books issued by them. Students should be made to come in front of the class to read loudly as this would help in building up their confidence Students should be motivated to continue with their further studies. Even their parents should be convinced to do so. Students and their parents should be guided to maintain hygiene, as it was found that there were many kids who were wearing dirty clothes