SECTORS OF INTERVENTION: Elements of MANTRA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Village based education

Gram Vikas aims to ensure that all children are able to access primary education. Where government schools exist our efforts are in motivating and mobilising village communities to ensure effective functioning of these schools. Together with village communities we ensure that all eligible boys and girls are enrolled in the school and dropouts are motivated to re-enrol. In villages where the student-teacher ratio is high, the village committees have engaged additional facilitators who are trained by Gram Vikas. These facilitators also conduct tuition classes in the evenings. Government schoolteachers are involved in development activities in the village and in appropriate training programmes and events like sisu melas (children's fairs), vigyan melas (science fairs), and yuba melas (youth fairs). A new initiative in the past year has been school based sanitation workshops involving government schools.
Gram Vikas runs village level schools only where the government has failed to do so primarily because these villages/ habitations are remote, inaccessible and inhabited by adivasi communities. We therefore run village level education centres in villages in parts of Ganjam, Gajapati and Kalahandi districts. Village Education Committees formed and trained by Gram Vikas manage these centres. After passing out of these centres, children are encouraged and supported to enroll in Gram Vikas' residential school or the nearest government schools.

Village based facilitators called 'gaon sathis', trained by Gram Vikas run classes for children. Simultaneously local youth are also identified to train them as second-line teachers to ensure continuity in education. Over the past two years Gram Vikas has been making attempts to mount greater pressure to make the government schools work in tribal areas, especially since under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the teachers are from the local area, from the same Panchayat in most cases.
The innovative approach of 'Joyful Learning' adopted by Gram Vikas schools takes the government-accredited syllabus and heightens it with creative and interactive teaching methods, locally produced low-cost learning materials, and culturally sensitive and skills-based extra-curricular activities. Community service, regional fairs, competitions and sports camps, vocational classes, kitchen gardens and the promotion of health, sanitation, social and environmental values are a core component of the education process.

Pre-school education centres (balwadis) have been Gram Vikas' programme activity for over two decades. These centres prepare children for school, and also provide health and nutritional care. Mid day meals are cooked by mothers in turn and provided to children, while the facilitator teaches the children songs and dances and introduces the children to cognitive learning.

With increased awareness regarding the importance of education many illiterate adults are also interested in learning how to read and write.  In villages where there is demand, adult literacy classes are held.  From learning to put their signatures on village registers, adults have progressed to become neo-literates.
Gram Vikas continues intensive capacity building programmes for gaon sathis, second line teachers (local facilitators), and the village education committee.

Financing education

Gram Vikas supports the bulk of costs of running village based education centres including teachers salaries, materials and capacity. Parents collect a school fund with collections of Rs.2 per month to meet small expenses, while children are encouraged to have monthly savings of Rs.5 each to inculcate the habit of savings and to support part of their expenses when they enroll in a higher class outside the village. Efforts are on to make people's contributions more formalised in recent years. This includes raising community resources through individual household collections and identification of two acres of common land to be brought under horticulture in each village. Other common resources like village ponds, or part of agriculture, horticulture and forest produce are also being tapped to augment common funds, which the village can be used to pay salaries of school and balwadi facilitators and other recurring expenses of the school.

Bridge course

This year Gram Vikas held a  large education drive targeting students who dropped out, had low attendance rate or had failed exams.  Bridge courses were organised to reintegrate these students into the education system, raise their standard and promote them to the next class.  The intensive two-month courses coached the students in areas of weakness and successfully improved their learning abilities.  As a result, many students were enrolled in Gram Vikas residential schools.

Click here to view data on Gram Vikas Education Centres

Residential Schools

Gram Vikas is currently running four residential schools. These residential schools provide learning opportunities primarily to children who pass out of the village schools and do not have access to government schools near their villages. Boys and girls live and learn together under the care of teachers who also reside in the schools.

The table below provides information on the current status of the schools.
Status of residential schools
District Name / Location of the School Class Boys Girls Total
Ganjam Kerandimal Middle Education School, Konkia III to VII 121  67  188
Gram Vikas High School, Konkia VIII to X 150  100  250
Gram Vikas Vidya Vihar, Rudhapadar III to VII  65 87  152
Gajapati Mahendratanaya Ashram School, Koinpur III to VII 160 110  270
Kalahandi Gram Vikas Shikhya Niketan, Kumudabahal III to VII 108  89  197

Total

 604 453 1057

Parents are encouraged to contribute in the range of Rs. 1,000 out of the annual cost of about Rs.6,000 per child. Girl child education has been made free in 2004, giving impetus to the enrolment of girl children in the schools.

The curriculum at the residential schools spans beyond the core syllabus to include leadership development and life skills training. Many of these children are first generation learners, and without this facility, the communities would remain without access to formal education in the years to come. For many years now, students from Gram Vikas Residential Schools have stood proudly alongside their peers from other schools in rural and urban areas, winning awards at district and state level exams and academic competitions, as well as sports, recitation, quiz, drawing, drama etc. competitions. Cultural programmes, community service, regional fairs, school magazines, vocational classes and skill development in masonry, tailoring, horticulture and kitchen garden work are just some of the unique aspects of the curriculum imparted. Gram Vikas believes this holistic approach to education helps develop leadership capacities of students and in turn promote community development in the villages and regions they come from.

Since 1997, when Gram Vikas High School was started at Konkia, over 277 children have passed High School level. While a majority are continuing higher education in colleges, some have even received government jobs in the police force, and as anganwadi workers and teachers (Shiksha Sahayaks).

Click here to view data on the Academic performance of residential schools