Oct-Dec, 2003

New Initiatives for Promoting Girls' Education

The Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07) has reorganised the immediate need to enhance the level of girls' participation in education if the country has to achieve universal elementary education in the stipulated timeframe. Two new programmes, one targeting formal schools, the other targeting girls in remote habitations, have been launched to include girls in elementary education.

National Programme for Education of Girls at the Elementary Level (NPEGEL)

The programme, launched in September 2003, provides additional components for education of girls at the elementary stage, especially from disadvantaged communities. The NPEGEL will be implemented under the SSA.

Why Girls’ Education

For India – as for several other countries – focusing on universalising girls’ education is critical for progress. Girls’ education is a development imperative. There are at least seven good reasons why this is so.

  • Fundamental Right – The 86th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2002 makes elementary education a fundamental right of every child. The Constitutional Amendment itself clinches the argument for ensuring that all girls – and boys – receive eight years of good quality education.
  • Popular Demand – Many surveys reveal that contrary to popular belief, poor parents in India are very keen on sending their daughters to school. The demand for girls’ education is high, and is growing.
  • Individual Well-being – Basic education promotes the well-being of girls. More educated women tend to be better informed, enjoy better opportunities for employment, and seek out modern health care and advice more readily.
  • Social and Economic Progress – Education brings benefits to society as well. Educated women are more likely to work in the wage economy, earn higher wages and make better entrepreneurs. Educated women tend to marry late and have fewer children, contributing to improved child and maternal health in society.
  • Political Participation – As more and more young girls get educated and complete eight years of schooling, they will be able to participate more meaningfully in local governance.
  • Inter-generational Benefits – There is sufficient evidence to suggest that educated mothers give birth to healthier and better-nourished children than uneducated mothers. An educated mother is more likely to send her own children to school so that benefits are reinforced across generations.
  • Social Justice – The link between educational deprivation and social inequality is becoming more and more obvious every day. Ensuring better schooling opportunities for girls is the right step towards ensuring social and gender justice.

The programme will provide some additional components under SSA, such as the development of a model upper-primary school in each cluster; offering material incentives such as stationery; introducing additional interventions like awards, remedial teaching, and bridge courses; encouraging mobilisation and community monitoring; developing appropriate teaching-learning material; strengthening planning, training and management support.

Special attention is paid to adolescent girls through the proposed development of supplementary teaching material that will include material on women achievers, nutrition, sanitation, environment, gender and legal issues. Curricular enhancement in this context will include classes on self-defence and self-image building.

NPEGEL will be implemented in 2,656 educationally backward blocks (EBBs) in 21 states, where the female literacy rate is less than the national average and the gender gap is above the national average. It will also be implemented in blocks of districts, which are not covered under EBB but have at least 5% Scheduled Caste/Tribe population and where Scheduled Caste/Tribe female literacy rate is below 10% and also in urban slums.

Kasturba Gandhi Swatantrata Vidyalaya (KGSV)

Girls residing in hard-to-reach, small and scattered habitations that lie at a distance from the nearest school will be reached by the Kasturba Gandhi Swatantrata Vidyalaya.

The scheme will ensure access and quality education to girls through the provision of up to 750 residential schools and boarding facilities in girls’ upper-primary schools up to elementary level. Residential schools are proposed in areas with:

  • concentration of tribal population, with low female literacy and where a large number of girls are out of school;
  • concentration of SC, OBC and minority population, with low female literacy and a large number of girls are out of school;
  • low female literacy; and
  • a large number of small, scattered habitations that do not qualify for a school.

Additional Provisions

  • The SSA framework also provides for special incentives to encourage girls’ education such as mothers’ and women’s committees in every school, which can decide on financial incentives for girls – up to a maximum of Rs. 150 per girl child per year.
  • SSA mandates the reservation of 50 per cent of teachers’ position for women.
  • Toilets for girls in schools are planned under SSA.

MGT Workshop in Guwahati

Janshala National Office organised a workshop on the concept and techniques of multigrade teaching in Guwahati on January 27 and 28. The workshop was second in the series of workshops being organised by Janshala on multi grade teaching. It was a well attended workshop and participants were officials from the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya and West Bengal. The participant from Nagaland could not make it to the workshop. Janshala was represented by NPM, National Consultant and the Programme Secretary from the National Office and representatives from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Ms. Anupriya Chadha, Consultant in the Technical Support Group of Government of India and Sri Subir Shukla, independent consultant, attended the workshop as resource persons.

The workshop had two purposes. The first purpose was to acquaint participants from the north eastern states with the interventions under the Janshala programme with a focus on multigrade teaching adopted in different programme states. The second purpose was to provide some sort of training to the participants on the concept and need of multigrade teaching. The presentations from the Janshala states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra gave participants an overview of the different approaches of multigrade teaching. Ms. Anupriya Chadha made a presentation on how to adopt an inclusive approach in multigrade teaching-learning process. Sri Subir Shukla took an interactive session on classroom processes. The participants received the workshop well and expressed their desire to know more from Janshala states about the preparation required in terms of training and materials for introducing the new teaching learning process in schools. They also requested Janshala to arrange technical assistance, whenever necessary, for introducing new elements of teaching

Towards a Social Learning and Life-Skills Package

Janshala Programme in Uttar Pradesh entered into a unique collaboration with CARE-India to develop an appropriate social learning package for children of class 4 and 5 of the government schools. Initially, it is proposed that the package be tried out in all the primary schools of Mohanlalganj block of Lucknow district. Depending upon its outcome it may be considered for implementation in other blocks and districts.

The social learning package being formulated includes a broader societal understanding, development of life skills, and development of critical and informed thinking in the context of the learner’s own lives. Such a package was developed by CARE-UP as part of the Girls' Primary Education Project and was designed with the aim of “developing girls into self-confident individuals, who could think critically, visualise their own potentials and be conscious of their social responsibilities.” It is believed that the above framework of learning is relevant to all children to develop a broader world view and to develop a spirit of enquiry, which pertains to self and society.

The project will be implemented jointly by Janshala-UP and CARE-India. The specific roles of both the players have been worked out in detail to facilitate smooth implementation of the project. The resources of the project activities, too, are being jointly contributed. Broadly, resources for the development of the package including workshops with a core team is being borne by CARE-India, whereas the cost of teacher training, teaching- learning kit, and regular follow-up will be provided by Janshala. It is a unique collaboration between a government programme and an NGO in terms of sharing of technical and financial resource and experimentation.
   
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