Introduction
Education is the fundamental tool for social transformation. Through education we can inculcate human values among children as well as society, but even after 57 years of India’s independence the education system in the country is still the stereo type, teacher centered, dictatorship and unfriendly. Primary schools in particular should have been the cradle of culture to bring about a progressive change in the education system and in-particular value oriented, but this is not so. With too much of political interference and vested interest the education system, in-particular rural areas shows absolute poor improvement, be it “ the physical structure, administrative structure or the social structure”. The rural poor are the docile instruments in the hands of the elite and the politicians who are treated as puppets to dance to their tunes. Padi/ValoredBelieves that the right to education and the right to have a full childhood belongs to every childhood belongs to every child of the world. In our country millions of our children do now have access to schooling but are enslaved in hard work right from their early years and this is more permanently seen in the girl child who is quite often forced to shoulder all the household responsibility at a very tender age. She has been neglected not only at home but even in the schools she receives the 2nd place. The Dhalith are the other group that are also neglected by the society, the elite and the Education apartment. The discrimination in schools and hostels, corruption, insensitivity of policy makers on certain issues has been the main cause for the discrimination that are prevailing in schools. This is what leads to Dhalith dropouts, girl child drop out. The teachers, the community need to be conscious regarding this fact and to imbibe in them new values that upgrades the lives of girl children and the Dhalith children. One of the most fundamental aspects of sustainable development is the building up of a sound human value system
Our Founder and Philosopher
Valored is a brain child of the great visionary, the late Dr. Desmond D’Abreo. Dr Desmond had done his doctoral studies in Paris in 1964 on educational psychology and had been director of the religious and Value Education Department of the Xavier Institute of Education in Mumbai from 1965 to 1971. He had a deep analysis of the education situation in India and in the world as a whole. He was a person who lived and worked tirelessly for the value based development.Desmond gave up his position as a professor of St. Xavier College, Mumbai and opted to work in the field of education in the rural areas. He first worked with groups of adults creating awareness of the situation along with giving them literacy in the non-formal method of Paula Freire. This experience made him realize that while concentrating on working with grownups we were losing a whole generation of children. Desmond was a strong believer of Education as a tool for empowerment. The education which he believed in was one which made people critically aware of their situation. He was a visionary, he dreamt of a just equitable and humane society, which is sustainable only with each member of the society, participating fully in the process of development. His concept of development was one where people plan, implement and monitor their own development. This to him was the only way towards shaping a just and equitable society.
VALORED’s Vision
We belive that the right to education and right to have its full childhood belong to every child in the world and in the county and in which so many millions of children do not have access to any school but are enslaved in hard work right from their early years .
We also belive that education should be in-keeping with the psychology of the child –not a burden or a period of boredom, with emphasis on discipline and punishment but a pleasant experience in which the child learns at its own pace and rooted in its own experience and not that which is imposed by teachers and education department .
We believe that education should lend it self not only to the intellectual growth of the child but also to its moral and social growth to enable the child to be worthy citizen and equip him/her to face the present day challenges to create a better society…
Goals: To Work for building a sound human value system in the sector of primary education
The Objectives by which we would achieve this was to
- Work with communities unmindful of their caste or creed but to concentrate specially on the weaker section of society and specially those based in rural areas.
- To strengthen the formal education system making it more effective relevant and useful for children of the underprivileged and marginalized section of society
- To work with teacher towards making primary education child-oriented.
- To make the school community centered where the community is involved in every aspects of the running of the school and framing the syllabus
- To have a network of teachers. Teachers too are adults who are products of the prevalent value system. Hence have seminars and workshops on relevant topics which will enable them to think, reflect and act and pass this on to the children placed under their care.
- To liaison with the government along with the local communities, the teachers and the local Panchayath when and where change is necessary in the field of education.
- To spread the practice of democratic values of equality, respect for every one rich or poor, educated or non educated, literate or illiterate, respect for women and the girl child, cooperation versus competition, sharing versus self accumulation.
- To create public awareness regarding children’s problems especially the negative biases towards the girl child, child labour and child rights.
Mile Stones -The Process of our work:
First phase: STARTING APRIL 1993( IN A NUTSHELL)
Preparatory Activities 1993-1996
In order to have a better insight to the existing education system and to critically analyse the objectives of the project from the field perspective following preparatory activities were carried out. The outputs of these activities were helpful and critical in getting goals and objectives of the programmes.
Study: It was the bankruptcy of education system that triggered off our project of Value oriented education. This programme was launched in the month of April 1993. Once the team was recruited the first few months were spent in getting a general orientation to education especially to education in primary school. We concentrated on documenting the many articles we had collected on primary education and the situation of education in India, child psychology, community and rural psychology.
On the basis of materials available and collected from various institution and form the government a study was conducted in South Canara and Udupi district. The Objective of the study was to understand the relevance of curriculum to the family background of students. The out come of the study reaffirmed our belief that the curriculum and the reading materials available for the students were not in relation to their day to day living and the materials were insensitive to address the social issues of today. The materials were also supportive of the practices which are gender discrimination and class supportive. The materials were insensitive to the local needs such as language, culture, living conditions both economic and social and environmental preservation. Regular discussions on various aspects like the specific situation and problems of primary schools, the psychology of the rural and urban children, the relevance of the text and teaching in their lives, the values or absence of values instilled through the books and teaching were studied. The team participated in several local workshops on education. Exposure programmes were organized to schools where different experiments are being done for child oriented education. These exposures helped to study and evaluate objectively the text books, the methodologies used. The reactions of the parents, their indifference or even hostility, the incompetence of the school staff, the total disregard of the community in the primary school were taken note of.
More than exhorting the teachers to introduce values and more child-oriented methodologies into their teaching, we believed it will be more practical and acceptable of we already provide them with aids to introduce these values and methodologies.We selected schools with the criteria as below:
a. Schools that are already existing.
b. Located in remote areas
c. catering mainly dalits and tribals
d. Having a large percentage of girls enrolled in them.
II Phase: Working on Textbook guides: 1996 – 1999
While the team had been going through the articles which had been collected during the past few years, its members studied each of them and wrote a note on each article covering its main theme. The collection of articles gave the team a comprehensive picture of our education system and the possible orientations we might need in our work of preparing guides to the present text books used in the Kannada medium schools in the state.
The text books used in the Kannada primary schools in the Karnataka state were analysed. Charts were prepared and pasted around the room on these books. The findings about each textbook were worked out on a chart. After completing all the lessons of every subject taught from standards I to VII, series of seminars were organized to the teachers from different schools. In these seminars, workshop were organized, where groups of teachers and experts using the charts that were already on display, prepared guides for lessons based on the matter prepared by the group. This turned out to be a very effective way of preparing the guides to the lessons. In these seminars and workshops we also worked towards increased community participation. As an outcome of all these workshops and seminars our clientele of teachers and parents got more and more expanded and requests to conduct such seminars were on the increase. We also developed a very good group of resource persons who were experts in their own field.
III Phase: Launching of the Resource Center . 1999 -2002
The unprecedented successes of our past years of experience in a few schools has led us to extend the programmes of activities to other schools. We felt that several schools which at present are beyond the scope of our programme would be able to do much better if some basic resources were placed at their disposal in the way of guidance, books and participation of seminars like the ones we have been conducting. Hence we felt it would be most useful and even necessary to extend our work through a resource center in Mangalore aided by smaller resource centers in the various taluks of South Kanara and Udupi.
Education Resource Center (ERC’s)
Four Education Resource Centers were established namely Belthangadi, Bantwal, Mangalore and Udupi at the taluk level of undivided South Canara District with the idea of bringing about active participation of the local community in the welfare of its schools and activities.In 2008 VALORED extended its work to four more taluks namely Putturu, Sulya, kundapura and Karkala.
The ERC’s played a vital role in bridging the gap between schools and community, teachers and parents, teachers and children, the community and the education department. The RCs took the initiative to conduct meetings for planning and implementation of programmes for the teachers, children and the community at large. There was a continuous dialogue with the education department officials and their cooperation was ensured.
Through these resource centers……….
To involve teachers in the primary schools in an organized and effective way.
To sustain and continue locally existing human and people oriented values in the primary education process for e.g tribal and dalit value.
To help the rural students to understand and learn skills and new learning methods to improve their teaching and the children’s creativity.
To identify local resources and utilize them in a educational process
To motivate more and more child-centered and creative activities in primary schools.
To actively involve teachers in educational process for e.g. preparation of test books, Government Education policy.
To prepare guidelines, demonstrate and find out something new for teachers to develop their skills
To share their experience and contribute their ideas among teachers so that they come to know each other.
To spread the idea of improvising the quality of education
To formulate the public’s opinion to form a better education policy
To identify the talents of teachers.
Aims and Objectives of these Resource Centers:
Through these ERC’s we aim at activating a process of education were the poorest in the rural areas well be provide an authentic education for their holistic development. The process of learning will be child oriented and activity based, so that the dropout rate can be reduced. The whole education orientation will be towards social justice/ the approaches to education will not be institutional but people oriented. The education envisaged should include a complete training and formation of the human person. This must cover the physical, social , spiritual and moral development of the integral human personality. Value and right attitudes must be inculcated in these primary school as the most fundamental basis of a true human development.
Ultimately our purpose in establishing these ERC’s is part of our primary aim which is to bring about social transformation of society, starting with the grassroots in the rural areas.
IV: Phase 2002 – 2005
In the fourth face special focus was given to gender mainstreaming, community participation, child rights, and ownership etc.
While this process was going on, the need for having Newsletter with relevant contents for the knowledge of teachers in the education field was raised. As awareness was essential as also the need for teachers to share their experiences and opinions, also of our activities the news letter “Mathukathe” a dialogue, was initiated. Originally, it consisted of few pages but this publication has been a very important innovation. This has proved to be a platform for the teachers to share their experiences and seek solutions to their problems arising from primary education. They fond in this newsletter a ready outlet and an answer to several of their teaching problems.
At this stage a need for detailed study of situation of primary schools was felt and a study was designed. A team of volunteers conducted survey in two districts totally 720 children were interviewed. The analysis of the study gave a clear indication that the text book in no way suits the need of the children. The curriculum has no connection with the socio-cultural background of the children, because of which many children do not enjoy the process of learning. We prepared guides and handbooks for the teachers for every lesson in each of these subjects. These guides were expected to offer help to teachers.
The CEC’s :
The RC’s were strengthened by four community education centers. These CEC’s consisted of teachers, parents, CBO’s Panchayath representative, NGO’s etc. 16 CEC’s were started which were motivated to take active participation in the educational development of their particular area. The teachers enrichment programmes, public awareness programmes and children’s and children’s creativity activities went on in the CEC’s, and the response was good. In this particular phase the concept of child oriented learning in the class rooms, attractive class & school atmosphere was discussed on. The effort were done to convince the local Education officers.
V. Phase: 2005 – 2008
In this phase total concentration was given to work in promoting an atmosphere which is Value based, Gender sensitive, health and education conscious child rights assertive through the community based network in Grama Panchayath Blocks. Hence the developed indicators were:
The rate of community participation, the teachers and community sensitization towards gender related issue
Society attitude towards the deprived children
The conceptually equipped resource person team to impart value oriented education concept in schools and community
Children’s network to concertise the child about child rights and value base, gender sensitive, health and education based modules were found functioning effectively by the teachers.
Concrete results that were reached:
In order to fulfill the developed objective the project worked to get the following results:
• The Grama Panchyath Education Centers (GPES’s) in addressing the educational and health needs of the community by involving Resource Centre (RC’s) and community Resource Centers (CE’s) at grass root level
• Implementation of value oriented, gender conscious, class and caste sensitive, child friendly, health & education practices in schools
• Network at taluk, district, state and national level will address the issues related to quality education gender and health concern and child rights in the form of capacitating campaign and advocacy
• Establishment of conceptually equipped teachers, RC members, SDMC, GPEC and Resource team to address the primary education and child related issues
• Project equipped with systematic education research studies and documentations, and the project management involves conceptually professionally equipped team.
VI Phase: 2008 – 2011
The overall goal will be builsding a sound human value system in the sector of primary education in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.Purpose: To promote an atmosphere which is value based, gender sensitive, health and education conscious, child right assertive through the community based network in Grama Panchayath Blocks.
• A community owned federation of resource centre focus on the quality education and child right issues at various level.
• Sensitised teachers and department actively involved in planning and implementing value oriented quality education.
• NGOs and department work hand in hand to ensure child right, child right friendly environment in the district.
• Children’s group addressing child right issues and participate in planning decision making process at different level i.e Taluk, District, State
• Equipped documentation centre for ensuring child friendly concept functioning at district level, which will strengthen the ERCs at taluk level.
VII Phase: 2011 – 2014
In this phase VALORED is concentrating on the RTE, child protection systems, Advocacy at the state level, building up of a human force and a resource persons group. With this in mind we hope to reach the following;
• Existence of Child Right Protection system.
• Quality Education prevails in those schools that were guided by the education resource centers.
• Educational personnel of all sector insists on quality education free of gender discrimination, child friendly environment and child rights.
• Child related information and documentation center at the District level for all educational stakeholders exists.
• A module replica of DEd training institution and qualitative/creative teachers created
• A force for quality education exists.Measurable indicators
• A force of 30 members from various networks exists who work for quality education
• 2 Registered District Federations are resourceful and capacitated to work independently.
• Child protection systems such as CWC,JJB, CWO, SJPU, District Child protection unit, Child Right Clubs at schools, Anti Child Trafficking Committee at Panchayath level, state commission for child protection activated and strengthened at state/District/Taluk and Grama Panchayath level
• Modules available to advocate the change of the quality of D.Ed education for peplica in other institutions
• Child friendly teachers bring about democratic value among children in schools and these schools are free form corporal punishment and child right violation.
• An easy access to information on education, health and social aspects for the various sectors of the people.
• Documentation center has a compilation of all the latest amended and passed acts, government policies, circulars related to education, child right and Health & other developmental activities.
• Documentaries on child related, domestic violence, HIV and health, constitutional values are obtained and screened at regular intervals. (1st year 40%, 2nd year 30% and 3rd year 30%).
• An effective monitoring system is developed in VALORED Headquarters and functions throughout the action period.Impacts intended/gender specific impact of the project on the target group/beneficiaries:
The concrete impact of working through 2 federations and RC’s are as follows:-
• SDMC and Grama Panchayath strengthened by 8 RCs in which parents, teachers Panchayath representatives, CBO’s and Dalith organizations participate
• The project concentrated its work in 800 schools and through the RC various activities conducted for the development of sustainable peoples participation in schools
• The school development and monitoring committees functioning effectively to bring about quality education.
• The conventions of SDMC members held in Zonal, District, Inter district level, where people orient resolutions are drawn for policy level changes and Advocacy is initiated
• Activities conducted in collaboration with state campaigns for ensuring child rights (awareness building ) child right wings is initiated which work as watchdogs for protection of child rights in two districts.
• The role of local grama Panchayath in education development is brought to the notice of concerned people.
The RC leaders strive hard to sensitize the role of Panchayath in education by involving their schools in training workshop for Panchayath (held by Govt. Department).The concrete impact of advocacy to caring about the changes in D.Ed education and curriculum for quality education are a follows:
• The teacher educator and primary schools teachers are motivated to bring about child friendly, gender sensitive, learning situation in classroom and they have clarity in this concepts.
• The CACs and SDMC’s of the schools have taken steps to identify the dropout children in their area and pressurise Education department to rehabilitate them in the school system.
• Teacher education policy will bring about quality teacher to cope with the present situation.
PADI, MANGALORE
As it grew from 2004 to 2011
Introduction:
Padi is a Registered society that aims at working towards Education for creation of just human society. This society is established as a public, secular, service institution, serving the underprivileged irrespective of their caste, religion or creed, with special emphasis on service for the weaker sections of society in the areas of education and social development having the objectives i.e., to strengthen the formal education system, undertake and assist Community Development Programmes, to create public awareness regarding children Problems, Child Labour, Child Rights, gender, Health/HIV/AIDS, studies And various services. PADI is not only well recognized by the Education Department but also by Women & Child Development and Health departments. Hence department avail the services of PADI in their programme as collaboration work or as Resource persons. Working hand in hand with the Department has also helped PADI in achieving many of our objectives. Popularity and rapport built with the Education Department has enabled PADI to demand for enforcement of some of our resolutions made with regards to Child Right Protection and Education, SDMC and Teacher Network.
In a nut shell following are the programmes conducted ever since 2004 to this date:
Girl child enrollment drive: It is a known fact and statistics show that percentage wise the drop out rate is higher in girl child. Higher the education higher is the dropout rate or discontinuation for various reasons. Supporting child rights and enrollment drive was conducted in the month of June in Bantwal Taluk. Home visits, school visits were conducted with the help of the local community and going through the school admission list. 60 children were identified and brought back to school.
Field Exposure for Teachers and RC members on Educational Experiments : A group of teachers and RC members were taken on an exposure to Rishi Valley school to understand and visualize child centred oriented school. What ever they studied they shared it with the media and are planning to see if such a set up can be worked out in the schools of Dakshina Kannada.
Material Production Workshop on HIV: A material production workshop was organized for teachers, RC members and some eminent personalities to prepare teaching material on HIV/AIDS which will be used in schools for awareness programme on health, sex and value based education.
Gram Panchayath Election and Children : Children are the gems of our society. They need to be given amply opportunities to grow in wisdom and understanding. In collaboration with CACL the children were given on opportunity to view the election procedures and to have a dialogue with the candidates who stood for the election. This was an eye opener for the children and candidates. The children shared their experiences with their school mates through a similar programme conducted in their respective schools.
Child Trafficking and Child Right Awareness : With the collaboration of UNICEF, CACL-K, Women and Child Welfare Department, Education Resource Centres a Campaign Against Child Trafficking was carried out in DK district. Handbills, posters, stickers and hand cards were printed and distributed to support our cause.
Panchayath Raj : Through out the year, at regular intervals, in groups gram Panchayath training was imparted for the panchayat members of Bantwal and Mangalore in collaboration with Abdul Nazeer Sab Institution. The topics covered during these trainings were Dropouts, child labour, Enrollment, SDMC, child and women, health, water and sanitation. In groups of 30 to 35 these members were made aware of their responsibilities towards the community, schools, village development and so on and the facilities available at the Gram Panchayath for the various sectors.
HIV / AIDS Awareness Programme : AIDS has attained an alarming proportions in the country. The rate in all states has been increasing alarmingly. Hence PADI in collaboration with KPWCN felt the need to not only conduct programmes to bring about awareness in the community but also at the same time to impart education to the already infected on naturopathy, aromapathy, oil massaging, use of medicinal plants, diet intake that is rich in building body resistance and so on. Such programme were conducted in the months of April, July, August, September, December, January and February respectively. Children and youth group were also included in some of the programme.
ASER STUDY: This is a survey conducted on the Education Status of Children in schools from 5 to 16 years of age, especially their mathematics and languages reading skills. It is a national level study and PADI was involved in conducting this study in Dakshina Kannada District. It collected the DATA and sent the same to PRATHAM for consolidation. Such studies help PADI in undertaking the effectiveness of our teaching on the children. This study is conducted every year right from 2005.
Educational Programme for Special Children: In collaboration with SSA 12 special Educators were recruited under the Special Education Project in March 2010 to cater to the teaching needs of special children by PADI. These teachers have to work in 7 blocks of Dakshina Kannada District throughout the year and see that the special children either get their home based education or special care in enabling them to go to school. The work of these teachers is monitored by PADI. PADI is to take up this Project as it reaches out to those children who need special care and protection and they also get a chance to study.
Personality Development Camp: In collaboration with SPANDANA Welfare Society, Sisters of Charity-Jeppu, a personality development Training camp of adolescent children was held in their campus. The Training subjects were leadership, communication skills, values, gender discrimination and career guidance. PADI was involved in giving the training to these children, also at the same time was able pass on the thoughts of VALORED to these children.
Constitutional Rights Jatha: Many Civil Society/Organization like NGO Forum, SANCHALANA, PADI, WOMEN Network, RC Federation and RC all got together under the banner of SACHA to spread the constitutional values of India in the wake of unrest created by some communal wings which was bringing in discrimination between various sectors of the people disturbing the peace of the Country and Violating the very rights of the constitution Hence a JATHA was held in Mangalore and various papers on dalith rights, Minority Rights, Child Rights, constitutional Rights, Women Rights were presented and also brought to the notice of the media. Thus the people and the right wing activists were made aware of the constitution rights like Right to Freedom of speech and Expression, Right to Freedom of Religion, Right to Education and so on.
Primary Education : Creative teaching and child friendly teaching is what is most need in the process of imparting education for the present generation of children. Children’s reasoning and questioning power has to be encouraged by the teachers. At the same time teaching has to be more children oriented than teacher oriented. With this in mind 40 teachers and Anganwadi teachers had under gone training in skill development with regards to text book and classroom subjects. Various skills to enhance their creativity in teaching was imparted to them. Similarly another training was conducted for the 7th Std. students in Carrier Guidance and Creative thinking.
SDMC Training: For the last consecutive 5 years Padi has been involved in conducting SDMC training programmes. This year too the Govt. had introduced a new circular on the recent changes in the SDMC. Based on this and in collaboration with the Dept. SDMC Training were conducted in the month of March 2007 in Belthangady Taluk to be followed with Training for all the other Taluks of D.K. District. The contents of these trainings were clarity about the new circular policy, role and responsibilities of SDMC members, SDMC’s relationships with Grama Panchayath.
Community Awareness: This year Padi stressed a lot of importance on child rights, as there has been increase in the no. of child abuse, child rape, child harassment cases. A wide spread awareness was given on J.J.Act 2000, Child acts and child rights. This programme was supported by Women and Child Welfare Dept. Also awareness on importance of Education – Child Rights was imparted to Students, Community, Teachers, Panchayat members and the Police Department. An outdoor children’s painting on Environment programme was conducted where the children were made to realize the importance of greenery and parks.
Training and Exposure: Under this programme a team of 8 teachers had been to Araville in the month of February 2007 to study Isai Ambalam School Education system so that they could see if the same could be implemented in the D.K. Schools. This was a very educative exposure.Training cum Exposure programme was carried out in Mulky for the DEd students on Gender Sensitivity, Career Guidance, Adolescent Health Education and the Psychological and Health problems faced by children. A group of children were taken to the forest for an Exposure and were introduced to the medicinal and herbal plants of the forest. This exposure was to make the children understand the value of the forest and love for nature.
Child Right Awareness : Child abuses, child labour, child trafficking, child rape, kidnapping have been increasingly coming to the notice of the general public and the police, but because of lack of proper awareness on child rights and the J.J.Act neither the Department nor the police or the general public were able to react in a justifying manner to such cases. As such the children are the ones who are suffering without getting proper justice. Hence wide spread awareness programme were carried out on J.J.Act, Child Rights and Child Acts. One such programme was carried out for the Department, Police Personal, Lawyers and other NGO’s. Prof.Ravi Verma Kumar – Senior Lawyer of High Court, Dr.H.V.Parshwanath – Deputy Commissioner, Mr.G.V.Hegde – Session Judge of D.K.District, Prof.B.K.Ravindra – Principal, SDM Law College were present for this programme. Similar programmes were also carried out in Bantwal, Belthangady, Sulya, Puttur and Mulki at different dates in the year.
To make people understand and be aware of the hardships that a child laborers or street children under go, an Art/photo exhibition was held at St.Aloysius College Hall. The Photos and Art was exhibited were the collections made by the street children themselves. Hence, this programme was more realistic and original.
Adolescent Girls Programme : With globalization tremendous changes are taking place, society is changing at a very fast phase, along with economic growth, socializ
