POORVAIYA: An initiative to empower government schools to deliver quality education

POORVAIYA[1]

An initiative to empower government schools to deliver quality education

Question to Address:

• Why should parents send their children to government school
• And how to engage them to fight for their rights- specially right to free and quality education in their own locality
  

Objectives:

• Quality education in govt. schools
• Child Rights in curriculum
• Integration of children in process
• Integration of teachers, parents and villagers in the process
• Capacity Building of local organizations to fight for their rights
• Capacity building of school teachers & village heads to deliver quality education
• Creating a sustainable model for advocacy & intervention
  

Timeline:

• 3-to 5 years
  

Intervention Tools:

• Teachers training
• Sensitizing parents and youths
• Engagement of local youths in village development process
• Reinforcement of sramdaan (donation of labour that is traditional concept of volunteering)

• Baseline survey
  i) Students understanding level (we may have to develop a test paper)
  ii) Brief profile teachers
  iii) Brief profile of parents of students
• Teachers’ motivation level

Identification of Organizations:

· Main organization- to lead the federation of organizations

· Identification of local organizations to work in collaboration for the cause.

Teachers Concern:

• We have to understand teachers problem also.
• Relive them from their non-educational responsibilities
• Accountability aspect
• From Teachers points of views
• From Parents points of views
• From Youth points of views

Advocacy Tools:

• Community radio
• Magazine (Newsletter)
• Film show
• Folk song & Play
• Seminar & Workshops
  i) Delhi (National level seminar)
  ii) Varanasi (State Level seminar, most probably in BHU to involve youth and teachers)
  iii) Kataila, Ghazipur (Local/ district level consultancy)
  (this will be consultation or focused group discussion) where we will try to understand real issues/ hurdles in the process of quality education from
  a. School teachers
  b. District Magistrate of Ghazipur
  c. Education Officer of Ghazipur
  d. District Judge of Ghazipur
  e. Village heads
  f. Village Education Committees
  g. Children through essay writing competition
  - Essay writing competition (Up to 8^th standard)
  Entry fee Rs. 2/-
  - Essay writing competition (9^th & 10^th standard)
  Entry fee Rs. 5/-
  - Essay writing competition (11^th & 12^th Standard)
  Entry fee Rs. 7/-

- Essay writing competition (Graduation & Above)
Entry fee Rs. 10/-

[Note on Essay writing competition: 1. This will sensitize children & youth with CR. 2. Entry fee will help in two ways- (i) Participant will take it seriously (ii) Prize money can also be raised. 3. Local partner organizations will be requested to tie up with local or national Hindi Newspaper(s) to get top three entries published in the newspapers]
The seminar in Ghazipur will be known as Panchayat and this will be a sort of consultation.
I think the seminar should start from Kataila village.

Indicators for measurement:

• Improvement in govt. school
  i) On teacher for one class
  i) Teachers’ attendance
  ii) Students attendance
  iii) Distribution of scholarship to all
  iv) MDM
  v) Accountability
  
  
• Engagement of Parents & local youths in school management
• All children in govt. schools
• Understanding of the subjects
• Decrease in number of Pvt. Schools
• CR become topic every discussion in the village
• Increase in parents participation
• Increase in villagers participation
• High level of awareness about rights

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[1] I am proposing project school empowerment as “Poorvaiya” because it symbolizes positive things in our belt (Bhojpuri belt). People wait for poorvaiya and when it comes they open their windows, doors and let it come to their home without fear and favour. It just a natural act of their lives.

Our movement for engaging parents and villagers should be like poorvaiya which brings happiness and relief without any precondition.

Like poorvaiya the movement should also be welcomed in every inhabitant of the project area.

But, which is important, it should not be like poorvaiy in term of its sustainability. We have to give some more meaning to our poorvaiya that is a sustainable long term intervention ‘by the people and for the people’.