Actions for Education of Adolescents and Out- of- School Children

We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count - Albert Einstein We taught world how to count but today our own children does not know about ZERO. This is the fact India is burdened with in the present scenario. The world s oldest civilization and the largest democracy, is blessed with the highest number of children but unfortunately they are not taken care of, the way they deserve to be Illiteracy, gender discrimination, child labor, homelessness, health issues etc are taking away their childhood and ultimately forcing them to be lost in the weird architecture of life. Overview: January 2010; amid the mid winters, I visited around 25 villages of Chittaurgarh and Bengun blocks of Chittaurgarh district in Rajasthan, India, as a Project Coordinator of the UNICEF and SSA supported project Ensuring Access to Elementary Education to Still Out Of School Children implemented by Social Association of Awareness Training and Human Improvement [SAATHI]. My early experience and exposure to the rural areas helped me identify the following problems which were common to all present there (especially girls and women).  Village: Misro ki Peepli (Chittaurgarh) Purnima (Me): Apne bare me kuch batao? (Repeated several times) Pinky (age 14 years): Mera naam pinky hai .. silence Problem: Hesitation, Poor communication skills, Lack of self awareness  Village: Barli ka Jhopda (Begun) Purnima (Me): Sagar and Devi (age 10 years; only girls in the basti) school kyun nahi jate hain? Grandmother of Sagar and Devi: Chorin ne ko nahi padhawe (Girls are not allowed to go to school) Problem: Gender Inequality  Village: Lal jee ka Kheda (Chittaurgarh) Purnima (Me): Indradhanush me kitne rang hote hain aur kaun kaun se? Deviram (age 16 years): saath rang hote hain; lal, peela, hara, neela (Unable to recall the other three) Problem: No Practical Exposure of the theoretical concepts In order to address all the problems identified, the following strategies were adopted  Life Skill Training (to tap the skills one has for one s own betterment)

 Child Rights & Leadership Training (to let children know their basic rights and duties to help them achieve their goals)  DISCOVER (to create curiosity in young minds through the concept of Learning by Doing) Along with the above strategies Siksha Mitra Kendras were into action at various places. The children were motivated and out of school children and adolescents were streamlined by celebrating Pravesh Utsavs for their enrollment.

Introduction Project: Ensuring Access to Elementary Education to Still Out Of School Children Supporting Agencies: United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) Focus Areas: Chittaurgarh and Bengun blocks of Chittaurgarh district of Rajasthan, India. Coverage Areas: Villages in Chittaurgarh block: Ochadi, Chanderia, Suthmal, Lal jee ka Kheda, Misro ki Peepli, Sokhiya, Bassi Indra colony, Bassi Kanjar Jhopda, Devdungri. Villages in Bengun block: Bhalka, Palka, Dorai, Chechi, Raita, Motipura, Khelpura, Barli ka Jhopda, Gabla ka Jhopda, Bhuiyon ka Jhopda, Mankeshar, Mandawari, Jodha Patel ki Khedi. Population of Adolescents (above 13 years): Chittaurgarh block (nine villages): 250 Bengun block (thirteen villages): 500

Strategies and Interventions Implemented: As mentioned earlier the following strategies and interventions were implemented in every quarter of the project tenure in order to address various requirements in the focus areas. The followings are the brief of the contents in one of the module of the quarterly trainings provided by us. Combined training programs were organized for the children and adolescents studying at the Government schools of the focus areas while others (especially out of school adolescents, women and parents) were motivated through Life Skill Education provided at the Sikhsha Mitra Kendras SMC meetings etc and daily visits by our community mobilizers visiting all the villages individually. A total of 750 children and adolescents were benefited from both the blocks during the project tenure. I. Life Skill Education: Life Skills empower young people to take positive action to protect them and promote health and positive social relationships. It teaches blooming young minds to keep a balance between Knowledge, Attitude and Skills.

Hindi modules were provided to every child and all the teachers present during the session. We focused on the following skills for training purpose. Each skill in turn consisted of one or more practical activities for a better understanding. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. Understanding Self Observational skills Communication Skill Self learning Skill Co-operation and team building skills Problem solving and decision making Crisis Management a. Situation 1 Internal injury b. Situation 2 Outer wound and bleeding c. Situation 3 When a person faints d. Situation 4 - When a person gets burnt (By tea/coffee or crackers) e. Situation 5 When a dog bites VIII. IX. X. XI. Time management and stress management Healthy Living Recreational Skill Budgeting, Money management and entrepreneurial skill

II. Child Rights & Leadership Training Child Rights y Right to life y Right to good health y Right to nutritious food y Right to security in parent s custody y Right to a name that one likes y Right to nationality y y Right to clean drinking water Right to free, quality education

Right to love and affection as a child Right to relaxation

Right to social security

Right to rest

Right to play

Right to participate in cultural activities

Right not to be economically exploited Right to be appreciated

Right not to be humiliated

Right to be treated humanely

Right to be respected

Right to be freed from child violence Right to information

Right to protection from war

Right to a child s opinion

Right to express

Right to think y Right to choose one s religion

Right to act according to one s concience

Right to love and friendship

Responsibilities If every child, regardless of their gender, ethnic origin, social status, language, age, nationality or religion has these rights, then they also have a responsibility to respect each other in a humane way.

 If children have a right to be protected from conflict, cruelty, exploitation and neglect, then they also have a responsibility not to bully or harm each other.  If children have a right to a clean environment, then they also have a responsibility to keep the environment clean.

 If children have a right to be educated, then they have the obligation to learn as much as their capabilities allow and, where possible, share their knowledge and experience with others.  If all children have a right to a full life, then they should shoulder the responsibility to lend help so the needy, the disadvantaged, and the victims of discrimination also enjoy this right.  If children have a right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, then they also have the obligation to respect other s thoughts or religious principles.

Leadership Leadership skills were taught under the following sub headings. Prizes were given to motivate the children present their along with special prizes for the winners of the activities. I. Behavioral attitude: Behave with others properly and in the manner we want others to behave with us. Communication: A good leader is a good communicator as well as a good listener. Team Work: Unity is Strength and a good leader should always be a team player. Negotiation and Compromising: The need to compromise to situations beneficial for long term without losing patience was explained. Strategic planning: Effective planning leads to an impactful implementation thereby leading to successful completion of a task. Children were explained the importance of preparations before their examinations.

II. III. IV.

V.

III. DISCOVER Creating curiosity in young minds through Learning by Doing methodologies The basic learning of a child i.e., to walk, talk, climb, run etc, happens by allowing him/her to actually do it. Parents don t give a series of lecture to prepare them for all these activities. But when it comes to schools, instead of allowing students to learn things by doing we create a theoretical course. DISCOVER, thus wishes to express that doing of the task is equally important as the theory of the task .

Objectives:  To make children realize the Power of their thoughts.  To help children know How things work in reality.  To increase Who, What, When, Where, Why (Ws) in young minds.  To provide young minds with Opportunities to use their senses and ask questions.  To increase their Curiosity and make things they encounter an investigation.  To make each child Sad when the last bell is rung at the end of the day in the school.

DISCOVER KIT consisted of 6 activities related to Science and Geography. The activities were:

 Magnet World  Candle Fun  Tug of War  Compass  Rainbow Colors  Basic Astronomy

Outcomes: Children become irregular and out of school basically out of reasons viewed from two aspects. These are: y Family aspect: Child interested but Family restricts Through our Monthly Cluster level meetings and SMC meetings we were successful in convincing parents to send their children to schools (as analyzed by the attendance of irregular students and high enrollment rates) y Child s aspect: Child himself/herself not interested in going to school The initiatives taken in both the blocks through DISCOVER activities, Life Skill Education and Child Rights and Leadership trainings helped children to learn things by actually doing it and it also increased their motivational levels as analyzed at the successive trainings programs. The children learnt the importance of communication, they now know themselves in a better way, they have learnt to work in groups, to prepare their own budget and manage themselves during the crisis at their levels.

Challenges and Lesson Learnt: Though every effort bore fruits but each was followed by many challenges. The following are few challenges and learning learnt from the ground reality: 1. From the communities: The illiteracy that prevails among the parents of the children becomes the major reason for the children to remain out of school and get engaged in wrong habits (boys) and early marriages (girls). Proper literacy programs as well as an effective communication with reinforcement can lead to community participation for overall objective. 2. From the Children: Children are the elixir and Lovely portraits. They are a self sustainable tool for community interface and continual improvement in then and motivation and out of box strategies do work for them to get them understand the importance of education and various others aspects of life. Every child must be given the wish to learn . It is their basic need which should be fulfilled. 3. From the Project: Such an intervention has lead to the empowerment of the children of the deprived communities as well as the community as a whole. The project has enabled children to get connected back to schools by overcoming all the unfavorable conditions. Strategies adopted under the project if implemented at the school level on continual basis can certainly improve the quality of education , children and help increase the retention of children at schools.

Case Studies:

Seema (13 years) was very excited to attend the training programs. She won prizes for her efforts many times. In one of the training sessions she was not able to bag any prize home. Before leaving she asked me for a prize which she could take home. On my denial she replied papa fir kal nahi aane denge, wo sirf inaam milta hai isliye bhejte hain (father would not allow me to come tomorrow if I do not get any prize today). Even on my personal request to her school teacher I could not see Seema on the very next day. Later on when I visited her village and met her father, he realized his mistake but how far is this realization going to last??? Kashiram and Raju (11 years) loved singing and dancing. Their community wrapped up by all the social abuses. They do not concentrate on studies. The only counting they know, have learnt in our training programs saying aise padhne me aur inaam jeetne me mazza aata hai . Can such an ideal situation be created for them at their school? Where will their future lead them to? Will they become a dancer, a singer or just a thief like their fathers and other community members ???

Sagar (14 years); the most cheerful, energetic and motivated girl. On the last training session she came to me and said didi meri shaadi ho rahi hai . As soon as I replied that Child marriage is a crime she replied haan didi un logon ko aap jail me band kara dena . The words show her innocence but her mother showed her helplessness fearing we will report against her. Sagar got married to a person 10 years older than her. Will Child Marriage ever Stop!

Purnima Kashyap