Out of school children : NGO Interventions

Reach India - City Level Programme Of Action for Street and Working Children (CLPOA)
1. Project Summary: The project will raise capacities of 5 sub-grantee organizations and in turn a) will run 100 coaching centers to prepare 2500 out-of-school children for putting them in formal schools and b) will extend mainstreaming support to 1000 already mainstreamed children in the form of remedial coaching and tutorial materials such as workbooks etc. so that they remain in formal schools. The project will raise capacities of NGO personnel in the areas of project management, financial management, monitoring & evaluation, survey & data compilation and academic training of coaching teachers.
2. Objectives: The main objectives of the project are to

• To upgrade knowledge and skill of NGO personnel.
• To provide coaching support to 2500 disadvantaged children.
• To extend mainstreaming support to 1000 children.
• To impart pedagogic training to coaching teachers.
• To document programme activities and best practices for replication.
• To carry out concurrent action research.
  
  3. Methodology: The project's key components include:
  Identification of 5 sub-grantee organizations on the basis of REACH India criteria.
  
  
• Conducting training for building capacities of sub-grantee organizations.
• Assessing performance of trained personnel in their field activities.
• Releasing grants, monitoring and evaluating the programmes and assisting in documentation.
• Networking with other stakeholders including Government and NGOs.
• Facilitate the process of networking with the government.
  
  4. Target audience:Out-of-school and working children, their families, local self governance institutions, state and central government and civil society, and NGOs.
  
  5. Outcomes:Including the following
  Personnel in sub-grantee organizations will upgrade skills through training.
  
  
• 2500 disadvantaged out of school children will receive quality education.
• 1000 disadvantaged mainstreamed children will receive additional academic support for retention in formal schools.
• Benefit of use of innovative teaching/learning materials will be realized by service providers in the field of education.
• Documentation of best practices on the project.
• Documentation of findings of concurrent action research.
  
  6. About CLPOA:CLPOA is a networking body initiated in the year 1994 with active support from the Government of West Bengal and UNICEF, Kolkata. Following the requests of the Social Welfare director and the then-Mayor of Kolkata, office space for the NGO was allotted in the main building of Kolkata Municipal Corporation. CLPOA's role is two-fold: 1.) To liaison and lobby on children's issues with various Government departments, police, Human Rights Commission, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, academic institutions and bilateral agencies; and 2.) To network with NGOs and raise their capacities in providing services for children. CLPOA is represented in various Government committees including SSA (Kolkata), child labor etc. At present CLPOA has established contacts with nearly 300 NGOs in West Bengal and reaches more than 80,000 children through various NGO partners. CLPOA also runs more than 400 'Shikshalaya Centres' under SSA for 23,701 children who have never been to school.

Reach India - Institute for Psychological and Educational Research ( IPER)

1. Project Summary: IPER will address the need of access, enrolment, retention and completion of primary education for all out-of-school children with special focus on girls in the target areas. It will address all the issues that prevent children from attending and completing primary school. It will also focus on enhancing the quality of education being imparted so as to increase the value of education in the eyes of both parents and children.

2. Objectives: The key objectives are:
To develop a tracking system for vulnerable children (between 6 and 14 years of age) remaining out of schools.

• To develop a tracking system for children to be retained in formal schools.
• To ensure enrolment and retention of all vulnerable children up to 14 years of age especially girls with mainstreaming of all children from alternative into formal schools.
• Facilitate access to education for hard-to-reach out of school children through Community Learning Centres and School on Wheels.
  
• Demonstrate strategies and intervention of working with children, family and community on one hand and with the school on the other hand to ensure retention and quality education in the primary level.
  
  3. Methodology: To ensure that all vulnerable children in target areas are enrolled and are attending either community-run or government schools, the work plan would have a three-pronged strategy:
• Prevention: Access through 20 Community Learning Centers
• Protection : Retention through 40 Government primary schools and eight Community Resource Centers
• Promotion : Learning achievement in targeted Government schools
  
  4. Target audience: Out-of-school children, their families, the communities, teachers, officials of Department of School Education, Government of West Bengal, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, District Primary School Council, SCERT, SSA and DPEP, West Bengal.
  
  5. Outcomes:The project intends to achieve the following results:
  
  
• Identify and enroll all vulnerable children in the project area in primary schools or Community Learning Centres (CLC) aimed at their completing primary education and graduating to upper primary schools.
• Provide total quality management of 40 Government primary schools.
• Demonstrate strategies and interventions of working with the children, family and community by adopting six demonstration schools integrating best practices in pedagogy.
• Establish 20 CLCs including 'Schools on Wheels' and a 'Mobile Visual Presentation Unit' to facilitate access to education to hard to reach out-of-school children.
• Establish eight Community Resource Centres for the use of children in the community.
• Ensure that 80 percent of the vulnerable children enrolled get 80 percent marks during assessments which will be held periodically.
• Ensure that 50 percent of the vulnerable children do not repeat their class.
• Procure, develop and supply adequate teaching-learning materials,supplementary reading materials and standard teaching tools to all the schools in the project area with a focus on activity-based participatory learning processes
  
  6. About IPER:IPER was set up as an NGO in 1971. It is committed to improving the quality of life of deprived and high risk children through education, health care, nutrition and social mobilisation. It has 60 outreach centers spread over south Kolkata catering to 5000 children every day.

Bridge Courses - Akshara Foundation

Programs for Children with No School Education
Transit School Program
This program is directed at children below 14 years of age who have to work to earn a livelihood. The program resulted from discussions between Akshara and CWC (Concerned for Working Children) who are partnering with DPI for the implementation of the transit school program in 8 pilot locations in the city known to have a high child worker population.

• Transit schools are open from 8 am to 8 pm for the convenience of the children. Yet, no child is to be allowed to stay in the transit school for more than six months, since the goal is to provide a bridge to the mainstream school. Hence, the program duration is 6 months. Working children come to the centers (mostly in government schools) at convenient times during the day.
• Children learn the local language and mathematics and also participate in various co-curricular activities.
• Volunteers who conduct the program are provided with intensive training so that they understand the academic as well as emotional needs of transit school children.

Out of School Programmes
Bridge Courses
A Bridge Course is a 3-month program for children who have dropped out of school. The course is designed to rekindle their spirit of learning and equip them to re-enter the formal schooling system. It focuses on children between 7 and 11 years of age and helps them to be mainstreamed into schools at levels appropriate to their ages. This is a government-run activity-based program, which is supported by our volunteers.

One volunteer teacher per school is identified. He/she has the responsibility of ensuring regular attendance by children. Training for volunteers is conducted by the State Education Department, sanctioned by the Commissioner for Public Instruction and supervised by the District Institute for Education and Training (DIET), Bangalore Urban.

The Bridge Course has covered nearly 11000 children to date through nearly 450 centres. Of these, at least 4000 have joined regular schools.

Transit Schools(Sadashaale)
A large number of children are working or employed as child labour. They have extremely difficult lives and a denied childhood. Education is the most important way of empowering them. While it is possible to get some of these children into schools, often it is not practical, and some other form of educational net is required to give them basic educational skills. Transit schools are intended for working children, to prepare them for formal schooling.

Transit schools enable urban working children to attend classes within a flexible schedule. They are open for 12 hours a day, and children can attend classes at their convenience, given their difficult schedules.

The transit school program is currently being piloted in 8 areas in Bangalore City.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH
We believe that apart from the government, the community also has a key role to play in making the dream of universal elementary education in India a reality. Having established structured initiatives to ensure our involvement in the field, we have now started a Community Outreach Program to involve community members in the education process. This is done in the following way:

Household surveys: A detailed survey of 250 households is carried out in slum areas that are within our working zones.We refer to 250 households as one community. The survey identifies all working and out-of-school children in the area, as well as those in balwadis, those attending school, those who are members of libraries etc. We plan to carry out these surveys in different phases, in all its working zones and ultimately the entire city.

Outreach program: An outreach program is conducted for the identified out-of-school and working children, whereby our volunteers take language and Maths classes for 3 hours daily, within a flexible schedule. Through this, we aim to ensure that every single child in the area covered receives education. After attending an outreach program for 45 days, the student has the option of joining a regular school or taking open school exams.

Community support groups: Support groups consisting of local leaders, shopkeepers and parents are formed. They support our volunteers in getting out-of-school children to study, and in encouraging parents to send their children to school.

Future plans: We plan to promote the creation of Self-Help Groups (also called Educational Affinity Groups or Mahila Mandals), where women are motivated to support the education of children in their community, thereby strengthening our work, and helping in attaining the goal of universal elementary education.

Jeevika
Jeevika is an NGO based in Karnataka which undertakes a wide range of corrective measures to tackle the evil of Bonded labour. It is estimated that nearly 21% of Bonded labourers in Karnataka are children below the age of 18. These children are deprived the joys of childhood and a basic education, and are forced to accompany their parents to work on the lands of the landlord in order to pay-off the debt.

Bonded labour is a form of forced labour where the labourer is bound by the terms of debt taken on by the previous generation from the landlord. Despite being outlawed by the Indian Parliament, the practice of bonded labour continues to prevail in large parts of rural India due to reasons such as extreme poverty, illiteracy and discrimination against the lowest castes. Bonded labourers work under sub-human conditions: they work long hours and receive neither pay nor holidays in compensation. The landlords and middleman tend to manipulate the debt that binds the labourers to work so that it never diminishes and is passed on to their children and grandchildren.

Jeevika undertakes a series of measures to extricate children from Bonded labour. These include conducting awareness campaigns across villages in Karnataka, petitioning local administrators (and police) to intervene and remedy situations where bonded labour is identified etc. The most important programme undertaken by Jeevika in this regard is the Back to School Programme.

The Back to School Programme is positioned on the belief that every child below 14 is entitled to free education. This is a 'bridge’ programme that focuses on children who do not go to school or have discontinued from school. These children are tutored and their skills nurtured until they are considered to be fit to join the formal schooling system. Jeevika's activists ensure that the children are placed in government schools at the appropriate level.

Purpose / Goals

The primary purpose of Jeevika is to eradicate Bonded Labour from Karnataka and, to this end, to rescue children from labour. The aim is to provide these children with an environment that enables them to build confidence, skills and literacy. Once the children reach a level where they can benefit from the formal education, they are placed into government schools and their progress monitored. The goals of the programme are detailed below:

1. To identify children who do not go to school or whose education has been discontinued. To seek the support of parents and work in conjunction with local authorities in order to put a stop to child labour.
2. To bring children into ‘boarding centres’ where they are nurtured: provided food, shelter and, most importantly, the company of other children. Residence in these boarding centres ensures that these children are protected from being forced back into agricultural labour.
3. To train and monitor children and bring them to an appropriate level that allows them to fit into the formal education system. The bridge course does not offer formal education, as we understand it. A greater emphasis is placed on instilling self-confidence into children and on encouraging children to express themselves.
4. To make every effort to enrol children into Government Schools, usually after a year’s stint in the ‘back to school centres’. In the majority of cases, once these children are put into the Government school, Jeevika activists also ensure that these children reside in Government welfare hostels so that they are able to continue with their education.
5. To involve the parents of children who go through these programmes. In a majority of cases, the parents of these children contact Jeevika to enrol their children in these programmes. Jeevika’s awareness campaigns on Child Labour are specifically aimed to increase the awareness of parents about the rights and opportunities open to their Children.

Organization Description
'Jeevika' has been set up by the Vimukti trust to run 'back to school programmes' for children below 14 yeas, in order to prevent children from getting into bondage or other working situations detrimental to their growth. Vimukti Trust is a registered trust. It endeavours to organise legal assistance with the aim to secure compensation from the State for bonded labours

Jeevika operates two Back to School Centres. One is at the town of ‘Anekal’ where nearly 120 children currently reside. More than 200 children have graduated from the residential bridge programmes conducted in the Anekal Centre. The ‘Malur’ Centre (which has been specifically covered by this proposal) has now 100 children comprising of 2 bridge course centres, one boys and one for girls. The Malur centre was started 3 years ago and was upgraded in 2004 to accommodate both girls and boys.

Over the last 5 years, more than 200 children have directly benefited from the Back to School Programme centres started by Jeevika. These children have been rescued from a life of virtual slavery and been given the opportunity to experience a true childhood and to work towards a bright future for themselves. The children who have passed through these programmes have become more aware of their rights and many of them have themselves started to participate in the initiatives to eradicate bonded labour.