Delhi 2002-03

The Pratham Family in Delhi has grown substantially since its modest beginning, four and a half years ago. Today, the operations in Delhi have spread to a large number of areas, 11 zones in all. The number of teachers and support staff have increased manifold. Between July 2000 and July 2003, the number of children benefited has gone up from around 4000 to nearly 25000, an increase of more than six times. The core activity, though, remains the same 'every child in school and learning well ……learning visibly well'.

In the interim period we have been able to layer other activities such as the health programme, computer aided learning (CAL), library programme etc… We have also undertaken an infrastructure development programme in the MCD schools. Pratham even promoted performing art when it collaborated with an organization called the TALENT, which provides a platform to the underprivileged children to exhibit their theatrical and artistic skills, in a stage show where more than 70 children of Old Delhi and North Shahdara participated. It was widely acclaimed by both the audience and the press.

With the sizeable growth that Pratham has been able to achieve within such a short span of time, we had to be very vigilant in keeping the quality of our work above acceptable limits. As a matter of fact there has been a distinct attitudinal shift towards quality amongst the members of the Pratham Family, engaged in implementing Pratham programmes.

The Delhi team is now geared to take on the challenge of making a million children read in a short span of time. We are confident that in the forthcoming year, the impact of the Pratham Delhi team on the primary education scene in Delhi will be more significant and more visible.

This report is to keep you abreast of Pratham Delhi's recent activities and its future plans.

1. Summer Camps

During the summer vacations we ran the summer camps for six weeks (May 12 to June 20) in over 90 MCD schools in East, Central, West, and North Delhi. Nearly 20,000 children benefited from the Pratham 'reading programme'. Apart from this 6000 out-of-school children were prepared for mainstreaming into regular schools. The reading results are as under:

Both the pre-test and the post-test figured the same children. The results compare very favourably with the results from across the country, with 70% of the children being able to read comfortably - if not fluently - at the end of the 6-week programme. The Read India Juggernaut is well and truly on its way!

2. Community Survey

For the first time since its inception, Pratham Delhi conducted a community survey of over 160,000 households, in the 9 zones where it operates. The objective of the survey was to estimate the number of in-school and out of school children in these zones, together with their reading ability and math proficiency. The children were between 3 to 14 years of age. The survey was conducted in quick time by our teachers. The results corroborated what we have always believed - while the percentage of out-of-school children in the areas where we work is 15%, more than 40% of the children surveyed could barely read the Hindi alphabet correctly.

3. Capacity Building Workshop

In the first week of July, a fortnight long Capacity Building workshop was held. It was attended by over 70 volunteers belonging to the core programme team of Pratham from the nine zones of Delhi. In the first week they were orientated with the administrative issues of Pratham. The sessions were on data, money, computers, and community participation. In the second week the focus was on academics and curriculum.

There were also special sessions on "Pratham - Philosophy and Objectives" (Dr. Madhav Chavan), "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan" (Mr. Amarjeet Sinha), and "Innovations in Primary Education" (Prof. A.K. Jalaluddin).

In the academic session, an eight-member team from Maharashtra shared their valuable experience with the Delhi team. In addition, a very special session on Personal Effectiveness was conducted by a team of young management professionals from the corporate sector.

4. The Balsakhi programme for 2003-04

This will be the third consecutive year when our Balsakhis will provide remedial help to MCD school children. An examination was conducted to select the Balsakhis, this year. 3,000 took the examination, out of which 1,700 have been selected.

The Balsakhi programme in Delhi is conducted in association with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). We have made two proposals to the MCD.

a. In about 100 select schools, that have a high enrollment and a below-average teacher-student ratio, we have proposed a Reading Guarantee programme under which all children from Classes 2 to 5 who have difficulty in reading and computing basic math (counting, simple addition and subtraction) would be taught by our Balsakhis using our Accelerated Learning method. They would be made proficient in reading, writing and basic math within 6 months. For this, we plan to deploy one Balsakhi for every 25 children who are found to be requiring such remedial help.
b. In all the schools, we will deploy 1 to 2 Balsakhis (depending on the strength of the school), who would exclusively work towards reviving the libraries within the school. They will ensure that not only does the school library become functional, but also the books are regularly circulated amongst the school children. In addition, the Library Balsakhi will also work to ensure that enrolled children, from Class 1, do not drop out.

While we had no difficulties in implementing the second part of the proposal, we could not implement the first part for various reasons beyond our control. Hence, the Reading Guarantee programme was modified to cover a larger number of schools with 50 children in each school being taken through the Reading Programme over three months. This is currently being implemented, with 670 Balsakhis covering more than 16000 children in over 300 MCD schools.

5. The Library Programme

Apart from the in-school library programme, we have also embarked upon an ambitious library project that entails setting up our own libraries in all the areas where we work.

Various library models are being tried out: a central nodal library with a large number of books that would cater to all the children in a large catchment area, a community library based within the community with books procured from the central library and circulated by community volunteers, and a mobile library in which a "book-bag" is carried by a volunteer to the doorstep of a child.

Procurement of books is on in a big way, and if things go as per plan, every child in the areas where we operate would have easy access to a library within the next one year.

In addition, a pre-school library programme is currently being piloted in areas of West Delhi in which we are trying to tap the Anganwadi network (under the ICDS programme of the government.)

6. Balwadis

Based on the results of the community survey, we have started around 300 Balwadis for the 3-5 year old children. Balwadi teachers were also selected through a written test. This year, we have in place a more effective monitoring system for the Balwadis. In addition, a system of community mentoring has also been implemented under which a parent of a child enrolled in the Balwadi volunteers to be the mentor for that Balwadi.

7. The Trilokpuri Learning Laboratory under Prof. Jalaluddin

Since April this year, a very prestigious and ambitious project is underway in Trilokpuri, South Shahdara. This project is a collaborative effort between NEEV Foundation (an NGO spearheaded by Prof. Jalalludin, the eminent educationist) and Pratham. The objective of the project is to develop curriculum and accelerated learning methodologies that would help Pratham take a decisive step forward in teaching children of higher grades (Classes 3 to 5).

The first phase of this project got over in June, in which a core team of ten members, comprising of experienced Pratham trainers, were further trained personally by Prof. Jalaluddin.

The second phase would commence in August, when 30 Balsakhis would implement the new teaching techniques in 15 MCD schools in Trilokpuri under the supervision of the core team.

8. Bridge Courses

In order to improve operational efficiency, we have deferred the opening of Bridge Courses by a few months. This year, we are planning to start around 500 Bridge Courses to cover around 10000 out-of-school children in several parts of Delhi. This programme is expected to commence around mid-November.

9. Learning Centres

Pratham is one of the several NGOs who have been invited by the Government of Delhi to start "Learning Centres" for out-of-school children under the aegis of the Sarva Shiksha Abiyaan.

We have also been made the "Bridge NGO" - coordinating agency for work related to Learning Centers being run by all the NGOs - in the North East district of Delhi. We have already started 30 LCs in North Shahdara.

10. Catalytic Action

Apart from being a direct implementing agency of the Read India programme, we are also acting as catalytic agents for making children read by imparting training to the volunteers of other NGOs. Over the last few months, over 100 such volunteers have been trained by the Pratham Delhi training team in various parts of Delhi and the NCT.

10. CAL Centers

In the last few months, we have also propped up our work in the Computer-Aided-Learning centers, being run by us, in some MCD schools. We have upgraded the hardware as well as software in all these centers. A new center has also been opened at the Vivek Vihar School in South Shahdara.

11. New Frontiers

This year, Pratham Delhi has spread its wings to cover nearby areas of NOIDA and Gurgaon. At the time of writing this report, nearly 1000 children in the villages adjoining NOIDA have been enrolled in Bridge Courses and are being taught how to read, write, and count. In Gurgaon district, we have obtained permission from the District Primary Education Officer to implement the Reading Programme through our Balsakhis in five schools. In addition, we are also collaborating with an NGO called Literacy India, which runs a school in Chauma Village close to Palam Vihar in Gurgaon. Two of our volunteers have been stationed in this village to spearhead the Gurgaon district programme.