Project Talim of Azad Foundation

| Last updated less than one minute ago

Submit :

News Photos Just In Debate Topic Latest News Articles Local News Blog Posts Pictures Reviews Recipes

AKANSHA..

04 February, 2010

A well-recognised non governmental organisation in Kishanganj, Bihar Azad India Foundation has started an innovative integrated programme linking madrasas to formal education under National Open School.

AZAD INDIA Foundation has started an innovative integrated programme linking madrasas to formal education under National Open School. This programme is being supported by Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, New Delhi for duration of three years. The rationale behind this programme is that the education being imparted in the madrasas is based on deeni talim (religious education), which largely remains traditional.

The programme would be implemented in 20 villages of Pothia Block, Kishanganj. The villages have been selected on the basis of high concentration of illiterate female population. AIF will also open education centres in villages where there are no government schools or madrasas. These centers would also provide education to children, especially girls, between six and 14 years age group for National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) examination. The main aim of the programme is to bring in those girls who have been unable to continue their schooling due to various reasons into the mainstream education. The education centres would also provide functional literacy to the girls above 14 years and adult women.

Objectives of the project

To build children’s interest in education and health.
To facilitate women’s groups to take initiatives for their own development.

Disseminate health information to enable people make correct health choices.
Intervention area

No of villages: 20 in two clusters
Name of the block: Pothia

Project Talim

Project Talim is being implemented in 20 villages of Pothia block. The villages have been selected on the basis indicators such as high concentration of illiterate population, non-availability of formal education in the vicinity, distance from the government schools etc. The first two months were devoted to the selection and identification of the project team. The actual work started from the third month.

Selection of the project team

Project Talim has total 40 teachers, 3 Cluster level coordinators and 1 Project Coordinator. In the first two months of the project duration the team was selected through open written test and interview process. All efforts had been made to keep the process transparent and select only the deserving ones. The selected candidates were given orientation in their roles and responsibilities.

Base line survey

AIF carried out baseline survey under the supervision of Prasad, education consultant, Ranchi to understand the ground realities in the selected villages of the Project Talim. The study investigates the problems faced by the parents of out of school children of the locality especially women, their concerns and inclination towards education. Information was also collected from women and girls aged above 14 years to know about their educational status and as well as to measure the extent of health awareness among them. The following tools and techniques were used for data collection and identifying an effective strategy for Talim centres.

Study of related documents and literature on NFE.
Interview schedule for parents of children between six and 14 not going to school.
Interview schedule for women and girls aged 14 and above. A total of 911 persons were interviewed selected randomly. Among them 395 were parents of children aged between six and 14 years and 516 girls and women above 14 years of age. With regard to household data, field investigators randomly selected the households in each sample village habitation giving due representation to the households with out of school children.

The household survey included questions on source of income, educational background of the members including children, their accessibility to the school/madrasa.
Some observations of the base line are:
During the field survey 178 children between six and 14 age-groups were spotted who were not going to school. The number of children in the age-category of 10 years was found maximum (22 per cent), however 12 and eight years children were 19 per cent and 17 per cent which kept increasing till 12 years of age.
Among the children identified 44 per cent were girls and 56 per cent were boys. This indicates that both girls and boys are of same ratio that is still out of school.
Ninety-eight per cent children stay with their parents which shows that they are not vagabonds. 96 per cent of mothers are housewives, two per cent women work on fields and 1.4 per cent work as labourers.
Eighty per cent children are not engaged in any kind of work even at home. But 20 per cent children are engaged in some kind of work either at home or somewhere else.
It was found that 66 per cent of children were in the category of never enrolled whereas 34 per cent were dropouts who discontinued schooling after attending few classes.
On the issue since how long children are not attending school, it was revealed that 60 per cent children have stopped going to school even for a single day for the last two years. There were children who discontinued since last one year (13 per cent) and few of them left for the last eight to 10 months (27 per cent).
While analysing the reasons for not attending the schools, it was evident that 23 per cent of girl and women could not go to school due to financial burden on parents whereas 12 per cent avoid going to school due to distance from school. The other reasons have come up such as poor teaching in school (seven per cent), household chores (six per cent), illiterate parents (two per cent) and early marriage (one per cent).
Fifty-nine per cent girls and women have not come across of any educational activities that are being implemented by government in the area.
Sixty-seven per cent women and girls have suffered with some kind of illness or disease in the past.