PGDM

(Batch 2011-13)

NGO Project Report on

PRATHAM MADHYA PRADESH

Submitted by: - Faculty Guide:

ARPIT GOYAL(PGDM-200) DR. SNIGDHARANI MISHRA

SUMIT ARORA(PGDM-209)

SANDESH SHARMA(RMM-21)

PRATHAM, MADHYA PRADESH ITM BUSINESS SCHOOL,KHARGHAR

SUMMARY

Pratham is the NGO that started working in the field of education from Mumbai. Later on it moved to other parts of the world like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh etc. Basically, the condition of govt. Schools was not very good. There were very less schools and very few students enrolled into it .over the past few years the enrollment increased at quiet a steady rate but despite of this , a large section of the rural children receives only the most basic education. Pratham along with ASER (Annual Status of Education report) revealed through a survey that a very high percentage of students lack even the basic literacy skills. So Pratham started to work on this problem at the grass-root level and is working on it. Improving the quality of education is its top priority.The main objective of Pratham is to provide quality education at the weaker sections of the society. Pratham toils hard to provide not only the basic education to the lower classes but also to provide computer education and vocational training to people so that they can make their living and can lead their life in a better way.

I got the opportunity to work with the Pratham Indore for a month. I was been allotted the KISHENGANJ sector as the group division and area division took place. Every group had a group head who was the block coordinator of pratham.Mr. BHANWARSINGHJI ANJANA was block coordinator. We moved on to various villages with him doing school visits, meeting volunteers , school teachers and Principals, creating awareness among parents and kids for education and doing promotional work.

Findings:

1. Children are not willing to attend the school.2. Parents don’t care much about their ward’s education as they themselves are illiterate.3. Very few students are actually able to grasp the teachings properly.4. Very small percentage of students is thorough with the basic learning, necessary for their

age.5. Aim of Pratham is very clear6. Methodology and approach is quiet suitable for the area and is serving the purpose.7. Education for Education is a very nice concept to provide free computer education.8. Optimum utilization of resources.

Conclusion:

Pratham as an organization is working real hard to achieve its goal of “education for all” and “every child in school and learning well”. It is trying to make the optimum utilization of the available resources to achieve this goal. I learned a lot in the duration of one month about rural India and education in rural India. I leaned about the thinking of the people in rural sector esp. for education.

Abbreviations:-

PCVC - The Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children

EFE - Education for Education

ULC - Urban Learning Centre

ASER – Annual Status of Education Report

RI – Read India

ECCE – Early Childhood Care and Education Centre

BEP - Block Excellence Program

DRC - District Resource Centre

BC - Block Coordinator

IT - Information Technology

DC - District Coordinator

MP - Madhya Pradesh

Table of Contents

S.no Section: Page no. 1 Title page 12 Summary 23 Abbreviations 34 Table of contents, list of tables and figures 45 Introduction 5 to 11

Background/ History of PRATHAM ,Vision & mission statementAim/objectives Activities undertaken by the PRATHAM

6 Project Report 12 to 17Reports of tasks/work at Villages and SchoolsSimrol ( E.P.E. centre) and 20 other Villages :- Project ObjectivesMajor activitiesOutputs/ Outcomes/ Resultsdata analysisfindings recommendations

7 Conclusions/Findings to the NGO 17 to 18 8 Learnings 19 to 209 References and Bibliography 21

Introduction

Background/History

Pratham was established as a Public Charitable Trust in 1994 by the Commissioner of the

Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, UNICEF and several prominent citizens of the

country. Over the years, the network has been expanded to various other cities where minded

people wanted to replicate the Pratham experience. Central to this massive expansion of

Pratham’s work has been a whole new way of approaching the education problem in India and a

new way of implementing programs to create a national impact.  We outline below the key

milestones in Pratham’s journey.

The Initial Years: Pratham began its operations by providing pre-school education to the

children in the slums of Mumbai. Contrary to the general mindset of space being limited,

Pratham felt that an ideal space should not be a pre-condition to providing pre-school education.

There was enough space within each community in temples, local offices, people’s houses etc.

Thus volunteers were recruited from within the communities and trained in early childhood

education and encouraged to take classes in any space available in the communities. They were

also provided with teaching learning material. Soon, the Pratham Balwadis (Pre-school classes)

multiplied and were replicated in various other locations.

Gradually we came into contact with out-of-school children and in-school children who were

lagging behind academically and also were at the risk of dropping out. Many of these were first

generation learners and therefore lacked the required learning support from their families. We

started providing remedial education to these children through the Balsakhi program.  The

Bridge classes conducted in the communities targeted out-of-school children and aimed at

bringing them to a minimum learning level before mainstreaming them into schools.

Between 1999 and 2001, we expanded our work to cover 19 cities with similar models. In

addition we began working with child labour through our outreach program. In 2000 Pratham

was awarded the Global Development Network Award, sponsored by the World Bank /

Government of Japan, where Pratham was named as one of the top three "most innovative

development projects”.

The Birth of the Learn to Read Technique and the shift to the Area Approach

By 2002-03, Pratham initiatives in most locations had worked out strategies on scale for direct

delivery of pre-school education, school readiness programs and remedial education.

In 2002-03 two major changes occurred that had a significant impact on our programs:   

The Area Approach: We adopted the area approach for the delivery of our programs in urban

areas. The “area approach” was designed to “turn communities around” so that the first step for

the universalization of elementary education could be firmly taken. In this approach an entire

community or basti is selected for the interventions. This is better than a scattered approach

where it is difficult to track children who drop out from the programs. In the area approach the

only way a child may drop out is if he or she leaves the community and migrates elsewhere. Low

income slum pockets or villages of approximately 250 to 300 households are demarcated. This

cluster is called a basti.  Often such pockets are contiguous to each other so that targeted

stretches of slums achieve goals of every child going to school and every child acquiring basic

literacy and numeracy skills within a time bound manner. Today, we are working in 4000 such

bastis in 43 cities.

Learn to Read: through our experience with the learning support programs, we learnt that the

average period of contact available with children requiring additional help was not more than 2-3

months. This necessitated the development of an alternative model/technique where a short term

contact could significantly impact the learning levels of children. There was a thought that “Isn’t

there a magic wand that will help us change the learning status of a child almost overnight?”

Pratham’s Learn to Read (L2R) technique was thus born. L2R was an accelerated learning

technique targeted at teaching both in-school and out-of-school children how to read in 4- 8

weeks. It was conceptualized as a non-linear method where the children were exposed to

multiple stimuli to help improve their learning levels. The first innovation resulting from these

efforts to develop this technique was to abandon the sequential method of learning. Instead,

Pratham came up with an integrated activity as it found that if four types of class activities (“say

something; do something; read something and write something”) are integrated together,

learning was rapid. The technique was based on the principle that when children were engaged in

a variety of activities which have implicit interconnections, they make the interconnections and

these snowball into a larger skill. This was “learning by doing” in action.

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER): As Pratham progressed in its

journey, it found it necessary to quantify the problems of education in a manner that could lead

to focused action. While government surveys provided enrollment data, there were hardly any

surveys providing information on the quality of education. Also the government data on

enrollment was not independently verified and often not published. Pratham felt that citizens

who were being levied a 2% (now 3%) cess on education since 2004 deserved to know if their

money was being used effectively and efficiently. Measuring the ASER (aser means impact in

Hindi) of their money was central to the ASER effort. But the primary objective was to create

awareness and inform citizens of the learning levels of their children. A massive voluntary effort

was thus set up across the country to conduct a household survey which measured various basic

and simple parameters of enrollment, facilities, and learning. This survey, which covers over

16,000 households and over 700,000 children between October and November each year in 95%

of the rural districts of India, is reported in the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) in the

following January .

Read India: ASER 2005 and 2006 findings revealed that in spite of having been in school for

over 2-5 years, a significant percentage of school children could not read, write or do basic

arithmetic.  Findings of ASER 2005, revealed for example, that only 15% of children in Std II

and 25% in Std III could read a class 1 text. Likewise, only 17% children in Std II and 32% in

Std III could solve subtraction problems. ASER 2006 continued to point to the gaps in the

learning levels of the children. To address this problem in January 2007, Pratham launched the

Read India campaign to help all of India’s children aged 6-14 years learn to read, write, and do

basic arithmetic. Instead of relying on governments to ask for “people’s participation”, this

movement talks of “people’s initiative and governments’ participation. The campaign is being

implemented in 350 districts (600 in India) across 19 states in the country with the help of

thousands of volunteers and the government school system. It has already reached 21 million

children. More than 350,000 volunteers have been mobilized and 400,000 teachers and

government officials have been trained. In most states where the Read India campaign has been

implemented, there has been a significant improvement in the learning levels of the children.

Today the organization continues to expand both geographically and in terms of the scope of

work it undertakes. Several new programs have been introduced which include the computer

aided literacy program, English program, Pratham Council for Vulnerable children and the

Skilling Initiative.

Vision & Mission:

Pratham’s mission is to ensure “Every Child in School and Learning Well ”. The organization

is founded on the firm belief that education is the fundamental right of every child and no child

should be deprived of this basic right simply because he/she does not have access to it or does

not have the resources to realize his/her dreams.

The principal focus of our programs is to ensure quantum and visible improvement in the

enrolment and learning levels of the underprivileged children.

The key principles which have guided the evolution of our programs over the years are:

1. Generating a societal mission is a necessary means of achieving the broad goal of

universal pre-school and primary school education.

2. Creating an impact on a large scale is essential to bring about a perceptible

change.

3. Creating low cost models is critical to ensure sustainability and replicability of

interventions. 

15 years after its formation, the Pratham movement has become a pan-Indian movement

reaching millions of children across 19 states. Our programs are designed to address a gamut of

educational problems – pre-school education, learning support to both in-school and out of

school children, mainstreaming of out-of-school children, computer literacy, vocational training

for youth and special programs for vulnerable and working children.

Aims/Objectives:

Improving the reading, writing and arithmetic levels of the children: Read India

Improving enrollment and learning levels of children in urban areas: Direct programs

Assessment, Survey, Evaluation and Research: ASER Centre

Working with vulnerable children: PCVC

Facilitating the use of IT: CAL

Working with underemployed and unemployed youth: PACE

Working in Early Childhood Care and Education: ECCE centre

Providing books to underprivileged children: Pratham Books

Activities Undertaken by the NGO:

Urban Learning Centres: Pratham establishes Learning Centres in communities where it is

possible for us to find space to start one, as well as get children who can pay a nominal fee.   This

fee is vital in creating a self-sustaining educational facility within the given community wherein

the program will have continuity in future even without external funding. Given Pratham’s focus

on sustainability in educational development, it is vital that the teachers, students, parents and

community members have an active stake in the program. Therefore, while the fee collected

from each student is minimal, the collection goes towards giving the community ownership of

the program.

Read India: Pratham’s flagship program, Read India, helps to improve the reading, writing and

basic arithmetic skills of the children in the age group of 6-14 years. Even though India has made

significant strides in improving the enrollment levels of the children, a lot still needs to be done

as far as the learning levels are concerned.  Findings of ASER 2005 and 2006 revealed that a

significant percentage of children could not read, write and even do basic arithmetic.

Read India was therefore launched on a national scale in 2007 to help achieve the following

objectives:  

*All Std I children know at least alphabets & numbers. 

*All Std II children can read atleast words & do simple sums.

*All Std III-V children can at least read simple texts fluently & confidently solve arithmetic

problems.

ASER: Facilitated by Pratham, ASER(meaning impact in Hindi) is the largest household

survey undertaken in India by people outside the government. It annually measures the

enrollment as well as the reading and arithmetic levels of children in the age group of 6-14 years.

ASER is carried out by a local organization or institution in each rural district in the country,

using a common set of tools and a common sampling frame. In 2008, ASER reached over

7,04,000 children in 16,198 villages in 564 rural districts in India. More than 32,000 volunteers

from NGOs, colleges and universities, youth and women groups participated in this effort.

Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children: The Pratham Council for Vulnerable

Children (PCVC - www.pcvc.org) started its outreach program in Mumbai in the year 2001. For

almost three years the focus was on working children in the city of Mumbai, who were mainly

found to have been trafficked from different parts of the country. Facilitation of the task force

formation under the Government of Maharashtra saw the rescue and rehabilitation of almost

25000 working children in the city. It was a felt need to trace the roots of these children and

work in the source sending states from where the children belonged. In this view the work was

expanded to the source states.

Computer Aided Literacy: This is a school based program which caters to school going

children from 6-18 age group with about 40% children in secondary school age.

The objective of this program is

1) To impact children’s basic learning levels using IT and

2) To give them relevant IT knowledge and skills.

Vocational Skills programme:

Pace – the Skills Training Program: This program is targeted at the economically

disadvantaged youth in the 18-30 year age group. India has a large percentage of youth who have

not been able to complete their formal education and also do not have the required vocational

skills to begin fully employed.

Pratham’s Skills Training Program tries to

1) Train youth in market relevant skills such as banking, agriculture, hospitality etc. and

2) Help them start their own businesses.

Early Childhood Care and Education Centre: The ECCE center was set up in 2007 to

leverage and institutionalize the experience Pratham has in early childhood care and education.

Over the years, Pratham has been running a successful Balwadi program and in this process

worked with and trained thousands of volunteers and pre-school teachers. The center is an

attempt to consolidate and share the learning in this area through an institutional framework.

Trainings in early childhood care and education is the key activity of the resource centre.

Trainings are conducted for government and private pre-school teachers as well as for volunteers

from within the community. Through the collaboration with the government ICDS to train the

Anganwadi workers, the center seek to strengthen the government pre-school learning program.

The center also promotes entrepreneurial efforts in the field of ECCE. In addition, information

on ECCE is also provided to mothers and urban and rural poor so that they are empowered with

knowledge to improve the education and health of their children.  Centers have been established

in Maharashtra, Hyderabad and Allahabad and efforts are underway to set up additional centers.

Pratham in Madhya Pradesh this Year (2010 – 11)

Geographical Coverage: 3000 villages across 12 BEPs & 2DRCs

Children Reached: 66,805

Volunteers Mobilized: 5,666

Pratham is currently running the ‘Read India’ (RI) program through 12BEPs and 2 DRCs. 2

volunteers per village are mobilized in every target village to teach a group of 20 – 25 children,

who are all well below their expected grade level competencies. One volunteer teaches children

in classes 1 & 2, focusing on basic literacy numeracy skills, while the other volunteer teaches

children in classes 3-5, focusing on reading fluency and comprehension, as well as Arithmetic

operations. Volunteers also teach English, where focus is on letter recognition, vocabulary

building and ability conduct basic greetings in English.

Approximately half of the classes in Madhya Pradesh are run Government schools, where

volunteers teach struggling children during school hours. The remaining classes are run in the

community before or after school hours. Each BEP also has a Block Resource Centre, which is

used by block coordinators* and district coordinators** to conduct trainings for volunteers and

for other administrative purposes.

Pratham is running a Mechanical Vocational Training program in the Bina block in Madhya

Pradesh.

Pratham is running the Education for Education (EFE) program in 14 districts in Madhya

Pradesh.

Block Coordinators are responsible for monitoring, training and evaluation in 20

villages

District Coordinators are in charge of operations and reporting for the entire block

Our Project Objectives:

To know the approach and goal orientation of Pratham.

To create awareness for child education in villages.

To promote education to the grass root level of villages.

To create awareness in parents for girls education.

Our Approach:

Gathering of all allotted students on 1st day in Mhow and gathered information about Pratham.

Next day meeting with District co-coordinator M/s. Sharmila Nikam and Block co-coordinators :Mr. Radheshyam (Simrol - Khandwa Road)M/s. Vinita (Gauli Palasia - Dhar Naka)Mr. Bhanvar Singh (Aamba Chandan - Borkhedi)M/s. Hemlata (Jamli – Janapav khuti)Mr. Rajendra Karma (Manpur)Area and Group division was done.

KISHENGANJ sector was allotted to us with our block coordinator Mr. BHANWARSINGH ANJANA.

Next day we reported to KISHENGANJ E.P.E. centre and met with the computer tutor . We collected the information about the villages to be covered along with the tasks to be

done.

We started off our work with SATER and later on moved on to other villages with the following field work:

1. School visits.2. Meeting with volunteers.3. Demonstration by volunteers in their schools.4. Parents meeting.5. Meeting with principal and teachers.6. Done promotion work like Slogan writing, distribution of study material,

pamphlets etc.7. Selection and Training volunteers.8. Created awareness in parents about girl education.

Outputs/Results:

Practical learning of management in rural area.

Clarity of goal and approach to achieve it.

Optimum utilization of resources.

Good coordination among members.

Hiring of local people.

Proper work distribution.

Our Suggestions/Recommendations:

Excessive workload on Block coordinators therefore additional assistance should

be provided.

Lack of volunteers’ interest due to long distance between centers and they have

their household work.

Increase in no. of computer learning center.

Increase in no. of parents meeting.

Inspection of work should be made on frequently.

More attention should be given to weaker students; therefore provision of extra

classes should be there.

Findings/Conclusions:

We found that although many children enroll for education in the schools, only a

few of them really attend school on a regular basis. The major reason behind this is that

people usually do farming in the villages and therefore either take their children along

with them to work or leave them at home. Another reason is the distance of school from

the villages.

Also we found that many parents enrolled their children just to get free meals,

shoes and school dress.

By conducting the test in the schools we found that many students could not read

simple alphabets and numbers also.

Learnings Accumulated:

Clarity of goal:

“Every child in school and learning well” is the Pratham’s goal and it is toiling hard to

achieve it. Every member of Pratham is properly aware of this goal and is working in

line with it. Clarity of goal is of utmost importance in any area as once you what your

aim is then and then only you can work for it.

Approach towards the achievement of the goal:

What to do is followed by how to do it. Pratham is clear in its goal and very well knows

how to do it. Pratham is quiet correct in its approach for achieving its goal of education

for all. It started a concept of “Education for Education” where it provides free computer

education to the children who need it and these children in turn provide the basic

education to the younger ones.

Practical learning of management in rural area.

Pratham helped me learn the management of resources in rural area. I learned about the

condition of education and the thought process of the people for education in rural India.

It helped me adopt a practical approach for learning and teaching in that segment.

Optimum utilization of resources:

It taught me to manage with the limited number of resources in the best possible

manner. Providing education in an area where there is no educational environment and

in the lack of major resources like electricity has been made possible only through hard

work and clear intention of attaining the common goal.

Good coordination among members.

Hiring of local people.

Building up good relation with local communities and people.

Experience with rural sector.

Proper work distribution.

References

1. State Head:

Mr. Sajjan Singh shekhawat

E-mail: sajjan.bhopal@rediffmail.com

Contact no: 09669302142

2. District Coordinator

Ms. Sharmila Nikam

Contact No: 09589845649

3. Block Coordinator

Mr. Bhanwar singh Anjana

Contact no: 09827392901

Bibliography

www.Pratham.org

www.wikipedia.org

www.google.com