young children young minds: a case study addressing the - nidan
TRANSCRIPT
Young children young minds: a case study addressing the psycho social needs of preschool children Nidan Program in Bihar
Program History
Education program of NIDAN is outcome of its decade’s long association
with the informal sector workers mainly engaged in rag picking, waste
collection, cleaning and sweeping. After successfully organizing this
community, demand for education came up during the community
meetings. Intensive mobilization created awareness on the need and
importance of education for children leading to a demand for preschool
centres for young children in 2006. American Indian Foundation (AIF)
which was already supporting NIDAN’s Livelihood program agreed to
support its pre-school intervention and facilitated its linkages with Bodh
Shiksha Samiti (BSS), Jaipur for teacher’s training and technical inputs.
The requisite handholding and guidance for conceptualizing and
implementing the activities in initial stages was provided by AIF.
The strategy for preschool education evolved over the years. There was
not much clarity at the beginning on the pre-school program. Intervention
basically started with the aim of providing educational opportunity for
those children from the most marginalized communities who were left out
from the mainstream schooling. In fact this initiative was an extended
component of organization’s Livelihood intervention and layered upon it.
The very first batch of teachers had undergone training for both pre-
primary and primary levels. Classes were organized for both levels –Pre-
primary & Primary at the same centre by one teacher, addressing out of
school children through a bridge course and pre-primary children through
school readiness package. Older children would bring their siblings along
with them as their parents would leave home early morning for work.
With the enactment of the RTE in Bihar, clarity emerged to accord the
preschool activities in the centre itself and shift the primary special training
classes for out of school children in the government primary school
premises.
The Program Goal as spelt out by the leadership is universalization of
Pre-Primary Schooling in the state of Bihar The objectives of the program
were identified around this goal and primarily involved advocacy related
objectives to be taken up at all levels-with stakeholders and government as
well as action oriented objectives involving creating successful preschool
education models for children in the vulnerable communities, with an
intent of establishing NIDAN as a resource agency to operationalize such a
model.
Specifically the Objectives spelt out are:
To advocate and facilitate enrolment of children of all informal
sector workers in slums of Patna in formal schools
To advocate for retention of all enroled children of informal
sector workers staying in slums of Patna in the formal school
setting for at least 10 years;
To facilitate access of children below age of 6 years to ICDS
system in operational areas of NIDAN;
To establish NIDAN as a resource agency in the field of ECCE.
NIDAN decided to provide access to pre-primary schooling in a cluster
approach, saturating all relevant age group children belonging to socially
and economically marginalised populations in major slums where there
was a need expressed by the community. In addition surveys, mapping and
analysis of resources and thread helped finalise the area for intervention.
Program follows the model of one teacher for one centre, with teacher
pupil ratio of 1:30, with 30 functional centres physically located at 18
places, at times 2-3 centres are merged at one location having larger space
and high concentration of children. NIDAN advocates for a teacher pupil
ratio of 1:25 which it cannot maintain due to resource constraint.
The underlying philosophy of the preschool intervention is the school
readiness for 3 to 6 year old children. Program focuses on providing
quality education to children from marginalized and disadvantaged
communities. It seconds the developmental research that has shown that
early childhood years are critical for physical, social, emotional, cognitive
and language development. Investing in the early years of children’s lives
is key to developing children as confident and creative learners and
socially responsible members of society. The program operates with the
belief that a child who has attended pre-school is more likely to learn better
in school. Investing in young children’s well being and development is
therefore not only in the interest of the child but also contributes to a more
productive population. If a child is directly admitted to the primary
schooling then there are high chances of her drop-out. Even if children stay
in school, persistent patterns of underachievement are established right at
the beginning. It is in this context that the Early Childhood Development
programme focuses on an inclusive and pluralistic approach towards
education by providing quality pre-school experiences to these children. A
core concern of the programme is to ensure a smooth transition from early
childhood development settings to primary education. The programme also
lays emphasis on the holistic development of children and making parents
and families realise the importance of early childhood education in their
children’s lives.
CONTEXT
NIDAN’s pre-school program is being implemented in six urban slums
namely ward 21, 27, 47, 51, 56 & 62 of Patna city, in the state of Bihar.
The organization caters to a 4558 households with 21,158 members (data
relevant for June 2012) through its intervention. Caste wise distribution of
population shows (table 2) 50% SC/ 15% ST categories and 31% OBCs.
The Community members are mainly engaged in the informal sectors for
their livelihood mainly as rag pickers, cleaners waste pickers/cleaners,
wage labour, hawkers, bamboo basket makers , purchasing and selling of
old clothes, domestic helpers etc. Members of dalit communities which
constitute the largest population are engaged in rag picking, cleaning work,
waste works, basket making etc. these livelihood options are at the lowest
margins of social and economical marginalization in the Indian society.
Ward 21, 27, 47, 51, 57 & 62
Total House Hold 4558
Total Population 21158
Male 12052
Female 9106
Sex Ratio 756
Total
Population SC ST OBC General Minority Other's
4558 2281 694 1435 69 79 0
% 50% 15% 31% 2% 2% 0%
Deta
ils
Regular School Going
Irregular
Never
Enroll
Aganwad
i Balwadi NIDAN
Other
NGO
Tota
l M F M F M F M F M F M F
2385
27
7 236
1
9 27 630 645 71 58 71 94 142 115
%
12
% 10%
1
% 1%
26
% 27% 3% 2% 3% 4% 6% 5%
(Source: Annual Stocktaking of School by Organization)
NIDAN works primarily in the communities which inhabit largely
Scheduled Caste and Tribes population. Most of them work as rag pickers,
cleaners, small time sellers of used clothes etc. the community being more
or less homogenous in terms of their socio economic status does not
experience many disagreements amongst itself. Moving around in the
slums shows that there is a dearth of basic health facilities. The houses are
all cramped and inhabiting large families in one or two cramped rooms.
The surroundings have open urinals, defecation, garbage dumps, and water
logging. One could see the children and adolescents moving around and
playing at different times, even at times when they should have been in
school. Some girls moved around with their young siblings.
One visit in the community shows that being more or less homogenous in
nature, there are no focal power structures existing. There are some
families belonging to general category and to upper economic strata that do
not appreciate preschools being run for the marginalised but do not create
hindrance for NIDAN centres. They just send their children to other private
schools which run pre-primary sections. They did resist allocating
permanent community spaces or vacant land for the centres, but this did
not come in the way of actually getting the land eventually. However, these
few families do not access these centres for their children. As most of the
community belong to similar caste culture, and economic status, they are
pretty close knit in an urban slum environment. Thus they all have no
issues in sending their children to centres and hence there is no evidence of
exclusion based on caste and gender.
Instead of two, we decided to visit three preschool centres in the slums
where NIDAN is operating and found that all of them have mediocre to
poor infrastructure. Two centres are located on or close to the main roads
throwing safety challenge for the children. They have temporary structures
erected on previously used dumping sites. The vicinity around is extremely
dirty, unhygienic and full of garbage. However, the insides of the centres
are kept clean. The rooms are small but clean and hygienic. There are all
basic requirements in terms of dustbin, water purifier; open shelf, trunk and
tables. However, overall infrastructure demands much attention in terms of
earthen floors, seepage ridden walls, broken trunks etc.
There is one centre which has better infrastructure than the others in terms
of having a concrete building, albeit without proper door and windows, but
with airy and spacious room there are proper cupboards and trunks to store
material and documents. Notwithstanding poor infrastructure, the insides
of the centres show vibrancy with which they are organised and made
functional. These are developed as alternatives to the government
Anganwadis (preschools under the ICDS program) which are not
functional/available in the communities that they are targeting. The centres
provide education activities and health checkups for the children. The
families of these children are able to access other services provided by the
organisation such as the livelihood and health. They highly appreciate the
rapport they have with NIDAN and the fact that their children get free
preschool education.
Entering the centres takes you to a different world from what you see
outside. Clean vibrant spaces neatly organised. Groups of children
organised according to their ages and being addressed by one worker.
Children responded to whatever activities the teacher was making them
perform and also listened to her when she asked them to do something.
One could see her constantly engaging with the children, luring them with
colourful toys, beads and other material, keeping them engrossed in playful
activities.
Discussion with teachers at various points revealed that they have a lot to
do in the entire day which they organise around four sets of activities-
interacting with the families and discussing issues with them about their
children who are attending the centre, even interacting with other families
who do not send their children to centres and persuading them to let them
enrol and attend the centres. They then get the children to the centres
securely as they are really small children and cannot come on their own;
most of their parents already leave for work before the centre starts. After
they get the children to the centres they are involved in group activities
providing opportunities to children to learn. These are set of activities
which they plan out at the end of each day for the next day. Along with
planning they also assess the competencies of children at the end of each
day.
Personnel Management
A good intervention needs to have a sound program management system
and process for it to be effective. Getting into the deeper operational
components it was found that there is a systematically thought of structure
(refer diagram 1) to deliver the program. This involved people at all levels
who deal directly with children or community or are supervisors, mentors
etc. At each level there is clarity on the roles and responsibilities. There is
transparency and understanding amongst all on organisational mandate,
strategy and other communication. One can see permanency of the staff
who has been delivering right from the conception of the program.
.
Diagram 1
Director Director e
ctor
Program Manager-Education
Head-Program Quality
RTE Coordinator
MIS Coordinator
Accountant
Area supervisors are allowed to deal directly with those who have to
deliver the program (resource teachers and teachers themselves) so as the
quality is not compromised or diluted and they get single supervision and
guidance. The administrative and programmatic responsibilities are
accounted for at different levels with Program Manager leading the
program, accompanied by the Head-Program Quality, an RTE coordinator
to support the bridge program and facilitate the mainstreaming of children
to government or private schools under 25% quotas under RTE for children
from weaker sections of society. In order to ensure quality transaction and
expertise in handling the important age group of 3 to 6 years, qualified
teachers are appointed with minimum graduation degree, with relaxation to
high school for those who have a commitment to work with children from
lower strata of society in slum areas.
An intense selection process is followed for the same.
After preliminary screening and short listing from the pool of CV
Area Supervisors Academic Facilitators
Teachers
Resource Teachers
candidate is invited to have face to interaction where they have to answer
certain question related assessing the attitude and knowledge about the
education and kind of communities program is dealing with. Followed this
selected candidate is sent for one week of rigorous field work in the
community and attached to a resource centre. Once this immersion process
is completed then candidate write the report and final round of discussion
is done.
Teachers are the core of the program on which the success of the program
depends immensely. Some teachers reported their joining the project was
solely due to them being driven by the poor economic condition of their
families and lack of opportunities in the market due to them not being
professionally qualified to get a government or a corporate job. . However,
once they joined, they appreciated the space provided to them to exhibit
their passion, friendly environment, community support and recognition
that they were making a difference in the lives of their children.
In the words of teacher Vijeta “I feel good when I think that I am
contributing in the education of those children, who could otherwise lose
their childhood and may lead to become bad person. I feel very happy and
pride in this job when I find that there are many children in slums next to
her home who don’t have this opportunity but here i am making the life of
few of the children. This is the greatest reward for me”.
An effective support system has been institutionalised for the teachers as
well as supervisors, with both encouraged to maintain a regular daily diary
penning down any problems faced including personal, professional or
emotional issues. Diaries are read by the staff next in the hierarchy and
issues are discussed with the staff individually. Supervisors not only work
as mentors but also help in making the lesson plans and conducting the
classroom activities if teacher is feeling nervous or demotivated due to any
reasons. Opportunity of team work and daily interaction with communities
creates emotional bond among team members and with community.
Teachers and other staffs enjoy and nurture this relationship. A well
receiving class of enthusiastic and happy children further keep up their
motivation.
Programme
NIDAN adapts Bodh’s curriculum for Early Childhood Education which
rests on the premise of the National Curricular Framework. It recognizes
ECD classroom processes play a vital role in enhancing the social
competence and school readiness of children. Each child is accepted as an
individual with his/her own feelings, ideas and relationships with others,
different from those of adults, and the program supports each child’s
individual pattern of development and learning style. Teaching is rooted in
the child’s familiar world where he/ she are allowed to handle and explore
materials from everyday life. Children are encouraged to draw and paint,
practice saying words and phrases, speak aloud in the classroom and sing
rhymes and songs. Children also play with flashcards, geometrical shapes,
beads, puzzles and clay items, which stimulate their imagination. The
attempt is to provide meaningful activities to children at the individual
level and abundant opportunities to learn from interacting with people and
material. Teachers work towards creating a safe and nurturing classroom
environment based on trust between teacher and children. This facilitates
children’s independence and encourages self expression and creativity.
The curricular objectives are geared towards development of adequate
muscular coordination & basic motor skills, good health habits & basic
skills necessary for personal social adjustment, ability to express her
thoughts and feelings in clear language, independence and creativity,
intellectual curiosity and understanding of world around and new interests,
social attitudes and manners, healthy group participation, sensitivity to
rights & privileges of others, emotional maturity to express , understand,
accept and control feelings and emotions, aesthetic appreciation.
The pedagogy used is a mix of planned free play with guided activities,
individual, small group and large group activities that would provide lots
of opportunities for teacher –child, child to child interaction and interaction
with play materials and environment, variety of opportunities to listen to
stories, handle and bond with picture books, learn rhymes, be immersed in
a language environment, create, indulge in imaginative play, ask and think
out answers, do simple problem solving, experiment and generally have a
‘feel good’ experience for a positive self image.
School Readiness play activities involve Reading Readiness: eg. picture –
sound matching, shapes, phonetics; increasing vocabulary; verbal
expression, developing bond with an interest in reading through picture
books, storytelling, charts etc Writing Readiness: eg. eye hand
coordination, interest in writing, left to right directionality, Readiness for
Mathematics: developing skills in Classification, Seriation, pattern making
, reasoning, problem solving, Forming concepts: pre number and number
concepts and space concepts and vocabulary, Environment concepts and
vocabulary; Approaches to Learning: to Interest, initiative and curiosity,
engagement and persistence, reasoning and problem solving.
The entire curriculum is organised according to ages of the children,
specifically for 3+, 4+ and 5+ ages for a period of twelve months as per a
weekly plan, organised from simple to complex competencies. But the
focus is also maintained on equipping the child to smoothly transit into
class one by acquiring necessary competencies at the reading and writing
level.
The four major components focuses are academic, environment, motor
skill development and health. In academic component, competencies of
children are built around letter and numbers. Motor skill developments are
done through colours, drawing, clay and some other classroom exercise.
Component of environment focuses on proving knowledge and learning
about surrounding of children like fruits, vegetables, places, means of
transportation etc. Under the health component, children are taught about
imbibing basic health and hygienic practices like washing hands before
and after having food, washing hands after toilet, daily bath, cleanliness at
home and surrounding. In addition, time to time health camps are
organized for children.
A Daily Schedule of 3 hours involves
Morning assembly, activities involving physical exercise like jumping,
movement of body parts, academic teaching learning, play activities. The
pedagogy involves use of a variety of activities, text materials while
practicing gender sensitivity, social class sensitivity and sensitivity to
needs of children. Teachers were often seen adapting the curriculum to the
needs of the children in order to best foster learning. Focus is seen on
concepts like children learning by doing, learning by discovery, by
constructing their own knowledge. The role of the teacher is that of a
facilitator for providing an enabling environment and the scaffolding to the
child’s own process of learning.
For younger age group, the effort is to move the child from perceptions to
concepts. This becomes possible through appropriate and varied
experiences through interaction with the teacher, with the peers and with
materials and the environment around her. Learning is related to their
prior experiences and immediate environment. Reversible thinking and
ability to conserve are focused as well. Children were seen applying these
concepts to solve simple problems through use of cognitive skills of
reasoning, creative thinking and problem solving. Children are provided
an environment for active learning, not merely relating to physical activity,
but also engaging the child’s language and cognitive faculties like
reasoning, thinking, articulation and problem solving, which can allow for
multiple solutions.
They are given opportunities to try out, manipulate, make mistakes and
correct themselves. Their experiences and knowledge levels are built upon
to create learning situations and examples. Recognising that learning
moves from familiar to unfamiliar concepts and from specific to general,
children are sometimes taken outside the centre to provide varied learning
situations. Children are appreciated for their creative abilities and skills
such as musical, dance, interpersonal, linguistic etc. Play is recognised as
the best medium for learning and used extensively by providing joyful
environment. Supervisor Manoj Kumar says that pre-school means that
there should not be any pressure one child and if ‘pre’ is removed from
‘pressure’ word then it becomes ‘sure’ that child will be adopt to the
environment in any pre-school.
Children are allowed to learn at their own pace and provided opportunities
for cooperative learning through peer work, group work and group
interaction, with the teacher as a facilitator, in addition to individualized
learning. There is also space for children to revisit the concepts and skills
along with the new learning so that the learning gets consolidated.
An example of interesting activities followed in the learning situation:
rhymes, poems, clay work, colours and drawing, dancing, jumping and
group play. Teaching numbers up to ten, vegetables, fruits, means of
transportation, relation among family members through rhymes and songs.
Story telling session asking children to imagine about what will happen
next. Developing on language skills through drawing animals, different
shapes and sizes, making of fish by using the materials like paper,
scissors, gum, colours; mimicry, dancing etc. Monotony is avoided by not
continuing any activity beyond 15-20 minutes.
Varied and interesting teaching-learning material is visible in the centres
and on the walls. Material like flash card puzzles, shape set picture cards
and picture charts, number card, dice and match sticks. Worksheets story
Books, single rods and double Rods for counting, pencils and crayons are
used for reading and writing teachings. Material like flash card, puzzles,
shape set, picture cards and picture charts, Number card, dice and match
sticks. Worksheets, Story Books, Single Rods and Double Rods for
counting, pencils and crayons for used for reading and writing teachings.
Most of the materials used are made by teachers themselves. Teachers have
freedom to by some materials on themselves up to Rs. 500/- centre if they
needed so. There are materials like posters and charts are placed on the
wall for facilitate the learning. However, they are placed little higher on the
wall and children might face difficulty in reading them. Along with
teachers’ work children work has been given place on the wall and they are
changed every month.
Planning a daily schedule was seen as a refreshing exercise with a balance
of different activities around the content area, individual, peer to peer and
group activities, outdoor and indoor activities, mix of active and not so
active activities, guided, open ended activities and refreshing new
activities. These are planned with a flexible and participatory approach.
According to teacher Rashmi “some of the points she always keeps
in mind while teaching the children of this age group. She does not
believe in following the rigid structure of classroom transaction and
put stress on flexibility in method of teaching. If a child is not
learning through the method as planned or used earlier then teacher
should change her way. Joyful teaching and learning is at core of
making child learn. Child should not feel scared or bore when in the
process of learning. They should feel that they have full freedom of
doing what they wish to do. The children coming from the families
where both mother and fathers are out of home for work and they
are looked after by elder siblings or grandparents. In this scenario,
parent like care is very essential so children should not feel alone or
not cared”.
According to her childhood “is a period when child develop the skill
of communication and socialization. This should not be obstructed
in any case even when child is doing something which is not so
acceptable from the point of view of elders. Children learn through
the games and sports and they should be given this opportunity
freely. Generally children are naughty and insisting about their
liking and demand so parents should not treat it as symbol of bad
behaviours. Children have the tendency to get attracted towards
colourful objects, toys and eatables.”
An excellent teacher-child bonding is vivid with all teachers addressing all
children by their names and reacting to slightest of behaviour expression.
Punitive or verbal punishment is a complete ban. In the last one and half
hour of day all teachers sit together for regular assessment of children in
the class and planning of next day accordingly. Assessment process
focuses on what the child knows--and not as conventionally done on what
he/she does not know. Individual differences are recognized and
acknowledged in this process and supports teachers to track the progress of
every child.
An example is illustrated below:
Teachers use worksheet to conduct an activity with each child and
appreciate each child for her work and not rate her as best, average or poor.
Observations on each child’s participation in games and other group
activities are noted in daily diary. A monthly assessment of competencies
acquired is also maintained but not disclosed to children, however used for
attending to each child individually. Teacher maintains the monthly work
book for every child attending the centre. Progress of children in narrative
forms is written under the heads such as language, numeric skills,
communication and child’s behaviour. There is also an annual assessment
to map each child’s progress, attempted through a participatory and
inclusive process where teacher, child and parents come together to discuss
the progress of child. The assessment is done in a group of five children
along with their parents. Following is a pointer on the Child Monthly
Evaluation Book & Teacher Monthly Evaluation Report used to track
progress at various levels and primarily used to inform planning and
facilitating learning.
Child Monthly Evaluation Book Teacher Monthly
Evaluation Report
Month
Name of Teacher
No. of days Centre Opened
Child Attendance
Level
Behaviour & Habits
Cleanliness
Participation in Assembly
Physical Development
Educational Achievement
-Our world
-Games
-Stories
-Environment
Month
Name of Teacher
Name of Centre
Name of Group
Level
No. of Children
Regular, Irregular
and drop outs
Reasons of drop
out and irregularity
Behaviours &
Habits
Cleanliness
Participation in
Other Observation/Comments Assembly
Physical
Development
Educational
Achievement
-Our world
-Games
-Stories
-Environment
Organization of
Centre
Community
Interaction
Suggestions
The teachers and the program personnel shared about a rigorous
planning and review approach in place as a two tier planning system,
one at the centre level and the other at the organization level. Centre
related planning is purely academic and done after the centre time, at an
allocated resource centre assigned to the teachers where a group of teachers
come together to develop their next day teaching plans based upon the
suggestive weekly break up of syllabus, share their problems if any and
look for solutions together along with the resource teachers who also
support them at this time. A weekly one to one progress review is also
undertaken at these centres every Monday.
Bottom-up approach is followed in planning and review, building on
teachers contributing at daily and weekly meeting, which is taken up by the
resource teachers monthly and annual planning and review meetings
attended by supervisors, program manager, RTE coordinators and Program
Head. An intensive organization level planning and review is undertaken
at the annual 15 days review cum capacity building workshop in the month
of June, covering both academic and non-academic aspects. In addition,
monthly review and planning meetings take stock of progress, issues,
feedback from supervisors and monitoring visits and plan ahead.
Community has not much involvement in planning of the program. There
role in planning is limited to the opening of schools, safety of infrastructure
and its smooth functioning. However, opinion of parents influences the
planning of the program. For example, when teachers, Vijeta and Sujata
and Supervisor Manoj Kumar shared complaints from parents regarding
children not learning anything as teachers are only conducting song, dance
and play activities, presentation of work done by children in monthly
meetings of parents and their involvement in the year end assessment of
children was brought into the practice. Parents are consulted for
organization of events like celebration of children’s day, independence and
republic day, any competition, festival, health camps etc.
Resources are extremely important to establish and test out models and in
this regard the suggestions from the donor are respected to the extent that it
is in line with the overall program strategy, agreed project objectives and
deliverables. In this regard AIF brought in its previous experience of
working in the sector and greatly supported NIDAN to tie up with resource
agencies and build their capacity to deliver an intensive program. Capacity
building of teacher, syllabus planning, teaching methodology is some of
the important domain which was strengthened through this support.
The whole approach to regular planning and review involving personnel
and teachers at various levels establishes a rigorous and continuous
monitoring system, supporting all to track their performance. Following is
the illustration of this mechanism. Teachers’ makes daily plan based on the
weekly break up of syllabus which they already have and records its
progress along with other activities of the day in their daily diary. This
diary forms the basis of discussion with supervisors during weekly
meetings. In addition, supervisors based on their observation of classroom
and overall centres during visits provide the teachers feedback. Further,
outputs of this weekly meeting feeds into the centre level monthly review
and planning meetings of supervisors, resource teachers and program
manager.
COMMUNITY
An important feature of NIDAN’s program worth noting is that it is
not a supply driven time bound project rather it is based on community
demand. Creation of demand for education required a long process of
community mobilization and sensitization over a number of years. Starting
any such school with assumption that there is no pre-school in the area and
community members will start sending their children automatically could
have proved wrong. NIDAN took this risk into consideration and involved
community from the first step onwards. Through door to door interaction
and meetings with community members support was built for this
endeavour. Parents were encouraged to think for a better future for their
children and look up to education for providing them this opportunity,
while clearly supporting this desire by providing accesses to absolutely
free preschool education based on principles of equity, and a hope for
mainstreaming to formal schools. Strong participation of community is
reflected at various levels. All 18 sites for school have been provided by
the community. Community has donated the land and made financial
contributions for creating the infrastructure. Electricity connection at every
centre is extended by neighbouring families free of charge. This is also the
great support to the program and symbol of solidarity with organization.
Community also takes ownership to take care of safety and security of
centres after they close down for the day. Neighbourhood community
member keep the keys of centres and at certain places people use the centre
as guest room or rest room in the night and vacate it early morning.
Bharti Goswami mother of one of the six children who were studied
during the research perceives childhood as period of enjoy without
getting worried about right or wrong. Playing freely and do what a child
want to do. Child should not feel lack of any materialistic things what
he/she desire and she should not feel dearth of resources. Non fulfilment
of wishes may create inferiority feelings in children.
As far as views regarding the infrastructure are concerned, she feels that
there is need to improve some services at centre. She cites the example of
how the hand pump besides the school was supposed to serve the
children but as of date it is not accessible to them. There is always crowd
of community people at hand pump and water lodging there. Roof leaking
makes the sitting difficult in rainy season. There is always fear of
stumbling of smaller kids due to uneven and sloppy flooring. She thinks
that there should be little more academic learning of children and they
should be able to read and write properly.
Bi-monthly meeting with community at centres are organized to keep them
updated about what is going in the centres, significant progress or any
issues. Community is also involved into the celebration of annual events
like Independence Day, republic day, children day etc. Regular discussion
on progress or any critical issues with community ensure the transparency
in the process. Disputes over the land for donating it to run school have
been solved by the community itself through public meetings in some
places.
There was a school inspector in one location from the same community
who was opposed to opening of schools fearing losing his importance and
social status among the community. Same was with vacant space in
another area where a group of people were highly opposed to open school
permanently on vacant space. Both the schools studied were initially run
on streets, under terrace of government building or sometime in someone
homes and then moved to present locations having somewhat temporary
shelters of their own.
This support converted into monetary terms, accounting for both recurring
and non recurring costs, has huge implication for the program running into
huge sums for 30 centres. This contributes to the sustainability of the
intervention.
None of the centres have its own toilet facility and this is the biggest
challenge for the female teachers in slum area. Vijeta who is the oldest
serving teacher with program for almost five years says that community
members offer teachers to voluntarily use their toilets. She further says that
she has run the current school initially on streets and in houses of people
during rain or winters before moving to the present location. She gives
credit to the community for running this centre so long and her
uninterrupted service here. She was never harassed by anyone in the
community and never felt scared going door to door or working late
evening whenever required. Teachers are largely respected and supported
by all in the community. From the various accounts and experiences of
teachers it is quite clear that support of community has played key role in
retention of teachers for long.
Community fought the legal battle with power centres who were opposed
to giving the land for running the Kamla Nagar pre-school which is also
the resource centre for all centres in the area. In case of Bahadurpur
centre, at the request made by community, a poor community member has
provided surplus private land to open the school and others members in
community have contributed financially for building shelters.
Parents, especially mothers’ participation in their children education is
explicit in monthly meetings, events and assessment. Male members of
family go to work early morning and come in the evening. Therefore, these
are the women who mostly come for meetings.
Awareness level of parents on childhood and learning of children at
different levels is limited. However, due to their involvement in centre
activities, there is an exposure to such terms. They have started to
recognise childhood as a period of enjoyment and fun but also learning of
basic manners. However, they do have high academic learning
expectations from the program which the program personnel keep
balancing out in their interactions with them.
They want to see their children read, talk and write properly. They
appreciate children being taught hygiene practices, skill of wearing clothes
respecting and communicating with elders. Interaction with the parents
showed tht they are largely satisfied with the learning levels achieved by
their children in the NIDAN centres. Importance of regularity in schools,
habit of sitting and inhibited playing is emphasised by the parents as
important aspects of learning. Major funds to run the initiative are
supported through an institutional donor like AIF which includes all
program costs like salaries, administrative costs, travel, training, capacity
building and other miscellaneous costs. Infrastructure is supported largely
though the community contributions or the space provided by community.
All maintenance and repair work is done through the contribution only.
There are the small individual and business houses donations which
support some small activities. Agencies like UNINOR and Reliance which
has offices in the town has supported the centres in terms of providing aqua
guard system, garbage box, fan etc. There are few private schools in the
area like which supports particular schools in organizing the health camp
for children and their vaccinations time to time.
NIDAN model works out to be a cost effective as community owns the
centre and program have not to pay for space or electricity. Only salary and
capacity building of teachers and material support is the responsibility of
NIDAN. Much of this can be attributed to the no focus of the government
on pre-primary schooling. Government focus is on only between the age
group of 6-14 years. There is need to design a comprehensive and
contextual package for pre-schooling. Health, nutrition, education of
children in pre-primary schooling should not be seen in isolation from each
other. Reason for drop out at primary level is much more linked to the poor
pre-primary schooling.
Training and Capacity Building
An intensive system for capacity building is built in the program design
through external and internal resource people. External formal induction
training was provided to teachers, supervisors and program manager and a
pool of master trainers created who now provide regular training to the
staff from time to time. This involves one day monthly planning and
review meeting of all teachers at NGO office and annual workshop of
fifteen days to assess the progress made, issues, and planning are used as
building the capacities of teachers. Teachers identify their weak areas and
try to bridge the gap through peer learning in weekly staff meeting at
resource centre. If still they face problems then supervisor and program
manager support them in the process. Over the period of time a pool of
resource teacher has been developed out of oldest serving teachers. These
teachers work as mentor for newly appointed teachers, help in preparing
TLMs, revisions in syllabus and implementation of syllabus. Exposure
visits for teachers and supervisor are beneficial in enhancing knowledge
base and breaking attitudes and beliefs that negatively impact the approach
to ECD.
Exposure visit has great influence on the teacher’s mindset and attitude.
Supervisor and teacher describe that none of the participants who had gone
for exposure and training at BSS had ever seen such kind of teaching
learning process in their life. According to Supervisor Manoj Kumar “We
found that system of education over there (at BSS) quite different from
what it was in Bihar. All the 24 teachers who had gone with us had never
seen such kind of teaching learning practice in their life.” Teacher Sujata
says “Before training at BSS I dint know that how to make lesson plan and
even not aware about need of planning before teaching. I came to know
about importance of different activities for teaching learning after exposure
to BSS classroom.”
BSS was engaged for providing technical support to program during
inception phase and experts of BSS came to centres and provided onsite
supports to teachers. Time to time project engage the experts of education
and ECE from the donor agency and NGOs like Save the children, PLAN,
Agakhan Foundation, AditiPlan etc. for onsite technical support and
capacity building of teachers. In addition, program invites experts from
DIET and other government agencies to provide technical input on various
aspects of ECE to teachers.
AIF provides regular training and capacity building support to teachers and
it is part of the MoU also. Recently, an expert of donor agency visited the
project and builds the capacity of teachers in teaching English language in
ECE. Apart from these exposure visits of best practices of ECE is
organized of teachers and staffs. Recently program team visited Kerla to
have exposure of ECE practice.
[Budget/Resources]
Funding Sources: Major fund to run the project comes from the
institutional donor like AIF which has been funding the entire project since
its inception. AIF bears all program costs which include staffs salary,
administrative costs, travel, training and capacity building and other
miscellaneous costs. This source of funding covers the major expenditure
of the project. Cost of infrastructure is managed from the community
contributions or the space provided by community. All maintenance and
repair work is done through the contribution only. There are the small
individual and business houses donations also which support the small
activities of the project. Agencies like UNINOR and Reliance which is
having offices in the town has supported the centres in terms of providing
aqua guard system, garbage box, fan etc. There are few private schools in
the area like which supports particular schools in organizing the health
camp for children and their vaccinations time to time.
Different funding sources, other than institutional donor funding sources
good, even it is in very small proportion is good example of reducing over
dependency on donor. Contribution from community and parents ensure
their ownership and support from other stakeholders helps in building
awareness and mobilization for cause. Increasing diversity in terms of
funding sources will help in smooth functioning of project and minimizing
the resources crunch for supporting the project.
Factors influencing Budget Planning and Expenditures: At the
beginning of year all the program management team including Program
Director, Program Manager, Supervisors and Resource teachers come
together and forecasts the needs and requirement of the next year. Since
staffs of all levels are involved into the forecasting process so planning is
so perfect that there are not many issues with expenditure. This has been
possible to due to learning from the six years of continuous planning for
same project says program manager Asif Iqubal. However, planning is
influenced by the organization mission of reaching out to all slums of
Patna city. Apart from the vision requirement given by the supervisors are
given the priority. Agenda of donor agency also influence the planning to
certain extent like if agency wants to introduce some new activity or any
kind of training and capacity building program for teachers.
Accounting System and Income and Expenditure Monitoring: Salaries
of teachers are major financial expenditure in the program that is directly
paid into the account of teachers through RTGS system. Payment of salary
directly into the account through electronic system makes the task of
accounting easier and also ensures transparency. Other major expenditure
is the procurement of materials and goods in the program which is done by
the empanelled vendors of organization finalized after due diligence each
year. For purchase below the amount of Rs. 500/- permission of supervisor
is required for teachers. A bill of any such kind of purchasing is approved
by the immediate supervisor at program unit level and beyond that it goes
to director. Monitoring of income and expenditure is done through the
accounting software put in place. Daily entry of expenditure is done
against the planned head and report generated. A monthly report of the
same is also sends to donor and in case of over income or expenditure
systems gives the reminder.
A rigorous and well accounted for electronic financial system exists for
accounting and expenditure monitoring, ensuring timely and smooth flow
of funds at all levels including teacher salaries.
[Scalability]
Right Selection of Target Group and community mobilization is key
factors in replication: According to program manager view, selection of
right target groups plays the key role in replication and success of the
program. He emphasises on reaching out to the communities who are
extremely needy and cannot afford the education of their children and also
there is no other agency present and catering to their need. Selection of
right target group is important keeping in view the creation of demand
from the community and thus ownership. Community mobilization is
essential right from the beginning keeping in view the sustainability five
years down the line when project withdraw. Community mobilization also
required for day to day support also in order to protect centres, teachers
and children from any kind of harassment by unsocial element. If
community does not take ownership then it is likely that centres will be
misused.
Clarity about what is to be done: Another important aspect which needs
to be considered is clarity about works to be done. Proper reality checks of
organization should be done before hand regarding what has to be done
and what not. This clarity about pathways helps in focusing on the areas
which needs greater attention. Clarity about planning should encompass
both academic and non-academic aspects. Another related important point
is that any activity in the project should be contextual and every borrowed
method may not work.
Not physical infrastructure but quality of teaching learning is
important factor in replication: There is not much emphasis given on
building and other physical infrastructure. For project director, overall
environment is very crucial in education of children in ECE centres. TLM,
other material and Teachers are the crucial in success of any ECE program.
There should not be any compromise with TLM and capacity building of
teacher. TLM, other material and Teachers are the crucial in success of
any ECE program. There should not be any compromise with TLM and
capacity building of teacher says project director.
Scalability involves approach towards identication of relevant
stakeholders, target beneficiaries, a strong community mobilisation
strategy leading to community support and ownership.
Scalability also involves ensuring quality in teaching learning
processes at all levels.
[Sustainability]
Community Support Group: Project director see sustainability of centres
a major issues after NIDAN’s withdrawal and he has no straight plan for
this. However, he finds NIDAN model very cost effective as community
own the centre and program have not to pay for space or electricity. Only
salary and capacity building of teachers and material support is the
responsibility of NIDAN. Much of this can be attributed to the no focus of
the government on pre-primary schooling. Government focus is on only
between the age group of 6-14 years. There is need to design a
comprehensive and contextual package for pre-schooling. Health, nutrition,
education of children in pre-primary schooling should not be seen in
isolation from each other. Reason for drop out at primary level is much
more linked to the poor pre-primary schooling.
Involvement of community for sustainability is inbuilt in the philosophy of
program. In the entire process of implementation of program key focus is
laid on mobilization of community so that after phasing out the project
community could take up the responsibility of centres. Program is now in
the process of formation and strengthening of community support group
involving parents, community members and leaders from the community.
This community support group in future will take up any issues related
centres including need of financial support. If this community support
group comes into existence and start functioning independently, it will be
unique model of ECE program.
Fund Mobilization: From this year onwards, program is introducing the
system of charging fees from the parents. Parents are being reached out
with proposal of paying fees voluntarily for their children education. As of
date there is not cap on fee and parents have freedom to contribute as per
their capacity considering the improvement in learning level of their
children. Reason behind introducing fee is to develop the culture of paying
for the service and gradually generating revenues to cover various small
costs of activities and material which are crucial in quality teaching and
learning of any ECE program.
Teachers from this year onwards are given the responsibility of raising
funds from the community and individuals. It will be a great support to the
program if teachers are able to generate certain percentage of their salary
from the community. Combining together both models of fund raising
program is expecting to generate sufficient fund few years down the line
which will make the centre sustainable.
Challenges
Like all interventions, NIDAN’s intervention is also not devoid of
challenges. These include poor economic condition of parents which
necessitates children to support them for earning bread from time to time.
Often when they are unwell or for other reasons, they are unable to go for
work, in which case their children start going for rag picking. In this
situation regularity of children in centres is hampered. Another challenge is
the mobilization of children every morning by teachers. Children generally
do not come on their own and also parents expect teachers to come to their
home to take their children and drop.
Parents have a lot of expectations from the teacher and program and this
becomes a challenge when they create undue pressure on teachers and
children for learning competencies that are not relevant at a particular age.
They need to be explained and convinced about appropriate and accepted
levels of learning which are fostered through the intervention. Resources
and Infrastructure is also a big challenge to establish child friendly and
safe spaces for learning.
Below are the some of the observation which you may like to fit in
somewhere if it needed
Assessment process at the center is planned in such a way that
allows teachers to track the progress of every child. Teachers
conduct the activities on worksheet for every competency. There is
instruction, purpose and name of child written on the worksheet.
These sheets are collected by teacher and kept safely for further
observation.
Participation of children in games and other group activities are
observed by teacher carefully which are written in daily diary of
teacher if they are very important and unusual.
Teacher maintains the monthly work book for every child attending
the center. Progress of children in narrative forms is written under
the heads already defined which includes language, numeric skills,
communication and behaviors of child.
Teachers do not discourage children by providing feedback about
the work children do on work sheets. Children having done very
good task of writing or drawing are appreciated but not present like
winner are most competitive.
This job proved to be life support for her. She now enjoys the job as
she has developed a sense of ownership with center. She had
started teaching on streets and center has its own place now.
Earlier community members also did not give positive responses
but over the period they treat teachers like one among them.
Teachers have now a kind of affiliation and attachment with this
place, community and children. I feel good when she think that she
is contributing in the education of those children, who could
otherwise lose their childhood and may lead to become bad person.
She feel very comfortable and happy and pride with this job when
she found that there are many children in slums on the from her
home who don’t have this opportunity but she is making the life of
few. This is the greatest reward for her.
Teachers don’t feel that they are the employee of the organization
and doing job for pay. Management is always there to support
them during any issues with community. Even they also get mental
support from the management. In her daily diary she is allowed to
write her feelings and emotion along with the work. Supervisor and
Program Manager read their dairies and speak to them.
When children fade up with the same work which continue for half
an hour’s, teacher starts story telling session or engage the children
in games or Balgeets in groups which includes the counting
exercises, name of animals, vegetables and flowers.
Syllabus for the all three groups is there and any addition or
deletion based on feedback of all teachers and experts is done in
the month of May-June every year during annual workshop of all
teachers. Syllabus is then broken in parts for every quarterly,
monthly and weekly learning objective. She plans for next day
teaching after end of the class every day and any issues are shared
in monthly review meetings. Daily planning are detail planning
which includes the objectives, methods, process, and assessment of
teaching particular competencies.
She has never experienced any kind of harassment by any
community members during her five years of tenure. She that
perfect lesson planning process helps her best in teaching.
Earlier community members also did not give positive responses
but over the period they treat her like one among them. She has
now a kind of affiliation and attachment with this place, community
and children. She feel very comfortable and happy and pride with
this job when she found that there are many children in slums on
the from her home who don’t have this opportunity but she is
making the life of few.
Annexure
METHODOLOGY
Selection of Pre-School Program: Using the purposive sampling technique, a
preschool program being implemented by a NGO NIDAN in Patna (capital of the state
of Bihar in India) was identified by the RAC and research team based upon the criteria
usesd to identify a ‘good practice’.
The program has established 30 centres at 18 different locations in the city of Patna.
Two centres were purposively identified for the study, one that demonstrates good
practice and another that is facing some challenges and yet performing based on criteria
like infrastructure, number of children and their regularity, type of community and its
support, resource availability, teacher capacity.
Finalizing the Sample: As per the study guidelines, six target children were selected
for intensive study, three from each centre (high performing and low performing) and
School Readiness Instrument (SRI) was administered on them. Primary care givers
(all mothers in this case) of these six children were interviewed and Adaptive
Behaviour Scale (ABS) was administered on them to understand socio-emotional
abilities to adjust to the new environment, especially from home to preschool to a
formal school setting. In addition, in-depth interviews
were conducted with two teachers from good performing centre, one teacher from
average performing centre, one community member from each centre, Program
Director, Program Manager and two supervisors. One Focus Group Discussion (FGD)
with parents and community members were conducted at each centre to have diverse
perspectives and views.
Tools of Data Collection: For data collection largely quantitative tools were used
which includes ethnographic interviewing, participant observation, videotaping,
document analysis, and focus group meetings. In addition to this some of the
quantitative tools were also used like Early Childhood Education Quality
Assessment Scale (ECEQAS), Questionnaire (Program Costing), Adaptive
Behaviour Scale (ABS) and School Readiness Instrument (SRI) to describe the
sample characteristics and link the findings to data from other research strands. Data
was collected from diverse sources to ensure the credibility of the study. Qualitative
methodology of data collection allowed capturing the first hand experience, views and
perception of closely linked key stakeholders of pre-school program.
ECEQAS was administered for two regular functioning days (but not consecutive) to
get a better sense of the main features of the programme. Field notes and
unstructured interviews have been critical aspect of the qualitative methodology
adopted for the case study. The Program manager’s, Program Quality Head and
Supervisors interview were done prior to observing both the centres in program so as to
have an idea about the philosophy and approach of the organisation, which helped to
inform the observations and assessment. The positive aspects or successes of the
program noted by the Program manager were studied in more detail for deriving lessons
for the larger system. Following table represent the volume of data collected from
field using different tools.
Tools of Data Collection No. First Phase Interview Second Phase Interview
Qualitative Tools
In-depth Interview 15 Two teacher
One supervisor
Program Manager
Three Parents
One Community Person
One teacher
One supervisor
Program Quality Head
Three Parents
One Community Person
Process of Data Collection and Experience: Experience of data collection during both
phases was quite insightful and full of learning. Changes had to be made in the initial
data collection plan due to the non-availability of some of the participants as per plan.
NGO management was quite supportive and extended all possible helps to make it
happen smoothly. Supervisors of respective centres were all along during the both
phases. At no point of time teachers gave the impression of being over conscious or
artificial as some outsider is visiting the centre and observing their work minutely. They
were all very comfortable conducting their routine activities and classroom transactions.
Even same experience researchers had with children as hardly any children after first
day was distracted from outsider presence. Good rapport building and developing
friendly relation was helpful in making teachers and children comfortable during entire
process of data collection. As far as personal experiences is concerned, it used to be
long hectic day starting from the morning in 7:00 am to 6:00 pm in evening without
lunch which was in the evening followed by glancing through the data collected and
identifying any gaps or clarification.
Transcription of data into narratives from audio tap and notes was most tedious task
during the entire process. Coding as an important aspect of analysis was careful reading
of entire data sets again and again and coming to conclusion for defining a particular
theme.
Data Analysis:
Participant
Observation 5 Two at Kamla Nehru
Nagar Centre
Two at Bazarsamiti and
one at Rampur
FGD 2 One at Kamla Nehru
Nagar Centre
One at Bazar Samiti
Centre
Video Taping 2 One at Kamla Nehru
Nagar Centre for 2.5
hours
One at Bazar Samiti
Centre for 2.5 hours
Interaction with
nearby primary
school teachers
2 One at Kamla Nehru
Nagar Area Primary
School
One at Bazar Samiti
Primary and Higher
Secondary School
Document Analysis Process Documentation, Syllabus, Monitoring Formats, Assessment Tools
Qualitative Tools
Early Childhood
Education Quality
Assessment Scale
(ECEQAS)
4 Two at Kamla Nehru
Nagar Area Primary
School
One at Bazar Samiti
Centre and One at
Rampur Centre
Adaptive Behaviour
Scale (ABS) 6 Three Children at Kamla
Nehru Nagar Centre
Three Children at Bazar
Samiti Centre
School Readiness
Instrument (SRI) 6 Three Children at Kamla
Nehru Nagar Centre
Three Children at Bazar
Samiti Centre
Questionnaire
(Program Costing) One time for entire program
a. Transcribing the Data: Collection of data and its transcription went hand in
hand right from the beginning. This approach helped in figuring out the gaps in
data collection and requirement for further probing on unexpected findings that
came up. The raw data from audio tapes were first transcribed indiscriminately
and later reorganized into meaningful narratives.
b. Coding of Data: Process of coding was followed after transcribing the data into
narratives. Each interview, FGD, Participant Observation, and ABS were coded
without rigidly using pre defined Etic codes. Codes were labelled as the
concepts came up during the process of coding which were mostly the emic
codes. Rigorous process of coding was followed for each set of data. Codes
were divided into sub-codes and examples were provided to explain the codes.
Matrix having two columns was created to present the codes and sub-codes with
examples.
c. Developing Themes: All codes were further categorized to create the themes
based on the guiding questions of the study. During the process of pulling
together codes under different themes, some new themes were also developed.
Codes were organised under the relevant themes and relationships were
established.
d. Developing Claims: As a final step of data analysis claims were made based on
the emerging themes and sub-themes. As first step in establishing the claim
codes were organized separately under each theme and based on the relationship
among codes descriptive narration and interpretation was given. Although it was
comprehensive process and captured all key aspects of program but not
essentially a claim. As second steps after discussion among research team
members claims were establishing analysing the relationship among various
themes having solid evidence and rational. It was a reiterative process of going
through the narratives, codes and descriptive write up.
e. Triangulation: To establish the credibility and authenticity of data collected
same questions were crossed checked with different stakeholders during
interview and FGDs i.e. cross checking the method of planning and review at
four level of Program Manger, Program Quality Head, Supervisor and Teachers.
Similarly cross checking about the nature of target groups thorough survey
records, process documentation, community and parents were also done.
Curriculum and pedagogy related information collected from Program Quality
Head, Supervisors and Teachers were verified through the sources of syllabus,
weekly plans and daily plans, ECQUAS and participants observation.
Researchers visited the near by two primary school and held discussion with
teachers over there and children in standard 1st who had been mainstreamed
from NIDAN run centres. A question answers session with children was held in