PURPOSE

Children take an active part in their own learning and are eager to continue formal school education. This leads to increased learning levels among children in government primary and pre-primary schools in India.

Connecting with the Children

78,142

Children

527

Pre-primary
Schools

612

Primary
Schools

314

Schools Practising
MTB-MLE

280

Treasure
Houses

42

Supplementary
Centres

50

RMAGs

108

Active
Bal Sansads

60

Camps and
Workshops held

STRATEGIES AND PROCESSES

Mother Tongue Based Multi-lingual Education (MTB-MLE):

Mother tongue based multi-lingual education (MTB-MLE): This unique form of pedagogy finds its roots in the belief that a child going to either pre-primary or primary school should be first taught in his/her mother tongue/home language before they are introduced to the medium of instruction in schools, when different from their mother tongue. NEG-FIRE firmly believes that it is important for a child to acquire fluency in language that will then provide support in learning other subjects. A child starts schooling with knowledge of 'mother tongue or home language" and when teaching continues in the mother tongue they learn faster. We also believe that a child has the capacity to learn multiple languages and hence transition from mother-tongue to medium of instruction is possible.

We promote an integrated framework as follows:

Early Childhood Education (ECE):

Widely defined as the period from birth to age six (and often extended until eight to account for the transition into primary school), early childhood serves as the foundation for a lifetime of growth and development.

We strongly believe that early childhood educational interventions have a strong remarkable impact on early learners. Using the 11 step methodology, we ensure that children coming to the government anganwadi centres in our intervention areas are taught in a language they understand, using resources and materials from their immediate surroundings and culture and are eventually made primary school ready.

Inclusive Education:

Through introducing concepts of inclusion and caste-sensitive classrooms we aim to reduce inequalities and discrimination that children from marginalized communities (especially the Musahar community) suffer in schools. We aim at fostering a school culture of respect and belonging which provides children the opportunities to learn about and accept individual differences, lessening the impact of harassment and bullying.

This also helps the children in developing friendships with a wide variety of other children, each with their own individual needs and abilities.

Bal Sansad or Child Parliament:

Bal Sansad is a group of 12 children (including a President, Vice President and ministers for different categories such as Education, Protection, Environment etc.) who come together once a month to discuss prevalent issues in and outside schools related to education, child protection, etc. and find solutions for the same. The Bal sansad plays an essential role in ensuring that all child-related issues are brought forward and resolved and that the children find ways to increase retention in schools by encouraging other children around them.

The Sansad also boosts confidence among the children and helps in developing leadership skills. The Sansad works at 3 levels – the group of children come together in the first round along with an Edu-volunteer (to oversee the smooth functioning of the parliament), for the second level the Edu-volunteer meets with the teacher and discusses the issues brought up by the children regarding the school or the teachers and work towards resolving the same, for the third level the community related issues are brought in and discussed with the School Management Committee, along with the teacher and the Edu-volunteer.

Supplementary Education Centres:

These centres, established either in schools or in the community, are child-friendly spaces wherein additional educational measures are provided to children to overcome deficiencies in the learning process. This supports the children to be at pace with the teachings at school and at pace with the learning level of their peers. The SECs are run by Edu-volunteers who ensure that any child who is not performing too well and needs extra support and hand-holding is provided with the necessary initiatives to enhance their learning levels.

Treasure House:

NEG-FIRE's Treasure House is an innovative, community-based intervention, which aims at ensuring that every single child living in the remotest of locations across India has access to a safe, child-friendly place where they can learn, be with other children, instill in themselves values of diversity and have immense self-belief. It further supplements education, and stimulates not only local culture and tradition but also provides exposure to mainstream education thus creating an interest to continue or pursue formal education.

While objects on display are kept on the space close to the wall and some are hung from the ceiling like flash cards, chart sheets, playing material, musical instruments, local seeds, tribal/local artifacts, drawings, paintings, crafts and paper mache made by children etc.; the middle of the room is used for organizing various sessions on storytelling, painting, khel se mel activities, supplementary education and other activities. Some of the Treasure House tools, library books, playing material etc. are also kept in steel or wooden boxes placed in the Treasure House.

By appearance, the room looks like a multi-purpose space for children, which conveys a sense of childhood exuberance. With so many objects on display and space for various activities, the Treasure House arouses interests of children for activities that are mostly beyond their regular school curriculum.

Role Model Adolescent Girls:

This group contains a number of girls who are groomed as leaders to lead the girl-child education and lifeskill education scenario in their respective villages and take lead in mentoring other adolescent girls through Life Skill Education. They are proactive and support the adolescent girls in a number of ways be it providing supplementary classes, awareness on life-skill education, organizing regular meetings to identify any issues related to protection, violence, trafficking etc. and finding solutions for the same .

This group also, whenever necessary, approaches the concerned authorities to take necessary actions for protection of girls in the area. They support Mothers Committees in conducting meetings and identifying issues around pre-schools as well.

Arts and Aesthetics:

The introduction of Arts and Aesthetics in schools, especially in conflict and crisis areas, is an initiative towards increasing the interest of the children in coming to school and ultimately to act as a psychosocial support mechanism to help the children in coping with their emotions.

The arts and aesthetics also provides a way for these children to express their thoughts and feelings and to connect their art, culture and formal school atmosphere with each other.

Camps:

Camps (summer camps, sports camps etc.) are a simple way to keep children interested in coming to schools and be involved in other extra-curricular activities such as skits, dance, singing, drawing, sports etc. Attending these camps helps the children come closer to each other since sometimes they have to work in teams, invokes feelings of togetherness, sharing and acceptance while also promoting creativity and leadership skills.

PURPOSE

A mobilized community who ensures the educational rights and entitlements of children and supports the proper functioning of schools and anganwadi centres.

Connecting with the Community

495

Villages

388

Active School
Management
Committees
(SMCs)

180

SMCs Received
Training on
Roles and
Responsibilities

315

Active Mata
Samitis

280

Mata Samitis Received
Training on
Roles and
Responsibilities

136

Child
Protection
Committees

904

Edu-
volunteers

STRATEGIES AND PROCESSES

We believe that the families and community members play a crucial role in paving the way for their child's future and ultimately in defining who the child will become later on in his/her life.

For children from marginalized communities, the role of the community members and families become even more important. It is essential that the community members, families, members of the formal community institutions are all aware of their roles and responsibilities in their children's education process. We connect with the community on numerous levels –

Formal Institutions:

We work with the members of formal institutions such as School Management Committees, Child Protection Committees, Mothers Groups etc. to ensure that they understand their roles and responsibilities, facilitate school and anganwadi governance, ensure smooth functioning of the same and influence relevant government structures for effective delivery of educational services and ensure child protection in their areas. We also mobilize the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to make education a central component of the community's development agenda and to bring in appropriate resources for the education of the children.

Families:

We sensitize the families to recognize the importance of quality education and to provide defined learning spaces within the house and the community for the children to study. We help them understand that children need to go to a school and not accompany them to work. Special interventions are also carried out in instances where parents are unwilling to send their children, especially girls, to schools or are in a hurry to get their under-age girls married.

Volunteers:

Community members make excellent volunteers, mostly because they relate to the children more closely than external volunteers and also because they realize that their children are the future of their community. We have created a cadre of local volunteers (Edu-volunteers) to promote education and act as change agents in steering the education scenario at the village level, be it managing the Treasure Houses, running the supplementary centres or just being role models for other girls and boys in their village and supporting them to continue their education and go to schools.

PURPOSE

A cadre of motivated and skilled teachers who promote inclusive, child-friendly and joyful classrooms/schools that will help the children to achieve appropriate age and grade-specific learning outcomes.

Connecting with the Teacher

527

Pre-primary
Teachers

1,836

Primary
Teachers

25,750

Children
Benefiting from
the Training
Manuals

60

Teachers
Trained on
Inclusive
Education

75

Teachers
being Trained
on MTB-MLE

8

Teachers
Forums

STRATEGIES AND PROCESSES

Teachers Training:

One of our core strategies currently and in the coming years will be to ensure that all primary and pre-primary government school teachers have the necessary training and skills required to teach efficiently the children from marginalized communities. Since the children from these communities have numerous reasons and situations created for them which can make it easy for them to not come to schools, it becomes even more imperative for the teachers to excel at their job. The teachers might have to use innovative and unique methods to ensure that these children come to school, regularly attend classes and eventually perform better.

We organize trainings at different levels to make this happen. Teachers are trained on:

Development of Teaching Learning Materials (TLMs):

TLMs can have a remarkable impact on enhancing the quality of the classroom transactions and can help the children in grasping concepts faster and more efficiently. We, during and beyond the course of our teachers training, build capacities of teachers for creating appropriate age and grade specific TLMs using content from the local community's culture and practices. Teachers are trained and given numerous demonstrations on usage of these TLMs and how to incorporate them in their everyday classroom activities.

Teachers Training Manuals:

We develop manuals that are used by project coordinators, pre-primary and primary school government teachers and key resource persons during the course of the teachers training and also for usage in classrooms to enhance the classroom transactions. Some of the manuals developed and being used so far by are on Mother tongue based multi-lingual education, Inclusive education and Early Childhood Education.

Training of Key Resource Persons or Master Trainers:

We realize that the number of teachers that would have to be trained to bring about change is enormous. To extend our reach to an increased number of teachers, we train Key Resource Persons or Master Trainers, chosen by the respective government departments, who further provide training to more teachers.

PURPOSE

Supportive government structures that integrate our child-centred and joyful pedagogies in schools and anganwadi centres.

STRATEGIES AND PROCESSES

We work with the government in bringing about transformation. Therefore engagement and collaboration with government education departments underlines all our programmes and strategies.

We are always working towards developing new partnerships and strengthening exiting partnerships with government structures:

We analyse the data collected from our partners on field and create report cards which highlight functioning of schools and Anganwadi centres in the area. These report cards are then shared with relevant local authorities who can give suggestions and take measures as and when needed. These report cards also provide an opportunity to assess progress of the project and take mid-course correction as and when required.

Our child-friendly contextual pedagogy for children from the scheduled tribes has been now tested in 170 schools in 5 states. These pedagogies incorporate several unique strategies such as mother tongue based multi-lingual education, treasure houses and more, which support the learning processes being carried out in the classroom and enhance learning levels of children. Government authorities have seen success and efficiency of these pedagogies and are now working with us to replicate them in an increased number of schools in their areas.

Our trainings for government school pre-primary and primary teachers and key resource persons are carried out in collaboration with government education and training departments. Since we only work with government schools and our target audience for trainings is government school teachers, it becomes imperative and important to collaborate with necessary government structures. The trainings help in building capacities of government school teachers/KRPs and enable them to train more teachers, thus enhancing the quality of education in government schools.

All of these above processes (report cards, teachers trainings, contextual pedagogies) bring immense clarity during monitoring and evaluation. We are now in discussion with government structures to develop a support system for teachers while using our contextual pedagogies. We are also discussing about our role in the assessment of learning levels of children. We are also in discussion with the Tribal Research Institutes of different states to upscale our pedagogy with state education departments in tribal areas of the state.