Projects

ILP supports projects across various states in India and has developed successful models of interventions that can be replicated in different regions. ILP follows a comprehensive evaluation and monitoring process to ensure that the projects create the desired impact for the beneficiaries. The projects are classified into different categories that align with ILP's thematic focus outlined below.

Education for Children Educational interventions are seen as a continuum for all children from zero to completion of high school education. ILP focuses on access, enrollment, retention and improving quality of education in schools. This is achieved through community ownership by forming and strengthening school and village education committees.

Adult Education Focusing on supporting women, adult education programs combine imparting literacy with livelihood skills. These programs provide linkages to welfare schemes , marketing and business development resources as appropriate. Strengthening of Self Help Groups and Community Based Organizations, awareness on Right to Information and National Rural Employment Guarantee schemes are some of the activities supported.

Scholarships

Bridging Gaps ... Nurturing Aspirations

"We have only one school shirt between the two of us. The school insists that we come in a uniform or they send us back home. So my sister attends three days a week and I attend the remaining three" says Mangesh, a 14 year old boy in Yeshwantpur slum who has scored 87% in 8th standard. Mangesh accompanies his uncle and helps him sell coconut water and earns Rs 20-30 a day to support his family to survive in this world. Mangesh's ambition is to become a computer engineer.

There are many more children like Mangesh, who are school dropouts and were rehabilitated through bridge programs. They now go to school aided by 'Puraskara' - the Scholarship program.

This is a need-based scholarship for children from poor socio-economic background to enable them pursue their middle and high school education. Many of these children had dropped out of elementary education because of financial constraints and were brought back to school by educating parents on the importance of education and providing the drop out children learning competencies through 'bridge centers'.

Program Overview Beyond Financial Assistance Program Plan: Nov 2006-Oct 2007 How can you help?

Program Overview

ILP makes a 3 year commitment to each child once she/he is part of our scholarship program. As long as the child attends classes and receives a minimum of 50% in their examinations, ILP will continue to support them until they complete high school education (10th standard). The program was started in 2004 by supporting 15 children. 108 children were supported by the program in 2006 and the target is to support 250 children in 2007.

The Need

• High dropouts in secondary education: Enrolment figures for secondary education show that 2/3rd of eligible children remain out of school.
• Cost of secondary education leads to dropouts: Even in a government school it costs Rs. 1500-Rs. 2000 per child/year. No incentives like mid-day meal, free notebooks, uniforms are offered for most children.
• Very few scholarships for this age group: While there are several NGOs/ Trusts who provide scholarships for post secondary and collegiate education, there are very few scholarships for secondary education.
• Elementary Education not enough in todays' economy : CABE Report- July 2004: "Elementary Education of 8 years is no more adequate. It neither equips the child with necessary knowledge nor skills to face the world of work nor does it empower her to deal with challenges of the globalising economy".

Whom do we support?

Children studying in high school (8th to 10th standard), and,

• School drop-outs who have been rehabilitated
• Potential drop-outs because of economic circumstances
• Children with special needs
• Orphans
• Children of Devadasis, single mothers/ widows
• Children from poor families

Other criteria:

• Should have scored a minimum of 50% (B Grade) in his/her school annual exam
• Should be studying in government and government aided school, open school system, pursuing vocational and technical training courses

What does the scholarship cover?

The cost per child works out to Rs. 2400- Rs 2500 per child per annum.
The scholarships are based on the needs of each child. It covers:

• Uniforms
• School Fees
• Note books and text books
• Coaching classes
• Shoes, geometry box, bags, bicycle
• Examination Fees
• Workshops
• Monitoring & Documentation

Beyond Financial Assistance

Besides meeting the financial requirements through scholarships, we also conduct workshops every year. Topics in the workshops range from learning techniques, goal setting, study skills, career counseling, personal hygiene, and personality development through the medium of arts and theatre.

Mentoring

The mentoring program initiative from India Literacy Project (ILP) began in July 2006 with 3 volunteers. The programme has been offered to students who are recipients of ILP's scholarship. The mentoring program aims to foster a mentor-mentee relationship between the volunteers and the students so that the students can interact with their mentors on a variety of areas - be it academics, personal difficulties, or even about life beyond their home, studies & schools. ILP volunteers in Bangalore spend time with the 10th standard children every Sunday mentoring them. They guide them on study skills, memory techniques and show them short science experiments to improve their conceptual understanding in science.

Assisting the transition after High School

Fifteen children supported by ILP completed their 10th standard education in April 2006, nine of them, with a first class. All the children are continuing their education either in local polytechnics, pre-university colleges or technical institutes. ILP links these children with other merit -cum-means scholarships to ensure that the meritorious among them continue in good colleges. Our volunteers also guide these children through the difficult process of making choices, filling up application forms and ensuring that they have the necessary documentation. Two of 2006 batch who secured more than 75% are studying in good polytechnic colleges.

Process

• Identify bright children from poor families: Devdasi children, rehabilitated working children, single parent families
• Assess each child's needs by house and school visits
• Minimum cut-off (50% in previous years' exam)
• Conduct workshops for Personality Development, study skills, careers, public speaking, self-assertion
• Assist them to make the difficult transition from 10th to the next stage
• Link with groups providing post-matric scholarships
• Tie up with corporate volunteers for mentoring
• Conduct a study on Access and Dropouts in Secondary Education

Program Plan: Nov 2006 - Oct 2007

Location: Raichur, Davangere, Bangalore Urban and Rural in Karnataka, Chittoor in AP

Description

• 250 children will receive need-based scholarship to continue their education upto high school
• Projected costs are Rs. 2440/child/year
• Volunteers will help children make the difficult transition from 10th to post 10th education
• Meritorious children will be linked with organizations and scholarship programs which support post matric education.
• Special workshops to enhance capability of the children such as spoken English, personality development, and career guidance.

Financials

Budget (INR) for Nov 2006 to Oct 2007 - Target: 250 children
Fees & Exam Fees	75,000
Uniforms	1,00,000
Note and Textbooks	87,500
Shoes, Geometry Box, School Bags or Bicycle	75,000
Coaching class fees	60,000
Workshops & Transition beyond 10th	1,50,000
Monitoring, Documentation and Administration	62,500
Total Budget	Rs 6,10,000

Mentoring

Pratibha Mitra - A Volunteer Mentor Initiative 

Program Philosophy
ILP has designed a unique volunteer program, called Pratibha Mitra which links an adult volunteer to a child or a set of children who are beneficiaries of a scholarship program.

The students could either be recipients of ILP’s scholarship – Puraskara or Pratibha Poshak- a scholarship initiative by Prerana, another NGO in Bangalore. Several of the children receiving the scholarship are first generation learners. Families are not able to provide the children with the necessary guidance to further their educational aspirations and develop to their full potential. The children need guidance and exposure.

The mentoring programme aims to foster a mentor-mentee relationship between the volunteers and the students so that the students can interact with their mentors on a variety of areas – be it academics, personal difficulties, or even about life beyond their home, studies & schools.

ILP uses two types of models for the mentoring programme: a one mentor to one mentee model for the students pursuing pre-university and college education and a group mentoring model for students studying in high school.

One to one mentoring

Forty mentors are part of this initiative which started in July 2005 with 9 volunteers. They meet their student on a one-to-one basis and assist them with their academics, provide guidance on studying for their exams, careers, further studies and in some cases even facilitate resolution of personal difficulties which come in the way of the child’s education by raising these up with ILP and Prerana.
 

Weekly Mentoring Sessions for High School Students

Mentoring sessions involved teaching the students the “art of learning” – including different study techniques and memory / retention skills. Around 10 students participated in the mentoring sessions for class 10th. Tools such as the Flash cards, Post-It Notes, Marker / Highlighter pens & Mind Maps were made use of to teach the students learn & grasp information quickly from their text-books and retain the knowledge over a longer period. The volunteers also taught the students how to plan their studies effectively using “activity log sheet” and time-tables. Students were engaged in science activities. Since the students had not got an opportunity earlier to conduct such experiments, they thoroughly enjoyed the science workshop.

The workshop-sessions went on for couple of weeks. As board exams approached the focus of the mentoring programme switched towards academic learning and activities such as quizzes and mock exams to help the students prepare better for their exams.

Transitioning after 10th standard

Children who graduated from the 10th standard last academic year were counseled and assisted by volunteers in selecting pre-university courses and diploma colleges. The experience has highlighted an important need amongst these children for career counseling during the transition from 10th to Pre-University or Diploma and after 12th for higher education. ILP plans to bridge this gap.

ILP thanks Prerana, Bangalore for giving us the opportunity to experiment with the mentoring idea and build a model programme for Bangalore. In the year 2007- 08, we expect to scale the programme to cover 150 volunteers and students. The financial assistance to this programme is provided by funds raised from individuals and through our outreach events.

Libraries

Arivina Mane - Library Program

The first step in improving learning levels of children is giving them an opportunity to read. Most communities and villages in India do not have access to a library. ILP seeks to establish a library in the slum communities of Bangalore. The initial two libraries proposed here will act as a model to scale up the program.

The Library program is explained in the following sections.

The Need Objectives Program Overview

The Need

The First All India Status of Education Report has highlighted that 36% of children in elementary school cannot read a para. Access to schooling is not enough, quality of learning is also important. Proficiency in subjects is linked with language reading and comprehension levels. These will improve only when children have an opportunity to read. Children in most villages and slum communities do not have access to libraries with good books.

Objectives

• To provide a community library in the slums of Bangalore so that women and children in the community have access to good books
• To make the library attractive to children by conducting activities every fortnight
• To provide volunteering opportunities for corporate sector volunteers as well as college students through these activities
• To provide computer literacy to the children
• To provide a space for children children's activities and do their homework every evening

Program Overview

The library will also be used by the neo-literate women in the area and will act as a resource center for information on the latest government schemes. The libraries will be housed in community centres which will provided by the community rent free. This will ensure community ownership and sustainability.

ILP will strive to create a child-friendly learning environment, complete with as many as 500 age-appropriate Kannada and English children's books, magazines, posters and puzzles. Fortnightly activities will be carried out to attract children to the libraries. These activities will range from: story telling, book reading, crafts such as origami, mask making, spoken English sessions etc. The intention is to make it 'fun' for the children to visit the library. We hope that the Libraries will also grow into a space for children's activities.

ILP will provide training on proper library implementation with three years of support, which includes the provision of additional children's books and further training for staff.

ILP will also try to acquire a computer for each of these libraries. Multi-media CDs with educational software will be loaded on these computers. Access to the computers will be used as an incentive to get children to read.

Corporate and college volunteers will be engaged in the fortnightly activities at the libraries. Corporate volunteers could train the Computer teacher as well as the librarian on the use of the software and computer basics.

Measuring usage and impact

ILP will develop metrics to measure usage of the libraries.

The metrics could include:
a) Number of members: Girls, Boys, Women, Men
b) Number of books issued out
c) Number of books read (at the centre)
d) Type of books which are issued out (A book-usage matrix)
e) Activities conducted in the centre: Attendance during the activity
f) Reading Level Measurement: Before and after one year

BASIC/Child Tracking

BAck to School Information on Children is a tool developed by ILP for Department of Labour, Government of Karnataka in partnership with UNICEF to provide a comprehensive repository, monitoring and tracking of every child brought to school through various initiatives.

The Need

Regular monitoring of children’s attendance and performance in bridge school and after mainstreaming becomes crucial to prevent children dropping and rejoining the labour stream. The need was hence felt for an automated tool which ensures

• Standardization of data collected.
• A Centralized data repository
• Analysis of data collected to sharpen interventions.
• Ability to check where the child is.

Advantage of BASIC

• Quick visibility of the latest information of a child.
• Tracking of the children and monitoring service delivery at each bridge centre at any frequency:
  • Health checkup
  • Vocational courses
  • Linkages with Government Schemes
  • Stipend/ scholarship
  • The current status of the child in the program.
• Search by name of the child or by Child Id.
• Tracing the duplicate entry of the child information in a region or administrative block.
• Tracing dropout from the bridge centers mainstream school with reasons on why they have dropped out.
• Monitoring of learning out comes of the children at the bridge centers and mainstream school
• Exporting of summary data to state an central level data bases.

Who can use BASIC?

• NCLP or SCLP District Office Personnel
• NGO program Co-ordinator of Bridge Centre.
• Education Department for the back to school programs

Data Flow in BASIC

Step 1: Trained staff in the bridge centre enter details on prescribed and printed child cards and send the cards to the Project Office.

Step 2:Child cards scrutinized and cards with errors or incomplete cards returned to the bridge centre for correction or completion.

Step3. Random verification of data by field officers.

Step4: Child cards once again returned to the bridge centre for updates.

Step 5. Data exported to Central database

How can this data be used?

• To track an individual child
• To understand the case of each child can derive a complete case study
• To monitor the progress at the project or region level.
• To analyze the data for planning and interventions
• To generate periodic reports.

Instrument for collecting data: The BASIC Child Card

Child Profile

• Name and address, parent’s name, Occupation and income, Age/date of birth, work status and employer details, past schooling information,

• Stipend data

• Vocational attendance

• Academic performance at the bridge centre

• Government Scheme linkages

• Health records

• Mainstreaming and one year follow up details