Sedum Integrated Education Project
Kodla Cluster, Sedum Taluk, Gulbarga District, Karnataka
On the journey to a literate India, ILP has launched a mass scale literacy initiative to attain 100% literacy in the state of karnataka. Fueled by the success of a large scale literacy initiative in Yelandur Taluk in Chamrajnagar, Karnataka, ILP is in the process of defining a roadmap of interventions that target taluks, blocks and entire districts, to encompass the entire state in its program of "Education for All". Beginning with SEDUM Block in Gulbarga district of North Karnataka, ILP has commenced its second mass scale intervention program.
ILP started this project in Kodla Cluster of Sedum Taluk in January 2008 as a part of our ambitious vision of ‘literacy and education for all in Karnataka’. This program will expand over the years to cover the entire Sedum block and ultimately the district.
| Location |
% Total |
% Literacy |
% Literacy |
| 65.4% |
75.3% |
53.7% |
|
| Karnataka |
66.60% |
76.0% |
57.0% |
| Gulbarga District |
50.0% |
62.0% |
38.0% |
| Sedum Taluk |
44.8% |
56.4% |
33.4% |
| Kodla Cluster |
32% |
42.8% |
21.0% |
The target region for the current project is the Kodla cluster, which consists of 13 villages with a total population of about 26,000, in the Sedum Taluk of Gulbarga district. Gulbarga is one of the bottom five districts in terms of literacy and income index in the state of Karnataka, and has an appalling 45,000 children out of school.
Children at work sites
The socio-economic scene in the Sedum Taluk is grim:
- 5098 children out of school,
- 40% attendance in schools,
- Only 5 to 10% of girls completing high school,
- Poor enrollment in child care centers, and prevalent child labor.
Goals:
The main objectives of this program are to lay the foundation of education in the community over the next few years and to develop a scalable model that can create a self sustaining large scale literacy program. Specifically, ILP aims to:
• Ensure all children under 6 years of age are in early child care centers, which provide them proper nutrition, and enable their cognitive development
• Enable retention of children between 6 and 14 in school (preventing drop outs)
• Create awareness of the importance of education and strengthen government initiatives by mobilizing the community to take active participation in them
• Promote high school education for children above 14 years until they complete the 10th grade
• Offer functional literacy for adults (in the second year of the program)
• Develop a model based on the integrated education approach at a block level that can be replicated by the government and other organizations to widen the impact and make it a mass literacy program
Demographics
SEDUM - CURRENT SCENARIO
Legend
O - Conditions sub prime & need some work. Preparation/education or monetary investments to make to become effective
O - Many roadblocks. Requires significant work on our part to educate and rally the community before we see positive results
Project Partners
Aligning with ILP's vision to be a catalyst for 100% literacy in India, we are currently embarking on a grand plan to achieve mass scale literacy in the undeveloped regions of North Karnataka. Kodla cluster is the start of this ambitious plan.
ILP is primarily a monitoring and partnering organization. We prefer to work with the grassroots NGOs and the Government to achieve our objectives. In our efforts to achieve mass scale literacy in Karnataka, we needed very close collaboration with a "nodal" NGO based in Karnataka that would:
1. help us extensively in developing the implementation details for our vision and
2. be our partner in the true sense as we march ahead to obtain the support and participation of government officials as well as local NGOs in various parts of the region.
Community Development Foundation (CDF), is our implementing NGO for the Sedum project.
Implementing NGO
Our Project Partner - Community Development Foundation (CDF)
Over the past many years, CDF has achieved success in various initiatives on the education front including:
+ Free a Child for Education (FACE): Implementing this project in Konchavarum of Chincholi Taluk in Gulbarga District of Karnataka covering 29 villages and approximately 2000 children.
+ Tsunami Rehabilitation Program: Implemented this large scale program that included livelihood support for 671 families, and building of 6 schools benefiting approximately 5000 children in TamilNadu.
+ Setup resource centers in various areas to collaborate and coordinate with NGOs. Designed school education programs, operational procedures for Bridge centers for International Labor Organization (ILO).
The chief functionary of CDF, Dr Mahendra Rajaram, holds a doctorate in social work with 11 years of related work experience. He has been the UNICEF coordinator for Gulbarga for the last five years. He was a program coordinator for a pilot project "Elimination of Child Labor in Gulbarga Block" (a joint program of the Government of Karnataka and UNICEF-NORAD). He facilitated the formation of Andhra Pradesh Alliance for Child Rights, which is leading the education campaign and child rights issues in collaboration with 400 NGOs and activists.
The CDF program coordinator for our project in Sedum is Mr. Arun Serrao. Arun Serrao is a social worker with 20 years of grassroots experience in various areas. He has reviewed the National Child Labor Project Centers (NCLP) in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. He introduced training and monitoring of the ‘Child Track System’ (CTS), to monitor children’s progress in the NCLP centers. He also conducted training for grass root workers, Self Help Group leaders, Panchayat and School Developing and Monitoring Committee members.
Collaborations
ILP's core belief is in working in partnership and collaboration with other key groups who together can make an impact in the area of operation.
The collaboration would be at various levels of administration as outlined below
A. Collaboration with Key departments of Administration, Education and Labor:
a. At District level with the District Administration by setting up the District Task Force Committee which has been agreed to by the Deputy Commissioner and will have members from the key departments as well as the Zilla Panchayath. Focus will be on issues relating to child labor, education, age of marriage and movement of children (trafficking)
b. At Taluk level with concerned officers – this has been established through regular meetings and CDF will work towards a periodic review mechanism
c. At Kodla Cluster and Panchayath level – this has been established and the local department officials as well as elected representatives of the panchayath have participated in the Base Line study, PRA and other focused group out of school and child labor issues.
B. Networking with Other Organizations:
a. CDF has established rapport with Shri Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) and Azim Premji Foundation (APF) whose primary focus is also Education and back-to-school issues in the district of Gulbarga and have a plan of intervention for North Karnataka. This would help in addressing critical policy matters with the state as well draw strength from experiences. A platform of interaction is also being discussed.
b. CDF will start networking with other implementing NGOs in the Block and district who are working on girl child education, child labour etc as one of CDFs mission is also capacity building of like minded NGOs for local networking.
C. State level alliance:
This is a strategic move to place on agenda the critical issues of North Karnataka Region. CDF is an active member of the state network - Campaign Against Child Labor and is playing a facilitator role in developing a Gulbarga Resource Center.
Action Plan
ILP's vision for this project is to lay the foundation of education in the community over the next few years and to develop a model that creates a self-sustaining large scale literacy program in the North Karnataka region. Our long term action plan aligns with our strategy of comprehensive support for people in the 0 - 35 years age group. We have started by focusing on various activities associated with children and will gradually extend to the larger community.
In the first year of the project, our activities will focus on these key areas:
a) Enrolling children in schools
b) Preventing children from dropping out of schools
c) Improving the quality of education
d) Enforcing child labor prevention
Enrolling children in schools
'Catching them young' is critical! In the first year of our project, we will focus on children in the 6 - 8 years age group. A number of awareness campaigns that include street plays and public meetings will be combined with focused door-to-door campaigning to bring these children to school. This will build the momentum for us to eventually bring back the older children into schools as well.
Preventing children from dropping out of schools
Our extensive interviews with parents in the 13 villages of Kolda cluster have made one thing very clear: People mention several different excuses to justify taking children out of school. 'We cannot have enough food if the children don't work during the harvest season', 'we cannot repay our loans if they go to school', 'girls do not need to go to school after attaining adolescence' are but a few such reasons.
Changing such a mindset warrant extensive social campaigns that raise awareness of the necessity for continuing education for children. We will specifically work with families that are identified as more likely to send their children to work in the cotton fields. Meetings will also be held with employers of various business establishments like hotels, garages and bars. There is nothing more powerful than children being aware of their own rights to education. So, child rights clubs will be formed in the schools to raise awareness of child rights.
Improving the quality of education
Initially, ILP and CDF will focus on child care centers (also referred to as anganwadis). Having young children in the age group of 3 - 6 years attend these child care centers sets up the right platform for their continuation into the primary school. Rejuvenating these centers is direly needed in the Kodla cluster. We will begin with training the Anganwadi teachers and helpers.
In the case of primary and high schools, the school principals and teachers will be exposed to innovative methods of education and creative class environments via seminars, tours etc.
Enforcing Child labor prevention
We will be working with the local government / administration authorities to address the reported cases of child labor. Enforcement workshops will also be held to this effect. Currently, on average about 2 to 5 percent of children in the 13 target villages are involved in child labor. Child labor is definitely not a widespread phenomenon in the area, but the fact that it exists suggests that there is a strong need to change the mindset of the villagers. One of the first steps that ILP and our project partner CDF is planning on is to approach at least 50% of the local shops and enterprises and make sure that child labor is eliminated from such enterprises. Following on to that, we will request them to display boards that they are "child labor free". A proclamation from inside the community will be the best way for us to get rid of this issue.
Metrics
The success of this program will be measured against the target goals of each intervention as outlined below
| Activity | Description | Success criteria/Metric |
|
Drop Out Prevention activities |
||
| Social Mobilization Campaigns to create awareness of child labor and the importance of education. Activities include street plays, public meetings, and use of radio / TV |
- 60% of the village population (~15,000 people) sensitized to the issues of out of school children, child labor - Formation of new groups and revival of existing community organizations |
- Active participation of people to get children back to school
- Gradual involvement in village/school level monitoring – activating the School Development and Monitoring Committees and child welfare committees |
|
Creating ‘No Child Labor’ establishments via awareness campaigns & working with families at risk of sending kids to work Monthly meeting with employers (hotel owners, garages, bars and others) |
- Reduction/elimination of child labor in shops, businesses - Link 20% of the families with working children or at risk families to Government schemes and services. This will be through community collectives like Self Help Groups, School Development and Monitoring Committees |
- 10 to 30% reduction in number of children employed in shops and establishments - Formation of child protection committees in panchayats (village governments) |
|
Enforcement Activities |
||
|
Enforcement workshops and working with government officials on reported cases of child labor |
Rescued children enrolled in schools |
70% of rescued children enrolled in schools. |
|
Education - Enrollment & Retention Activities |
||
|
Enroll out-of-school children |
100% enrollment in 6 - 8 yrs group |
About 500 children enrolled in schools. |
|
Retention of children in school |
90% of children (3 -14 yrs) be retained in school |
Track attendance to monitor retention of 3800 children |
|
Form child rights clubs to raise awareness of child rights |
Child rights clubs organized in 15 schools. |
Awareness amidst children on rights and peer reporting of child labor issues |
|
Quality of Education |
||
|
Training Anganwadi (child care) teachers and helpers Exposing school principals and teachers to innovative methods of education and creative class environments |
- Trained teachers and helpers in the 24 Anganwadis - Teachers empowered to make learning a joyful and fun activity for children
|
- 48 trained teachers and helpers from the 24 child care centers - 60 teachers from various schools attending seminars - Qualitative measures of children’s learning abilities in schools and feedback on teachers performance |
Anecdotes
Kodla cluster consists of 13 villages and is a predominantly agricultural community. Due to the presence of the cement industry as well as a few quarries in the area, manual daily labor is the next common occupation in the region. So, skills attained via education are not perceived to be of much use to the average person. This in turn means that education is not valued in the region.
While developing the baseline statistics for the Kodla villages, the ILP and CDF team came across many instances of how the vicious effects of illiteracy can result in a whole community spiraling down the development ladder. Corruption, narrow-mindedness and lack of awareness are finally just outcomes of lack of education.
THE SCHOOL ISN'T READY YET!
HANDRIKI VILLAGE: The government high school in the village was sanctioned to be built on the land donated by a wealthy land owner from the village. However, when obtaining the land, the requisite transfer papers were not signed. The donor requested that the building be constructed by one of his relatives, which was agreed upon. When the building was almost ready, the donor insisted that the government pay for the land, and in the absence of appropriate documentation, there was not much the government could do. Eventually, the constructed building was demolished and the land handed back over to the donor. A new piece of land was acquired, and the village is still waiting for the school to be constructed there so that their children can go to school. If the local politicians and functionaries had the interest of the children in mind, they would have made the decision to pay for the original piece of land and saved a standing school building from being destroyed! And if the donor had the children's welfare at heart, he would not have backtracked on his donation either!
WHERE IS LITERACY LOCATED?
KODLA SC COLONY: Five volunteers were paid to complete a task of providing basic functional literacy training to fifty people within a month. The classes were supposed to be held in the local town-office from 6 to 9 PM on certain weekdays. When the ILP and CDF team went to the location, they found no one there. Thereafter they met the volunteers, and found that some of them did not even know where the classes were being held. The volunteers suggested that the villagers would be tired in the evening after their day time work, and that it was time for them to rest and recuperate rather than study. So much for an education scheme sans monitoring!
COME BY TOMORROW!
GOWDALLI VILLAGE: The village has an child care center (anganwadi) that is geared towards taking care of 20 tiny tots of the village. When the ILP and CDF team visited this center, they found it to be locked. They found out that the anganwadi helper was an alcoholic, and as a result she would usually be absent for four to five days in the week. The anganwadi teacher on the other hand was tasked with a number of other duties such as electoral surveys and hence would also be absent from the anganwadi. Knowing the ground realities, the villagers simply avoided sending their children to such an anganwadi.
