THE CONCEPT

Gali School is our most extensive and ambitious education programme. It provides preschooling to out of school and drop out children with a view to prepare them to get admitted in nearby regular schools. As the name suggests, Gali School is a school in the Galies i.e. by lanes. Starting in 1998 with five in the slums of Yamuna Pushta, we are now running more than 75 Gali schools in the resettlement Colonies of Delhi namely HolambiKalan and Bawana area enrolling more than 2000 children of the slums. Gali School is an endeavor to bring education to the doorstep of children. The emphasis has been on catering to the slum and impoverished children. Our experience in the Yamuna Pushta slum community suggests that more often than not, the distance between the school and the target children becomes intractable, more so in the case of female child, keeping them at bay with the education. Even where the school is accessible, for every child, who goes to school, 30 other roam around in the galies. The abundance of children in the galies precipitated the idea of opening schools in the Gali itself. Therefore, rather than trying to take every child to school we brought the school to the children, in their friendly neighborhood Gali. Hence Gali school.

GALI SCHOOL IN RETROSPECT

Gali School, a movement to cater to the educational needs of children of the underprivileged, living in the labyrinths of ignorance, poverty and neglect, started in 1998. The immediate objective was to engage more than 43,000 children of school-going age (6-14 years) in an educationally inclined atmosphere. The motive was to orient them towards education and thereby make them retrace their steps from the direction, which is deleterious to their own physical and mental well being, socially contemptible and economically bears a high cost in the long run.
It was not a very expensive project to start because it defied the concept of a structure being essential for the school. These schools did not necessarily have four walls and a roof. For that matter it did not wait even for a proper floor. A corner of a muddy street, some part of a neighbor’s wall to hang a folding blackboard and great deal of determination, was all that was required. To begin with, we started with 5 schools in the streets/by lanes of Yamuna Pushta, 30 children studying at each one of them. It was a 3 hours a day school held at the timings convenient to the students so that it did not hamper their supposedly “earning” activities. We did not try to prevent the child from going to his work at once for the fear of his and his parent’s hostility, which might have been evoked by sudden cessation of proceeds accruing from child’s Labour. The same model was gradually replicated to other slum and resettlement Colonies of Delhi and even to rural areas.

GALI SCHOOL AS AN ALTERNATIVE MODEL OF EDUCATION

Gali schools are based on the A-4 elements namely accessibility, affordability, appropriateness and accountability. The failure/inadequacy of state supported primary education has been quite prominent in India and still presumably, there are 100 million children who are out of school. The circumstances necessitated non institutional model of education which can accommodate children from the lower socio economic strata. The Gali school model seeks to do away with the deficiencies that have plagued the formal education system in India. The Gali school model has the following innovative features;
High accessibility: Gali School provides education at the doorstep of children who are not able, attuned or inclined to go to schools. The education is imparted in an environment familiar to the children by the teachers recruited locally and trained by the organization.
Economically viable: Since the Gali School does not require much infrastructural support, it is economically cost effective.
High sustainability: Since the recurring cost is very low, the problems of sustainability do not pose big threats.
High visibility in the community: The ubiquity of Gali Schools, literally in the every nook and corner of the streets, has a very high potential of awareness generation.
Community participation and ownership: When the school is set up before somebody’s house, it naturally arouses his inclination to facilitate such an effort. The community provides space and meager requirements to start it and also monitors and supervises.

THE NEED

Gali Schools were opened to override the challenges posed by these and bring children within the realm of education in the one of the largest slums of Delhi.

- Illiteracy
- Lack of educational facilities
- Apathy of the parents
- Child labour
- Lack of awareness in the community
- Drug-addiction /alcoholism
- Poverty

THE VISION

To make children cultivate adaptability to fit in the society in which they will grow up and acquire basic skills necessary for this so that they are able to integrate themselves with the contemporary society inalienably.

MISSION STATEMENT

To inculcate, enhance and preserve in children, proclivity to learn, at the earliest.

OBJECTIVES

 To provide preschooling to the out of school, drop out and preschool age children.
 To orient and prepare them for mainstream education by getting them admitted into Navjyoti and other nearby regular schools.
 Ensure over-all development of children in Gali schools by extending to them regular health monitoring facilities and involving them in healthy practices like games/sports/yoga etc.
 To identify and encourage children with exceptional capabilities in sports, arts or any other field.

HOW GALI SCHOOL IS RELATED TO ALL EMBRACING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT?

Gali schools were used as an entry point to help the families with support services to have a far reaching and lasting impact for comprehensive urban and rural community development. Starting with Gali schools and concentrating upon child, to begin with, providing them nutritional support and health care services besides education, led us to interact with their parents. 2nd stage involved providing personal and need based support services like health facilities, vocational training, family counselling and legal aid to curb domestic violence. Having reached to individuals it was a matter of time to interact with the community as a whole. The penetration of Gali School in the community laid open the road to overall community development. The community was encouraged to participate in the development programme and enroped for the tasks requiring higher participation from the community e.g. resources management especially water harvesting, plantation, local governance etc.

HOW DOES A GALI SCHOOL WORK?

The Gali school model adopts a multipronged approach of not only preparing children for the mainstream but also offering opportunities of healthy growth and development by exposing them to services like health check ups, health education, extra curricular activities like sports, yoga, music, excursion, audio visual shows etc. besides, the model integrates the component of sensitization of the community on the issues of child education and child welfare and eliciting meaningful participation of various stakeholders in functioning of these centers.

Assessment of the needs of the children: Educational needs of the children in the community are assessed in order to set up Gali Schools in the area. The centers are set up keeping in mind the services available in the area. For instance, Gali schools in the urban slums mostly have children in the age group of 4 to 8 years as drop out, child Labour and illiteracy are the major problems in the areas whereas Gali schools in rural areas mostly comprise of children in the age group of 3 to 5 years as the area is devoid of facilities for early childhood care and education.

Devising need based curriculum: Two areas are kept in mind while devising curriculum for these centers. First, the age group and the milestones that these children should achieve and secondly the requirements of the formal schools where these children are to be mainstreamed. We view the entire educational process as a partnership for the acquisition of knowledge. Therefore, the contribution of teacher as well as the pupil both, is equally important and a learning process for the both. We do not believe in imposing some cramping or stultifying curriculum based on traditional inert ideas lacking equal applicability in all the circumstances and settings. Instead, We actually let the children be children instead of forcing them to be future adults. We directly assist the children to enlarge and vivify their instinctive hold on the condition of life by enriching, illuminating and giving importance to their growing experience. These things have a special relevance for these children as they grow up in the school of adversities and are more pragmatic and at times more assertive than normal children and want their perspective to be given a valid point.

The children are trained in habits of careful observation and clear reasoning ability so as to enable them to derive maximum benefit from the education offered to them.

Ensuring health monitoring and health education: Health is the area which is generally ignored and not considered a priority in both the slums as well as rural areas. Unhygienic conditions in the area make children’s predisposition to all sorts of diseases very high. Keeping this in the view regular health monitoring of the children of Gali school is done. The students of each Gali school undergo health check up once in a month where check-up is done by doctors. This also helps in checking the onslaught of any disease spreading in the community.

Extra curricular activities: Preliminary academic instructions proceed gradually along with health and hygiene by training pupils in physical exercises, organized games and canons of healthy living. The children’s talent in music, dramatics and martial arts are also identified and honed up. Besides, children are also taken on excursion which doubles as pleasure trip for them.

Sports, music and yoga: Healthy source of recreation is offered to these children in the form of sports, music, yoga, drawing etc which is a regular feature in the timetable for each class. Talented children are also made to participate in competitions held in various organizations.

Exposure visits: these children have been exposed to places outside their community and villages. In order to widen their perspective, enable them to relate to what they learn and aware citizens, exposure trips are planed for them regularly.

Audiovisual Classes: Audio Visual means of imparting education has been very effective in making the teaching learning process very interesting and innovative. Audio visual classes are organized on weekly/monthly basis on issues covering health and hygiene, general awareness, importance of education etc. At times, the children are made just to watch cartoon shows.

Capacity building of teachers: most of the teachers are the ones from the community and the villages having passed 10th or 12th std. These educators are trained in the areas of technical competence, perspective development, personal welfare etc on regular basis to add quality to the teaching process.
Supervision and monitoring: The Gali schools are divided into different zones, each zone having 10-12 schools which are supervised by supervisors who is responsible for conducting regular visits to these centers to ensure quality. Besides, through the system of feedback meetings that is held everyday in the slum, daily sharing and exchange of experience takes place. In the villages, the feedback meetings are held once a month as the distance between the villages are large and it is not feasible for the teachers to meet everyday for the same. In addition, there is a program manager to coordinate the entire functioning of the centers.
Interface with the community: Sensitization of the community on the importance of education and eliciting participation of the community in the functioning of these schools is one of the prime interventions. This is done through parents’ teachers meetings, community meetings, evolving school supervision committees etc.
Mainstreaming and follow up: since the prime objective of the Gali schools is mainstreaming, linkages and networking with the regular schools is undertaken. After the children are mainstreamed, regular follow up is done to ensure the retention of children in the education system.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE ROLE OF THE COMMUNITY
Community has a pivotal role in the community based programmes and but for its sincere cooperation any extraneous force cannot make any substantial change. Our endeavor is to ensure the participation of the community so that it gradually, becomes sufficiently empowered to assume the ownership of the development programmes. Our strategy is to develop school supervision committees by capacitating and orienting stakeholders from within the community to take care of its educational and other needs. This structure is entrusted with creating a child education supportive environment by facilitating the Gali school programme and extending to them all possible and required help. The community leaders and panchayat members are also on the managing committee of the schools.

THE IMPACT
Promotion of girl child education: The most important achievement of Gali School has been in the area of girl-child education. It has falsified the generally accepted notion that female education is directly proportional to the economic and social advancement of the families. In all the project areas, girls outnumber boys in Gali schools.
Increased community involvement: Gali school movement has, though endowed us with greater responsibility; nonetheless it has given us a sense of achievement, which is difficult to contend with. It has brought about a radical change in the attitude and perception of the parents and the community about the education of children. It is manifest in the fact that community itself has come forward for this cause. Parents are providing infrastructural support to the Programme and also arranging pleasure trips for the children. Enrollment in our formal schools has also increased as a cascading effect of Gali school movement. Literacy rate in children in general, has seen a tremendous increase.
Role of Gali School in primary education: In India, there is still 100 million children out of schools. All of them are not out of school because of lack of educational facilities but also despite that. It can be attributed to lack of early exposure to education and consequent lack of inclination in children and parents in it. We believe that catching them young is panacea to these problems. Early exposure and orientation towards studies impresses their mind with importance of education and prevents then from weaning away from education at the slightest hint of hardship. Gali School prepares children for the formal schooling and after a year’s training at Gali School, children are mainstreamed in formal education.
Linkages and mainstreaming: the organization has developed linkages with government and private schools, which accommodate children passed out from Gali school so that they can get formal schooling. Since the inception of the Programme in 1997-1998, more than 4000 children have been thus mainstreamed in the various government and private educational institutions of repute.