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LEARNING CENTRES : REACHING OUT TO OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN
The learning centers are reaching out to out of school children in the age group of 6 to 14 years. Presently 30 centres are reaching out to 1200 children in the Bawana resettlement Colony.
OBJECTIVES
- Preparing the children for Mainstreaming in the formal school.
- Enhancing the knowledge, skills and talents of the children i. e. by ensuring holistic development of children in schools by extending to them regular health monitoring facilities and physical activities.
- To bring, progressive decrease in child labour by educating them.
- Increasing sensitization of the community towards the education of their children through Awareness programmes, Parent Teacher Meetings.
AREAS OF INTERVENTION
1. CLASS ROOM TEACHING
Children are provided Non Formal Education through Learning Centres: Multi-graded teaching classes are conducted regularly as per designed time-table & curriculum. The children are identified from different blocks as per the levels assessed, a need based curriculum for the annual year is designed for the children being given preliminary formal education aiming to prepare them for mainstreaming. The curriculum followed is similar to what is recommended by NCERT/SCERT.
Weekly and Monthly tests: All the Teachers plan for the monthly tests for the children as per the covered curriculum once in one month in order to achieve the following:
- To evaluate the progress of the children
- To make changes in the curriculum according to level of the understanding of the children.
Proper records are maintained by all the teachers and each child’s progress status is shared with their respective parents during the parents’ teacher meeting on monthly basis.
2. EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
It’s important to include extracurricular activities as part of the curriculum as it not only helps in the overall development of the child but also helps in building the interest and to enhance knowledge, talents and skills to be acquired by these children. Extracurricular activities like music classes, sports classes, bal sabha; exposure visits etc. all contribute towards building interest of the children.
Music Classes (at Bawana):
All the Learning Centres had one music & drama class once in a month. In the music class sargam, patriotic songs, folk songs etc are taught to the children. Time to time music competitions were also organized in order to provide a platform to the children to present their talent. Many children after attending the drama classes conduct street plays in the community on the issues like child labour, girl’s education, which is very influential in the community.
Sports Classes
All the classes have one sports and yoga class once in a month. During the class different games, exercises and education is given on how to be healthy and active. The children of learning centres enjoy attending Yoga Classes. Even the teacher practices the same asans on regular basis in the beginning of the class. The children were encouraged to play lots of games after exercises; in a way it’s a nice break for them from regular course of studies.
Library classes:
Library sessions, we believe, sees no difference between the privileged and the less privileged and is something every child should be able to enjoy and grow from. We found that it was so much easier to pass on difficult messages to children through children, reinforcing our belief that we may have hit upon a very novel idea. Each activity in the library is designed keeping the child as the centre and art as the medium to explain a value.
Exposure Visits/ Trips/ Picnics:
Children from both the project sites are taken for Exposure visits to places like Children’s Park, Zoological Park, Amusement Park, India Gate, and Doll’s Museum, Rail museum, etc. These trips are organized with the motive to make education more interesting and informative, to give them an exposure to the practical knowledge and a chance to come across with the things which they have either seen in their books or have only heard .also, the trips give the chance to build and see the outer world, which otherwise they never get a chance through their families.
Creative Saturday/ Bal Sabhas/ Bal Panchayats:
Every 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month have been organized as creative Saturdays regularly. Activities other than subject/ extra curriculum like sports classes, outdoor & indoor games, dance and singing classes, art & craft classes to be organized on these Saturdays. Bal sabha (The children forum) /Bal Pantheists (Children Council) encourages the children and to make them more expressive. Through such activities the talents of the children are identified and then they are encouraged to sharpen the skills. The session on morals and values are quite influential as it supplements the parental upbringing. Also such programmes help children to develop leadership qualities and also a sense of responsibility towards their peer and community. This forum instills confidence and creates awareness on a wide range of topics. In this group activity children’s enjoy free play activities Small cultural programs are organized in which different activities like inter class competitions like music, plays, drawing etc, library workshops, talks on moral values and stories related to them is shared with children, street plays or even role plays in the class premises and relevant discussion with the other children in the class. These discussions are based on simple topics considering the age group of these children in learning centres and topics taken up are in relation to awareness on Child rights, Hygiene and health etc.
3. PARENTS’ AND COMMUNITY INTERFACE
Parents Teacher Meetings (PTMs)
Parents’ teachers’ meetings during this period focuses on sensitizing parents about the importance of education, issues of childcare, sending their children regularly to Learning centers, mobilize them to get their support for ongoing educational activities, orienting parents about the importance of mainstreaming and generating awareness about other activities of Navjyoti.
School Prabandhak Committees: From all the blocks two key persons/ active members/ Social workers from the community are identified and organized into a committee which supervises the Learning Centres. These members help in resolving issues that emerged as blockage in day to day functioning like the problem pertinent to children, parents and others in the community. Every month through such a meeting these issues are resolved and experiences & suggestions are shared.
Community Meetings: In all the blocks once in a month community meetings are organized to update them of what the organization is doing in the educational and other project area. The main focus has always been to sensitize them towards their child’s education. A/v shows were used as the medium during such meetings.
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