Community Managed Education Services

ICR
P.Usha Rani, Director-CMES

1. Interventions Early Childhood Education: SERP facilitated community mobilization to create an enabling atmosphere for appropriate child care practices and empowerment of the local community. The children in the age group of 3-5 years are provided with education in these centres. Community governed and community managed centres have been established to improve the physical, mental and cognitive development of the children. Eligible youth from the SHGs are recruited as instructors and ayahs. Quality training is provided to the instructors at the District Resource Centres which in turn would be monitored by the two State resource centres. Teaching in ECE centres is in play-way method to inculcate interest among the children towards learning and coming to school. The hallmark of the centres is a public reporting system that has been put in place, according to which a school festival (Badi Panduga) is celebrated on the last Saturday of every month. The instructors submit their monthly report and the children will demonstrate their learning during that month. CIF of Rs2,50,000 was provided to ECE centres which would be internally rotated to attain sustainability within one year. Convergence with the ICDS resulted in Anganwadi and ECE centres to function together. 21718 children were enrolled in ECE centres since 2008 in 1186 centres. Corporate Education: Good quality education at +2 level, coupled with expert coaching to face admission tests for professional courses is felt imperative by all the parents in general. Financial deprivation has impeded the meritorious children from accessing good teaching and expert coaching being offered in institutes of repute. To address this gap, SERP has facilitated the admission of 8,000 meritorious poor candidates in private / corporate junior colleges of repute, during 2008-09, for two year intermediate course integrated with focused coaching for IIT JEE / AIEEE / EAMCET. This is being seen as an inter-generational poverty alleviation strategy. Zilla Samkhya identifies the students for corporate education and also monitors them in their respective colleges.19376 poor meritorious students were enrolled so far. Residential Bridge Course Camps: SERP is supporting the Mandala Mahila Samakhyas of Chintoor, mandal of Khammam district, Kothaguda Mandal of Warangal District and Sirpur (U) mandal of Adilabad district to enable drop-out Tribal youth to appear as Private Candidates for SSC Public Examinations and thereby improve their life skills. SERP supported the Project in partnership with an NGO Koyathore Bata. Koyathore Bata has been working on the issue of empowering tribal youth through education for more than a decade now through its innovative Residential Bridge Course that targets tribal youth aged 18 years and above. Child Rights Protection and Quality Improvement Programme: Recent studies have shown that the quality of learning in the government primary schools has been very poor. The level of involvement of the community in ensuring quality education has also been very insignificant. Community participation in educational processes builds a sense of ownership. In essence, community sensitization and mobilization provides scope for owning the process and leads to real

empowerment of the community. SERP supported the Mandala Mahila Samakhyas of Chintoor, Kunavaram and V.R.Puram mandals of Khammam district to safe guard Child Rights and facilitate Quality improvement in schools in tandem with Gram Panchayats, youth groups and teachers. The project is rolled out in partnership with the NGO, MV Foundation, in Khammam district. Quality Improvement Programme in Govt Schools: To address the issues of child labor and for improving the quality of schools, it is against this background that SERP along with MV Foundation were working to build the capacities of the MMS, VO and SHGs to play the role of systematically monitoring schools so that they become sensitive to poor children and the quality of education is also improved. This is being implemented in 40 mandals in 10 districts. Education sub-committees were formed at the VO and MMS level. These subcommittee members would inspect the schools and ensure effective implementation of the RTE act and proper functioning of the school in all aspects i.e. physical infrastructure, student enrollment, teacher attendance etc. Vidya Jyothi: Also referred as English Learning Programme. English being universal language has become a priority for all the students. SERP along with CFBT, started this programme in 2 mandals. 50 schools with major ST population were identified. External teachers were provided to these schools to train the students in English language. Two Program coordinators monitored these schools. Special Teaching Learning Material was distributed to supplement the teaching. Support to Post Metric ST girls hostel: Physical infrastructure plays a key important role in enrollment and retention of the girl children. In order to address this issue, SERP provided funds for improving the physical infrastructure of the girls hostel. Funds were provided for 3 hostels and repair works were conducted with this amount. APSWREIS: With respect to the APSWREIS, out of the 64 schools that were to be constructed under the project,61 schools have been constructed. APSWREIS made an effort to improve teaching facilities, recruit and train teachers and strengthen the management functions. Academic initiatives included child-wise monitoring and graded assignment, intensive coaching for slow learners, special learning material for 10th standard and intensive focus in fundamentals. The enrollment in the residential schools has ranged from 96-99% from 2001-06 and the school have achieved a pass percentage of 99in the 7th board examinations and a 100% in the 10th std board examinations for the first batch. Name of the intervention Early Childhood Education No. of students 21718 children enrolled* 1186 centres 55 mandals 11 districts *Field data 19376 students admitted*

Corporate Education

Name of the intervention

No. of students 1098 mandals 23 districts *Field data Quality Improvement Programme 1200 schools* 40 mandals 10 districts *Assuming 30 villages per mandal Residential Bridge Course Camps 460 students* 3 mandals 3 districts *Field data Vidya Jyothi 7600 students* 50 schools i.e 30 Primary schools,12 UPSC,8 high schools 2 mandals 1 district *Assuming 100 students per primary school,150 students per UPSC,350 students per High school Child Rights Protection and Quality 3232 drop-out students enrolled* Improvement 3 mandals 1 district *Field data Post-Metric ST girls hostel 89 girls enrolled* 2 Mandals 1 district *Field data APSWREIS 165222 students enrolled* 64 schools 23 districts *Study on APSWREIS 2. Evolution of the program To address the twin problems of child labour and high rate of school drop-out, the previous project DPIP financed a package of inter-related activities involving both non-formal and formal education. Since girls were at a greater disadvantage compared to boys in poor families, the project support focused on their needs. As a part of this Residential Bridge Course camps for girls were established. Bridge schools would run short-and long-term remedial courses to prepare child labourers and school drop-outs ranging in ages between 7 to 14 years to enter the formal education system. In continuation to the schools, for the passed out children corporate education was started to provide equal opportunities to the poor meritorious candidates (for both boys and girls). Students were identified with the help of Zilla Samakhyas and were admitted in colleges by June 2008.

Koyothore Bata, an NGO is already maintaining Residential Bridge Course camps for drop-out tribal youth. This programme was earlier funded by DPIP. It was continued under RPRP for the year 2008-09. Building residential schools is a high-cost initiative. Hence to address the issue of child labor and drop-out, Child Rights protection and Quality Improvement Programme was started in September 2008. It was piloted in three mandals in the district of Khammam. Sub-committee members were formed from the SHGs. Drop-out children were identified by the subcommittee members. Rallies, awareness camps were held and counselling was provided to parents to send the children to school. Drop-out children were enrolled in schools and in Residential Bridge Course camps too. One of the problems identified by the Subcommittee members was the lack of proper English training in schools. It was then a special programme for English was commenced in collaboration with CFBT. 50 schools with majority of ST population were identified and supplemented with English language training in these govt schools. Issues like drop-out, enrolment and retention can be addressed only when the root cause is identified. As the growth of the child brain is maximum in the age of 3-6, any education provided at this stage will have a lasting impact. As a result ECE centres were established in January 2009. Teaching in play-way method develops interest among children towards learning and school. Children will no longer have fear regarding studies. Hence they will find it enthusiastic to attend the school and thereby reducing the drop-out rate. The instructor and the ayah are recruited from the community. The infrastructure for residential hostels built for post-metric ST girls was funded by supplying utensils, bedspreads etc By December 2010, Quality Improvement Programme in Govt schools was started in partnership with the MV Foundation. Education subcommittees were formed by the SHG members who monitor the functioning of govt schools. Monthly visits by the subcommittee members will be made to the govt schools.

Year of Starting 2002-03 June 2008 August 2008 September 2008 December 2008 December 2008 June 2009 December 2010

Year of ending the Programme 2008-09 March 2010 September 2009 May 2010 March 2011 On going Programme May 2010 On going programme

Intervention APSWREIS Corporate Education Residential Schools Child Rights Protection and Quality Improvement Vidya Jyothi Early Childhood Education Post Metric ST girls hostel Quality Improvement in Govt schools

3. Total Investments

Purpose Investment by Project

IB

Early Childhood Education MGREGS: Rs 1.7 Cr

Resources leveraged from public sector Rs 7.95 Cr

CIF

Rs 16.25 Cr

Resources Outputs leveraged from the Commercial Sector 21,718 children 1186 ECE centres 55 mandals & 15 districts 54% of centres in tribal areas 118 Cluster cordinators

Outcomes

Corporate Education

RS 32.50 Cr

19376 students admitted 45 Students joined IITs

100 % enrollment in Class 1. i.e 6674 eligible students enrolled in Class 1 0% drop-out till Class 3 by children from ECE Creation of Social capital i.e 2372 teachers and Ayahs and 118 Cluster coordinators. Children are equipped with pre-number & pre-reading skills. Readiness for formal education in primary school. 63 % of the centres are in Grade A &28 % in Grade B and 9% in Grade C. 85.2 % of the enrolled children qualified for professional course in Engineering and Medicine.

Purpose Investment by Project

Child Rights Protection & Quality Improvement Programme Quality Improvement Programme in Govt Schools

Resources leveraged from public sector Rs 0.80 Cr

Resources Outputs leveraged from the Commercial Sector 3 mandals 3232 drop-out children enrolled 7262 Education subcommittees formed 1600 Education Resource Persons 1534 VOs 781 Gram Panchayats 40 mandals & 10 districts

Outcomes

70 villages were declared child labor free

0.89 Cr

Residential Bridge Course Camps

0.74 Cr

460 tribal youth enrolled 61.3 % of the enrolled passed 10th exam

50.67% of the children identified were enrolled in Govt schools. Formation of sub committees resulted in improvement of physical infrastructure in 57 schools Improvement in physical infrastructure resulted in enhancement in enrollment and retention of girl children. Awareness created among Subcommittees resulted in filing of 286 petitions so far. 65% and 73% of the enrolled children passed the 10th exam. 84% of the passed out youth continued pursuing education 16% of the

Purpose Investment by Project

Resources leveraged from public sector

Resources Outputs leveraged from the Commercial Sector

Outcomes

passed out youth joined Vocational training, ITI, Polytechnic courses, MLT and MPHW. Vidya Jyothi 0.50 Cr 2 mandals 50 schools 7600 students Physical infrastructure in 2 hostels improved. Retention improved as maintenance costs were provided for an year 64 schools constructed

Support PostMetric ST girls hostel

0.15 Cr

72 % of the girls in the hostel passed the exams.

APSWREIS

Rs 282.12 Cr

70% of the children enrolled are girls 92.3% of the children enrolled passed 10th Std examination

4. Investments by intervention Intervention/ Investment Sub Component Total Number of People reached Total Target population Percent of target population reached CostEffectiven ess Ratio

Intervention/ Investment Sub Component Early Childhood Education Rs 7.95 Cr

Total Number of People reached 21718

Total Target population

Corporate Education

Rs 32.50 Cr

19376

Residential Rs 0.74 Cr Bridge Course camps

460

Quality Improvement Programme

Rs 0.89 Cr

12000* *40 mandals x 30 villages x 100 students per school 7600 3232

41250* *Assuming 25 children in the age group of 3-5 in each village. 25 children x 30 villages x 55 mandals All the poor children who passed the 10th exam with over 67% marks 5376* *Field data: 1792 drop-out tribal youth per mandal. 1792 x 3 mandals 140000* *Field data: 40 mandals x 3500 students per mandal

Percent of target population reached 52.65 %

CostEffectiven ess Ratio 3660

8.6 %

16086

8.6%

742

Vidya Jyothi

Rs 0.50 Cr

Child Rights Rs 0.80 Cr Protection and Quality Improvement Support to Rs 0.15 Cr Post-Metric STgirls hostel APSWREIS Rs 282.12 Cr

30000* *Field data 10500* *Field data: 3500 students x 3 mandals All the girls eligible for intermediate exam in two mandals All the drop-out children from class 5 to 10

25.33% 30.78%

658 2475

89

165222

17075

Total

Rs 325.25 Cr

229697

5. Inclusiveness Index

Total number of PoP in target population ECE: 37125* *Field data: 90% belong to SC/ST Corporate Education: All PoP students who passed Class 10 QIP: No. of PoP students who are attending school in the 40 mandals Residential Bridge schools: 5376* *Field data: Survey done on drop-out tribal youth Vidya Jyothi: 28500* *Field data: mandals selected with more than 95% ST population Support to Post-Metric girls hostel: All SC/ST girls who are eligible for schooling Child Rights Protection and Quality Improvement: 9975* *Field data: 95% of the total population belong to SC/ST APSWREIS: 1652220* *APSWREIS study: schools cover 10% of the SC/ST drop-out children in AP Total : 1733196 6. Outcomes Indicators No. of children achieved in ECE centres No. of students admitted in corporate colleges No. of residential schools constructed No. of girl children enrolled in residential Target 17500

Total Number of PoP reached 21718

Total Number of people reached (same as in table 1) 21718

13454 -

19376 12000

460

460

7600

7600

89

89

3167

3232

148667

165222

195155

217697

Achieved 21718

% of the target 124 %

20000

19376

96.88 %

64 25153

64 115655

100% 459.8%

schools

7. Impacts a) Early Childhood Intervention: Performance of ECE children in primary schools is better by 21.32 % as compared to non-ECE children. (Source: Study of impact on Pre-school Education in tribal areas Andhra Mahila Sabha,Hyderabad) All the 6674 children who are eligible for formal education were enrolled in Govt schools. No child who passed out from ECE dropped out of school at the primary level. (Source: Monthly reports from the field) Quality education is being imparted. 63 % of the ECE centres are in Grade A and 28% in Grade B. (Source: Performance of ECE centres is graded quarterly by the State Resource Centre monitoring team) 58.3 % of the ECE centres were started in tribal areas ECE children passing out are ready for formal education (Source:Study of impact on Pre-school Education in tribal areas Andhra Mahila Sabha,Hyderabad) b) Corporate Education 63% of the student siblings have shown willingness to join corporate colleges( Source: Study on corporate Education in Weaker Sections: Meera Lal, University of Hyderbad) 98 % of the children enrolled belong to SC/ST category (Source: Data regarding the students maintained with SERP) 58 % of the enrolled children are girls. (Source: Data regarding the students maintained with SERP) 85.2 % of the enrolled children qualified for professional courses in Engineering and Medicine stream c) Residential Bridge Course camps 760 tribal youth who otherwise could have been potential naxalites were mainstreamed through the Koyothore Bata programme. 65 % of the enrolled passed 10th Std examination. Out of which 84% of them continued to pursue education and 16% of are pursuing Vocational training courses, Polytechnic, Medical Lab technician courses. d) Quality Improvement Programme in Govt schools Improvement in physical infrastructure resulted in enhancement in enrollment and retention of girl children. Awareness created among Subcommittees resulted in filing of 286 petitions so far.

57 schools have drinking water facility. Petitions filed by the subcommittee members resulted in improving the physical infrastructure in the schools. e) Child Rights Protection and Quality Improvement 70 villages were declared child labor free. Constant monitoring of the subcommittee members regarding the enrollment and counseling to the parents resulted in villages to be declared as child labor free. 50.67 % of the drop-out children identified were enrolled into formal schools and Residential bridge course camps. f) APSWREIS The pass percentage of the students in 10 Std examination is 92.3% as against that of 78% in Government schools.(Source: APSWREIS study) YEAR 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 AP Average 67.89 75.00 80.41 72.41 73.16 71.65 75.47 78.53 APSWREIS 89.70 93.46 95.25 91.52 93.51 89.74 89.28 92.73

70% of the children enrolled are girls. 89.98% of the children enrolled belong to the SC/ST and BC community.

8. Policy Impacts G.O. 55 issued: During the execution of the ECE project, problems arised from the Anganwadi workers in the village level. ECEs were seen as competitors to the Anganwadi centres. So with the effort of SERP and Mandala Mahila Samakyas, convergence meetings were conducted at Mandal, district and state level. Hence, the Department of Women and Child welfare development issued G.O No 55 for Convergence of Angawadi centers with ECE and NDCC centers for the better functioning of these centres. Corporate education taken over by Social Welfare Department: With the success of corporate education concept to tribal area students there is a demand from the community to extend this programme. Hence, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has took a decision to

implement the project all over the state and handed over the project to social welfare department which in turn distributed to various line departments like BC Welfare, SC Welfare etc. Ayah salary from Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: Managing the 20 children by one teacher in the ECE centre is a tedious task. Hence, Ayahs were allotted to the centres to support the teacher/instructor in managing the children. Commissioner of Rural Development, Andhra Pradesh are providing salaries for the Ayahs in these centres. Integration of ECE teachers with Sarva Siksha Abhiyan at primary level: Experienced ECE teachers are promoted to teach Class 1,2 and 3 in the primary school. As a result of collaboration with the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, training was provided by them to the ECE instructors to teach the primary level students in Govt schools.

9. Cross cutting issues: institutional model, financing model , sustainability and resilience Institutional Model: Education sub-committee: Subcommittees are formed at the village, mandal and cluster level to monitor the activities. They visit schools, ECE centres and residential bridge camps at regular intervals to ensure their proper functioning. Committee members participate in experience sharing cum review sessions conducted once in a month. They also meet the Mandal Education officers to submit the petitions regarding the improper functioning of school or lack of proper infrastructure etc. Community Resource Persons: As a part of the Quality Improvement Programme, few members from the committee are trained to be as Community Resource persons. This was done as a part of the sustainability of the programme so that the community by themselves can continue with the activities of monitoring the schools despite MV foundation or SERPs involvement. Resource Persons: District and Mandal Education Resource Persons monitor the functioning of the quality improvement programme. Training will be imparted to the subcommittee by these resource persons. State Resource centre: Provides training to the master trainers, who in-turn will provide training to ECE instructors at the District Resource Centers. District Resource Centre: The SRC monitors and guides the DRC who in turn have the responsibility to monitor the ECE centers. The following diagram shows the institution structure Education Subcommitee - ES Zilla samakhya education committee - ZS Mandal Samakhya education committee MS Village subcommittee VS

Zilla Samkhya

PD,DRDA/PO,ITDA

Mandal Samkhya

Mandal Education Officers, MRO

Village sub committee

School,ECE and Anganwadi teachers

DRC

SRC

Financing model: All the programmes were funded under RPRP. Recurring costs were being provided on bimonthly basis. In Early Childhood Education, corpus for an amount of Rs 2,50,000 was given to each centre. A total of Rs 16.25 Cr was given as corpus to ECE centers. This amount is internally rotated among in the SHGs and the interest generated shall be used for incurring the expenses. The recurring cost for the first one year after establishment is being provided. Sustainability: The corpus provided for ECE centers was provided to enable the centers to self sustain after one year. The interest earned by internally rotating would be sufficient to manage the centre expenses i.e the teacher and ayah salary and some petty monthly costs. This would make the community associate with the centre as their own and inculcates a sense of responsibility to repay the loan amount installments on time. Resilience: Issues raised in the field with respect to the Anganwadi centres were handled by having convergence meetings with the district officials. The issue was taken to the higher authorities and it resulted in the issue of G.O. Ms 55 regarding the convergence of Anganwadi centres and the ECE centres.

10. Challenges in implementation Convergence with the Anganwadi centres was not successful. Issue of G.O at the state level was not sufficient enough for smooth implementation of the ECE centres. The petitions submitted by the Education sub-committee members are not being taken up by the officers. Very few of the requests pertaining to physical infrastructure are being addressed.

11. Current challenges Though the convergence G.O 55 was issued, implementation is not being done at the field level. Issues between the Anganwadi and ECE centre still persist. Petitions regarding the teachers attendance are to be addressed. Change should come at the policy level regarding the kind of action to be taken when issues are being pointed out by the SHG women directly. Lack of proper MIS from the initial stages of the project.