Education Outlook for Chhattisgarh 2011

As per the ASER report 2010, over 98% of children of between the ages of 6-14 in Chhattisgarh are enrolled in school. However, learning levels are low in this heavily tribal populated, Naxal insurgency affected state. Only 44% of children in Std III can read Std. I text fluently whereas the situation is dismal in arithmetic where only 39% of children in Std V can do division.

Pratham in Chhattisgarh this Year

Geographical Coverage: 2077 villages in 18 blocks
Children Reached: 73,527
Volunteers Mobilized: 3,288

• Pratham is currently running the ‘Read India’ (RI) program through 17 Block Excellence Programs (BEPs) and 1 District Resource Centre (DRC) in Chhattisgarh. 4 volunteers are mobilized in every target village to teach a group of 20 – 25 children, who are all well below their expected grade level competencies. One volunteer teaches children in classes 1 & 2, focusing on basic literacy and numeracy skills, while the other volunteer teaches children in classes 3-5, focusing on reading fluency and comprehension, as well as Arithmetic operations. Volunteers also teach English, where the focus is on letter recognition, vocabulary building and ability to conduct basic greetings in English. Read India classes occur in 100 villages in each BEP block.
• Pratham is running the Education for Education (EFE) program in 18 districts in Chhattisgarh. Nearly 3000 volunteers are benefitting from the EFE program in Chhattisgarh at this time.
• Various initiatives, such as reading fairs, public testing fairs and activities such as painting blackboards and slogans in village walls have been undertaken in order to engage the community in the issue of education.
• Pratham has partnered with Korba West Power to run a ‘Library’ program, where children are taught to read in 8 villages of Raigarh district. The program operates out of Pratham’s own centres. Pratham pays teachers a nominal sum, in order to motivate their teaching and to give them a form of self-sustenance. The teachers are young women and men from the local communities, between the ages of 18-23.
• The ‘Cambridge English Certificate’ course is also being offered to school teachers to develop their command over English. Pratham administers and evaluates the course.

Future Plans

Pratham plans to set up ‘PRATAP’ Centres (Pratham Training, Assessment and Placement Centre) in order to begin its transition to a post-secondary institution which will not only be accessible to volunteers but to all youth. These centres will be run in conjunction with the EFE program initially.

A campaign to increase awareness about the stipulations of the ‘Rights to Education’ act (RTE) will be organized for villagers where meetings will be conducted in every village. Communities will be informed about the rights of their children as per the RTE norms. Focus will also be given on generating awareness about the roles and responsibilities of School Management Committees (SMCs).

In addition to this, the next six months in Chhattisgarh will include volunteer mobilization, strategically improving parent and community participation, refresher training for Pratham Chhattisgarh personnel, and development of resource material.