Quality Education for All is no more a distant dream :

Education for Empowerment :

It has been observed that on average within 30 minutes of arrival at a main Bhubaneswar railway station a vulnerable young person is approached by someone who may not have his well being at heart. Within hours he/she may be lured into drugs, prostitution or other dangerous activity.

Admittedly the state of children in the Bhubaneswar city especially those who live on the street / railway station and in the slums is very discouraging and a large section of them are undernourished, go without shelter, are not properly treated in their illness and grow even without many of their basic needs having been met. There are still children who are deserted and rendered orphan with no one to take care of them. Many children are the unfortunate victims of family abuse and willful violence committed by the adult society. The instances of children used for prostitution are also galore. Education is a distant dream for these children.

Sahaya reaches out to these marginalized section of children with alternative schools. It runs an open schoolat the railway station of Bhubaneswar. It believes that the main purpose of education is to tap and evolve the latent potentials of the individual in the same way as nature evolves a tree out of a seed. To help in the growth of the consciousness, and for the progressive unfolding of their mind, education is considered to be the best means. Children are given ample opportunities in the school to dream the future.

Again, education itself is not just the training of the mind, but the integral and harmonious development of the being. Sahaya emphasizes on the free and natural learning so that the inner potential of the children will blossom.

After School Remedial Education Program :

Children living in these slums have poor access to schools, and even where there is access and initial enrollment, there is a high dropout rate from school by grade 7.

It has been noticed that without proactive intervention and counseling, the children of the poorest members in the slum communities are employed in the labour sector at a young age. Seeking to supplement family income, children work in different and distant locations which make regular attendance at school impossible. Sometimes as young as three or four, children become rag pickers and street vendors and professional beggars. Working as trash collectors and other hazardous jobs they often get worm infestation, diarrhea, dysentery, malaria, typhoid and other communicable disease. Peer pressure and environmental compulsions often force the children into a life of crime, prostitution, drug addiction and alcoholism. Other children perform household chores and look after younger siblings while their parents are away at work. Furthermore, these parents cannot afford the small cost for their children to attend school. They have to pay a fee for admission, buy books, school stationery and school uniforms. For these children, the opportunity to attend school is no more than a dream.

For slum dwellers with more means, there are several other barriers that get in the way of sending their children to school. For the younger children in grades 1-2, the physical distance to a government school of 1km-2km if not more, and the lack of secure way to get to the school is a significant barrier in itself. Secondly, government schools are overcrowded with as many as 75 children to a teacher and children overflowing into the school corridors in some locations. The quality of education and attention that a child gets in this situation is not conducive to continued enrollment and retention in school. This is more so with slum children, as they are often the weaker children due to lack of parental attention and help.

As per the Right to Education Act 2009, all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years need to be in the schools. But the history witnesses that, the Government education programs are less successful for slum populations. SAHAYA works to put all the slum children in to school in the next two to three years. Most of these children continue to attend government school pass grade 5, but dropout rates get higher in grades 6-10. Our observed data (unfortunately not systematically measured) suggests that 40% of the children enrolled in grade 5 are dropped out by grade 7, and an even higher number by grade 10. The leading cause of this dropout is the inability of children to keep up with their class work. In these grade levels, learning is increasingly done outside the classroom in tutorial services or by parental help, and slum children don’t have access to help from either source. The education project seeks to establish an after-school remedial education centre at a slum to give these children access to a skilled teacher to maintain academic proficiency.

To measure the effectiveness of these programs it monitors enrollment, attendance, drop-out percentage and academic proficiency.

Aim of Project :

Sahaya firmly believes that education is the one and only catalyst to improve the status of children, to give them a chance to improve their livelihood in the future and offer them an opportunity for upward social mobility.

The aim of the project is therefore “Reaching out to all children in the age group of 6-14 years those who are studying in the government schools through Remedial after school program targeting significant reduction in dropout rate in grades 5-7, as well as increase academic proficiency”.

Strategy / Activities :

For Grades 5-7, the after / before school remedial intervention focus on continued enrollment in school, increased attendance, and improved academic proficiency by placing teachers skilled in English, Math, and Science up to grade 7 level within each slum community. Classes are conducted in the slum in a room constructed half way in the community for 2 to 4 hours a day. Enrollment, attendance, drop out rate, improvement in proficiency are monitored to establish effectiveness of the remedial program over the term of the project.

>> The remedial teachers maintains close contact with the Government school teacher and conducts periodic evaluation of the progress of the children and tries to ensure improvement in their education standard.

>> Initiates a sustainable strategy to continue the remedial centers with the parental contribution.

>> Children are assessed regularly and their performance proficiency are appraised every year.

Community education and mobilization :

The teacher is also responsible for community contact and parent education with the primary goal of ensuring enrollment, regular attendance, and acceptable performance in school of every eligible child in the designated population base. Each of the school is governed by a Basti Education Committee (BEC) which is constituted by the leaders of the community and school parents. We ensure at least two female representatives in the committee. The committee monitors and assists the school for smooth functioning.