Educate 3000 Marginalised Slum Children in Odisha

REMEDIAL EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN IN 20 SLUMS OF BHUBANESWAR

IMPLEMENTED BY: RUCHIKA SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANISATION

PROGRESS REPORT

Ruchika Social Service Organization started its program in 1985 with railway children in the ideology of “if the child cannot come to school, then the school must go to the child” Since the enforcement of Right to Education Act 2009. Ruchika has built a strong focus and expertise in improving quality of education through remedial education centers in the slums across Bhubaneswar.

With the support of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Ruchika started its strategic intervention since November 2016 with its aims to review and improve the learning competencies of slum children in three core subjects- English, Odia and Math and to enable them to enhance their academic proficiency as a whole at par or more than their peers in the school. In addition, the project also intends to make the provisions of RTE realized in its true spirit-universal enrolment, retention, creating a positive slum and  school environment to attract the children to school, barrier free school environment, admission without any  certificates at all times etc..

As this is the second quarter of intervention, the organization had to accomplish a number of objects as specified in the proposal. Being it is the period of summer vacation and Bhubaneswar was boiling in high temperature, attendance of the children was reduced a little bit. 

Remedial Education:

Remedial Education Programme has been running   in 20 slums of Bhubaneswar. They were prepared to appear the annual exam in school which was conducted in the 3^rd week of March 2017 in all the Govt. Schools. In addition an end line assessment was also conducted from 7^th to 9^th March 2017 by Gray Matter, a third party assessment agency supported by Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

The new academic session was started now. As the text books are not supplied to all the students in April, we conducted the revision of last year’s text book during school summer vacation from 23^rd April to 18^th June.

Initiation of a new project Science on wheel:

The organisation promotes interest of slum children in the subject of science and tries to develop a scientific attitude and outlook among them. It helps extend immensely the limits of their curiosity. They are taught how science has been of the greatest help and benefit us in a variety of way. With the support of Kalinga Foundation Trust, Bhubaneswar, Ruchika has initiated a project viz. Science on Wheels, an imitative to popularize Science among slum kids.  The mobile science centre  creates awareness about the role of Science and Technology as a major instrument for achieving goals of self-reliance and socio-economic development.

The project was inaugurated by Sri V. V. Yadav, IAS, Commissioner cum Secretary, Deptt. of Science and Technology, Govt. of Odisha, on 8.4.2017 in presence of many prominent scientists and social leaders of Odisha. On the occasion a team of social activists from Belgium also graced the occasion with their presence.

The Science on Wheels was enriched with a number of Scientific and technological as well as Mathematical projects prepared by the students of our Remedial Centres under BPCL project. The Science bus visited almost all 20 centres operating under BPCL and educated the slum children on the Science, technology and Math.

This initiative of slum children was highly appreciated by Prof. Diago Andres Glombek, the  UNESCO- Kalinga Award laureate of 2015 on his visit to Odisha,  Dr. A.B.P. Mishra, Scientists, NCSTC, Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India as on his visit to Odisha during April 2017.

Quarterly review meeting;

A quarterly review meeting was organized in the premises of Ruchika Resource Centre on 6^th May 2017. All the  remedial teachers and supervisory level staff attended the meeting.   The academic progress of students, staff discipline, community mobilization, school mobilization, challenges faced during the quarter etc. were reviewed.

It was also decided that there would be no summer vacation but one could avail a ten days leave at any time of the year with at least one month prior information to the Secretary and its approval.  Reinforcement of study was planned for the students till opening of the school on 19^th June.

Staff Capacity Building  workshop :

The Staff Capacity Building workshop

(Refresher training) was organized in the premises of Ruchika Resource Centre from 12^th to 13^th May 2017. All remedial teachers and  supervisory level staff participated in the program. The Programme Manager, Mr. Benudhar Senapati & Pedagogy Specialist Mr. Thakuram Behera and Project Coordinator Mr. Ramakant Sahoo managed the workshop as resource persons.  

 During the workshop, following topics were covered.

a)    The concept of remedial education system

b)    Friendship education

c)    Continuous & Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE).

Co-curricular Activities:

A Summer camp was conducted at Koraput Bhawan, Bhubaneswar from 22^nd to 31^st May 2017 in  collaboration with Family Affairs, a  Singapore based organisation. Children from 6 to 18 years of  age   participated in different activities organized during the camp like Painting, toy making, Handicraft, Decorative light materials etc. The children were also empowered and encouraged by the resource persons who participated in the program.

 Besides the activities, the children visited Nicco Park ( a children’s activity and games park). They also visited Keshari Cinema Hall  to watch popular film   “ BAHUBALI-2 “. From the  20 remedial centers operating under BPCL, 56 students participated in the camp.  

RTE sensitization( Universal Admission) :

All the remedial teachers were engaged to identify the dropout students located in the concerned slums. A large number of these identified children were counselled and were facilitated to be re-integrated into the schools. This special operation was continued for about two months – May-June 2017.

The government school teachers were  sensitized on the provisions of Right of the Children to Free and Compulsory Education. A series of meetings were conducted with the teachers by our supervisory team and teachers. The Head Masters were specially focused and individual interactions were conducted. In addition the Cluster Educator was monitoring the implementation of RTE provisions in the schools.

Success Story -1 : The University High school denied to take admission of a poor girls child viz. Laxmi of Bisweswar Slum, as she didn’t have her birth certificate. After several meetings with school authorities the concerned Remedial teachers and Cluster Educator were failed to convince them. Finally the team interacted with the Education Deptt. After intervention of higher authority the child was admitted in Class – II

 Success Story – 2 : As a part of our regular intervention in Govt. School on RTE compliance most of the children and teachers are sensitized to keep their school campus neat and clean. Provision of mobile dust bins was arranged and the children put the solid waste in to the dustbins .

Kanha (not his real name) and Narayan (not his real name) are from Kalaraput slum. They both study in Class-IV. Recently they have participated in the "Little Scientiest" - a science exhibition organized by Kalinga Foundation Trust, Bhubaneswar. Their project "Homemade Projector" was very interesting and got acclaimed by the visitors. They have got cash rewards 100 rupees each from the Chief Guest and a certificate from the organizers. Details of their project is given below:

Name of the Project :  Homemade Projector

Process:

A piece of thermocool be cut according to shape of a lense. Then the lense should be filled in the thormocool with adhesive. Make a stand with a big thermocool and two small pieces of thermocool. Put a torch light on the stand. Make a hole in the second thermocool in front of torch light. Set the lense in front of torch light. Now put the slide in front of lense light. 

Output: This can be used to watch funny pictures on wall as well as study.

Useful: It can be used in schools. Children can study easily. It is very useful for educationally backward children.