Education India Project #20569

Education & Healthcare for 1250 children in India

by Prajayatna

Project Report | Aug 17, 2017
Visible change in the government run pre schools (

By Mary | Chief Functionary

Over the years the expectation of high quality outcomes in ECCE centers has increased dramatically. This is one of the key reasons for the parents to opt for private schools against the existing Anganwadi center in the village/urban area and this trend is only growing. Therefore understanding the current needs and engaging children in diverse activities in the center to enhance their abilities is essential and the current requirement. According to J Krishmurthy, the eminent educator -“Education can be transformed only by educating the educator, and not merely creating a new pattern, a new system of action.” Prajayatna with its engagement in the field for twenty years has been successful in designing teachers and assistant teachers’ collectives (from the basic orientation level to advanced level) to cater to the ongoing needs of teachers to function effectively in the centers and the same has been implemented in the field and it’s impact can be seen in the children and the teachers.

In Yelahanka circle, considering the present abilities of teachers and in order to strengthen them further Prajayatna has been conducting collective meetings for both teachers and assistant teachers. Through these meetings, a basic understanding of the child’s physical and cognitive development, importance of nurturing the child within certain age and its impact, learning activities do and don’ts with these children, etc and to engage children in activities to enhance overall growth of each child in the center. In the previous collective held on 5^th May 2017, the attention was on equipping the assistant teachers, providing input for them on understand the expectation of parents, what are the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders including parents, department, local community and teachers, relooking at learning objectives, learning practices in the center, role of a teacher and how to evaluate child’s progress etc. As a result of input received in the collective meeting, the assistant teachers have become much more confident and active in engaging children in learning activities, assist teacher as per the center requirement and on the whole they have become capable of handling children in the absence of teachers as well.

The Center Observation Process

The teacher and assistant teacher at LBS Nagar anganwadi now enjoy the learning process as much as the children do. As the teacher is busy teaching action songs to the children - Baro illi Giri and Chikka Putta Jeda, the assistant teacher observes each child and encourages the non participative child to participate in the singing process. The coordinated engagement of teacher and assistant teacher in encouraging children to learn in a joyful manner has resulted in their regular attendance to the center. The new child as old as one month to the center is able to sing the rhyme which the teacher has taught in the center, and can narrate few lines from a story told by the teacher. This can be considered as an indicator of the child’s learning in the center. This development became possible through Classroom Observation and Feedback mechanism of Prajayatna. The center observation process of Prajayatna serves as feedback mechanism and onsite support to the teachers to enhance their ability. When the Prajayatna team member visited the LBS Nagar center and observed the whole day process, based on the observation, provided certain input for the teacher and assistant teacher on the aspects of voice modulation, actions while narrating a story or action songs and the way of observing the child and encouraging each child to engage in the activity by knowing the context in which each child has come to the center etc., along with practical examples. The given feedback is taken seriously by both teacher and the assistant teacher, which can be seen in their efforts to improve and implement the center activities. The result of this is visible in enhanced learning level of children in the center.

Turning empty walls of Anganwadi into colorful pictures

The group of 12 volunteers from Cognizant Software Company have come to support Anganwadi children and their learning through converting the Anganwadi center’s empty walls into colorful pictures. Rama from Cognizant came in contact of Prajayatna team members, and conveyed that the team of volunteers are ready to work for Anganwadi. Prajayatna team member guided her in leading her to team do wall painting in the Pramila Anganwadi center at Yalahanka Upanaga. Subsequently 12 volunteers lead by Rama visited the center and spoke to the Pramila teacher about the kind of pictures that would be suitable for children’s learning, considering her suggestion; they have painted beautiful pictures, numbers and alphabets and hence, indirectly supported children learning.

Attachments:

Volunteers involvement (DOCX)

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Mar 3, 2017
'Healthy'meetings for mothers

By Mary Punnoose | Chief functionary

In the first three years of life, the foundations of physical and also of psychic health are laid. In these years, the child not only increases in size but passes through great transformations. This is the age in which language and movement develop. The child must be safeguarded in order that these activities may develop freely.

- Maria Montessori

There was a lack of hygiene and proper nutrition for the children which caused many of the children to fall sick often and hence irregular to the pre schools. It was felt that there was a need to reiterate the importance of health for all children. Parents meetings were organized in order to conduct sessions on health, immunization and nutrition. Pictorial charts were prepared in order to enable the women (who were the main participants in these meetings) to connect and understand.

These meetings were conducted in 25 Centres where a number of the mothers attended them. Animated discussions were held around topics ranging from the need for clean surroundings in the pre schools as well as the homes. It was common to see the women cleaning the premises in front of their own houses and dump the rubbish in the drain or discreetly in front of the neighbour’s house. The way diseases spread and the importance of not only keeping one’s own home but the surrounding clean as well was understood by all the women. The lack of proper place and sanitation when it came to toilets was the reason for another animated discussion. The need of the children to be trained from the beginning to use the toilets properly was discussed. Lack of personal hygiene of the children was another persistent issue faced by the teachers and was discussed in detail with the mothers. Information on the most common diseases and the ways of spreading was shared. It was in this context that the need for vaccination and ensuring timely immunization of all children was emphasized upon.

Nutrition was another important and oft neglected topic. Though the mothers ensured that the children ate, attention was not paid to ‘what’ they ate. Many children were prone to snacking and eating unhealthy food. The mothers were given information on the kinds of nutrition required for the children and the ways it could be provided though the local food available and with just a little effort.

The meetings were found to be very useful by the mothers and slight changes are being observed by the teachers in the children when they come to the pre school in terms of their hygiene. The Centres are also found to be cleaner on being visited by the team of Prajayatna.

Training materials being used

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Oct 25, 2016
Prajayatna - Early Childhood Care and Education - an update

By Mary Punnoose | Chief Functionary

child listening with rapt attention

A nurturing environment for the children in their formative stage of development (early childhood) is required for them to develop in a holistic manner which will in turn pave the way for them to reach their potential and lead a meaningful life as an adult. There has to be an ecosystem created which will cater to the needs of the children. This is especially so in the lives of the children from economically and socially impoverished communities. This was the intention behind the initiation of the anganwadis – government run pre schools. The responsibilities of providing every child quality care and education in their early childhood (Early Childhood Care and Education – ECCE) becomes the responsibility of all the stakeholders, particularly parents, teachers, community members and the local self governments (Gram Panchayat and Councillors/Corporators).

It is with this objective that Prajayatna is working towards improving the quality of State run Early Child Care Centers by training teachers and parents committees to address education and health care requirements of 1250 children belonging to 50 child care centers situated in the low income areas of Bengaluru in India by building the capability of key functionaries such as the teachers and supervisors.

Processes

In the past one 15 months various processes with the different stakeholders has been implemented. The following are some of the main highlights and some of the changes that is being seen.

Teachers collectives

Six teachers collective meetings have been conducted with the objective of enhancing the skills and competencies of anganwadi teachers towards catering to the care and learning needs of each child attending the center. Teachers collectives have focussed on making them understand the development of a child and the various learning styles that children posses naturally. Moving further teachers have been given several inputs to carry out the center activities, for instance what kind of learning activities can be conducted to develop the abilities in children, how to understand the child and engage them in the activities, importance of group learning activities and how to facilitate them. Learning materials were prepared keeping the children in mind. Working with the parents and the community in order to enable them to support the development of the children and their learning was another important aspect that was dealt with during the collective meetings. These collectives enabled teachers to look at the children and the community with a different lens. Efforts were made to provide onsite support to the teachers in implementing what was being done in the collective. This was done by visits to the Centres and supporting them in making the Centres more child friendly and dynamic.

Supervisors and parents meetings

The above processes have been supplemented with 6 workshops for the supervisors (who are responsible for monitoring the Centres) along similar lines in order to enable them to follow up with the teachers at the Centre level as well. This helped in ensuring that the knowledge of the collective meetings was translated into action in the Centres.

Simultaneously, it was ensured that the parents committee was formed in all the Centres to ensure proper functioning of the Centres. Parents meetings were held to enable the parents committee to understand their role and responsibility in ensuring that the Centres were managed efficiently and their children learning. Issues pertaining to formation of parents committees, centre needs, importance of teachers involvement in the activities of the centre and stakeholders roles and responsibilities in resolving the Centre’s issues has been discussed in the meetings. The community took the responsibility of improving the infrastructure of the centresalongwith ensuring better attendance of the children. This would be done through better participation of the parents.

Impact

As a result of these various processes and follow up at the Centre level, it was seen that the children were more regular and on time to the Centres and most importantly there was more involvement of the teachers with the children. Learning activities take place in the Centres which was not the case earlier. Assistant teachers are also involved in the activities with the children. In the absence of the teachers, they take the initiative to manage the Centre and engage the children. It is also being seen that the parents are more aware of the Centre and interact with the Centres on a more regular basis. Ultimately, children like to come and are learning!

helping one another

parents meeting

teachers developing teaching learning materials

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