December 2003

From the Editor's Desk

Hello readers!
Apologies for bringing out this issue late. I hope that the content of this issue will compensate the delay somewhat and you will love and enjoy knowing what we all have been involved in since the past two months. And please let me know what you feel about the newsletter - what is good, what is not so good and how we can improve. Believe me, your opinion matters!!
- Anupama (Editor)

The event in Delhi

There is no denying of the fact that elementary education is a key to all round development of an individual. Unfortunately in India, it has lacked its due share of importance. The fact lays bare when we see some statistics like - 50 million children of the age group 6-14 are out of school, only 42% children are able to complete eight years of elementary education and a mere 16% are able to complete 10 years of education. It won't be right to say that no initiatives have been taken by various Governments, agencies and concerned people across the world to bring about a change.

The world had met in 1990 at Jomtien and in 2000 at Dakar to discuss ways and means for achieving 'Education for All' (EFA). The third high level group meeting on EFA was held from 10th-12th November, 2003 in Delhi this time. An exhibition was organised by UNESCO where many Government departments, NGOs and agencies got to showcase their innovative programmes in the field of education. We were invited to share and display our innovative ventures, primarily highlighting our Nabadisha programme, along with our Lab School at Bigha and our overall activities and main thrust. A lot of brainstorming was done and hard work put by all of us as preparation for the event, since we found it to be a great chance and platform to highlight our work on quality education. The stall had visitors ranging from Government officials, dignitaries, NGO personnel to school children and generated quite a lot of curiosity, interest and admiration. What we came back with after this exhibition was, an enriched heart and mind, seeing and internalising several other efforts and endeavours by other people and the potential promise that holds - varied thoughts and efforts which are working as catalyst of change in the image makeover of education system of our country.

The children's voice

From its very inception, we are committed to work for quality education for all children irrespective of all the differences prevalent in society. Every child does not merely have the Right to Education but rather quality education. The trend of increasing divide between the privileged children and the under privileged children is being more and more manifested in the divisive school system (the Government schools, private schools, etc.) catering to the diverse strata. Of late, we have taken up a campaign to make government more responsible towards to children of this country, in terms of building up an 'educated' citizenry, than being just making them 'literate'. We thought it worthwhile that why not involve children, who are one of the main stakeholders in the school system, in a process to know their viewpoints as well. We organised an inter-school debate on the topic "Common School System - the only solution to remove social inequalities"on 29th November. Students from six different schools actively participated in the debate, speaking for and against the motion. The entire experience was refreshing, since students rather than speaking in proper technical terms, spoke amateurishly, going by their very own perception and what they really believed in. Who won and who lost was not at all important, what was important was the spontaneous and energised participation. The debate was followed by a panel discussion. The issues that were raised that day : the pressure of homework/exams as felt by children; whether superstructural change is enough without a fundamental change of the base; though Common School System is an idea, does it have the chance of practical existence, etc.

Vikramshila's Diary

A group of 11 members of Jan Adhikar Manch (State Alliance of Madhya Pradesh) had come for an exposure visit to Vikramshila for four days in the month of November. One day was spent by them in Bigha, internalising our rural programme. They visited the Titli centre and were very impressed by the activities. All in all, their visit to Kolkata was fruitful and engaging, which helped them develop a clearer perspective about several aspects of education and Vikramshila's innovative interventions and on going back, they formed an Education Resource Group in their state.

An idea which was crossing our mind often was to engage in informal yet meaningful discussions with people from the world of media, academics, etc in order to come out with issues (related to education) that people are concerned of, think seriously and want to talk about. In the last two months, we have arranged two such "shiksha addas" (informal exchange of views). The purpose behind this initiative was primarily to sensitise media people about the ongoing events and matters of consequence and broadly for wider dissemination among people of the happenings and changes which is impacting everyone and need serious reflections.