Formal School Intervention

In the last two decades there has been a spurt of educational interventions in our country - from both government and non-governmental sectors. Almost all of them started out with a concern for quantitative expansion in order to address the issue of access. Recently, even in government interventions there has been a shift in focus to quality as an issue.This is because quality is now being perceived as the most critical factor to address the problems of retention and achievement.

That is why we thought of taking up two pilot projects for improvement of formal schools. One was the UNICEF project, "Reaching the Unreached", of revitalising Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Schools. It was conducted in four schools and was completed in December 2002.

Another pilot project with which we are at present involved is the "Relevant Education" project. We have taken up this initiative in partnership with NIAR (National Institute of Administrative Research), a wing of Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy at Mussoorie. The idea behind this action research project is to develop curriculum innovation at upper primary level. The government is looking for good modules in order to address the problem of drop out. That is why we thought of organising Holiday Camps for under-achieving children studying in formal schools. The camps might be a good means of taking interesting methods of teaching into the formal schools in a non-threatening manner. The ultimate objective of the exercise, therefore, was to improve quality of instruction in formal schools.