Teach India Campaign

Educating Women and the Impact on Literacy

2011-05-28T04:45:00.000-07:00

Surrey based Bikkar Singh Lalli writes "India Must Educate Women To Reduce Population And Raise Healthy Children". Some interesting points from the article:

According to the latest census data, the adult literacy level in India, has reached 74 percent, an increase of 9 percent from the last census.
However, there are still about 260 million illiterate adults in India compared to 70 million in China.
Fifty percent of world’s “hungry” are living in India.
It is a matter of national shame that, in spite of over 9 percent annual growth in GDP, every fourth Indian is hungry, every third Indian women is anaemic and every third child is underweight and stunted.
The degree to which child marriage is practised in India is more than double the figure for Pakistan. A 2011 date sheet called “World’s Women and Girls”, released by Washington based Population Reference Bureau, shows that 47 per cent of women between the age of 20 and 24 were married by 18. This is higher than the average for South Central Asia (45%). Even in progressive states like Gujarat and Maharashtra the parents marry off their daughters at an early age.
According to a special edition of UNICEF’s State of the world Children, issued in Nov. 2010, while globally, annual number of deaths of children under five has fallen from around 12,5 million in 1990 to an estimated 8.8 million in 2008, the mortality rates in India remain unacceptably high, with 5,0000 children dying every day due to preventable causes.
According to the report, the only good news for India is that fewer children under five are dying as the national mortality rate has fallen from 117 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 72 in 2007.
The Hindu, May 11: “Delhi has 50, 000 street children- the study done between July 12 and August 28, 2010 – has revealed that one out of every five of the street children was involved in rag picking-this was followed bystreet vending (15.18 per cent), begging (15 per cent). Thirty nine of the street children slept in slums, 46 six per cent in open or public places, and only four per cent slept in shelters provided by non-governmental organizations. Nearly 22 per cent of those surveyed said that they used drugs”.

Mr. Lalli's conclusion:

The best long term solution to tackle the horror of high mother and child mortality is not found in hospitals, but in schools. Thus, India must start vigorously to empower girls with education. An educated girl delays marriage and think of a smaller and planned family.

Amen!

Literacy Challenges

2011-05-28T04:31:00.000-07:00

Antara Dev Sen shares her views on Literacy challenges in the Deccan Chronicle:

We need to look not only at quantity, but also the quality of school education.
More than a quarter of schools do not have proper buildings or drinking water.
Half do not have girls’ toilets.
Most do not have proper teachers.
Teacher absenteeism rages.
Allotments for ICDS and MDM schemes are inadequate and do not always reach students.
And endemic class, caste and gender discriminations spawn systematic deprivation of large sections of society, institutionalising disparity in educational achievements.

Hmmmn....So, what are the solutions? !! Lot of work to do!

The Literacy Project

2011-05-28T01:15:00.000-07:00

Studying various Literacy initiatives.

Some pointers from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_India:

Mizoram: The government identified illiterates and organized an administrative structure that engaged officials and community leaders, and manned by "animators" who were responsible for teaching five illiterates each
Tamil Nadu took an approach to promoting literacy based on free lunches for schoolchildren, "ignoring cynics who said it was an electoral gimmick and economists who said it made little fiscal sense. 20 million receive free lunches in Indian schools every day, making it the largest school meal program in the world
Kerala undertook a "campaign for total literacy in Ernakulam district in the late 1980s," with a "fusion between the district administration headed by its Collector on one side and, on the other side, voluntary groups, social activists and others." On February 4, 1990, the Government of Kerala then replicated the initiative on a statewide level, launching the Kerala State Literacy Campaign. First, households were surveyed with door-to-door, multistage survey visits to form an accurate picture of the literacy landscape and areas that needed special focus. Then, Kala Jathas (cultural troupes) and Saksharta Pad Yatras (Literacy Foot Marches) were organized to generate awareness of the campaign and create a receptive social atmosphere for the program. An integrated management system was created involving state officials, prominent social figures, local officials and senior voluntary workers to oversee the execution of the campaign.

Pointers on challenges:

Extensive impoverishment, entrenched hierarchical social divisions and the lack of correlation between educational attainment and job opportunities are often cited in studies of the hurdles literacy programs face in Bihar.
Children from "lower castes" are frequently denied school attendance and harassed when they do attend.
In areas where there is no discrimination, poor funding and impoverished families means that children often cannot afford textbooks and stationery.
When children do get educated, the general lack of economic progress in the state means that government jobs are the only alternative to farm labor, yet these jobs, in practise, require bribes to secure - which poorer families cannot afford.
This leads to educated youths working on the farms, much as uneducated ones do, and leads parents to question the investment of sending children to school in the first place.
Bihar's government schools have also faced teacher absenteeism, leading the state government to threaten withholding of salaries of teachers who failed to conduct classes on a regular basis.
To incentivize students to attend, the government announced a Rupee 1 per schoolday grant to poor children who show-up to school.

That does give some idea. Now, onto taking some actions!

Karadi Tales

2010-02-02T17:54:00.000-08:00

ACK Media has been generating some very creative content in the area of Audio Books for children.

Karadi Tales, by ACK Media, was launched in December 1996, featuring Naseeruddin Shah as Karadi, the bear.

Later more artistes were associated - like Girish Karnad, Usha Uthup, Nandita Das, Nassar, Manna Dey, Udit Narayan, SP Balasubramaniam, and Shankar Mahadevan.

Fun Schooling

2009-09-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

Wonderful results posted by Jennifer Carole at I Must be Doing Something Wrong, This is Too Much Fun:

At the pool, I was grading Katie's work (grading is a weird word, I guess reviewing, circling, commenting, questioning), and I got a little thrill. I felt so close to her. For the first time (maybe ever), I was truly understanding how she was thinking and how she made mistakes. I decided not to mark things wrong but rather simply circle them to try to understand why she answered the way she did. When we reviewed her answers later in the day, I found she sometimes goes too fast and doesn't get the whole question.

In one case, we realized her answer was correct even though it differed from the answer key.

The result was Katie felt way better about her work as she understood why she made the mistakes she made and that she could have a "right" answer even though the book said it was wrong. Very empowering. Overall, I have to say the process is truly powerful and by having us work together to review her work has put us on the same team.

Touched! Moved! Inspired!

Internet Resources for Kids

2009-05-04T06:01:00.000-07:00

Recently, I discovered Kidzui - the internet browser for kids with features like parental control.

It is an amazing tool and my daughter loves the experience.

On other internet resources: For Coloring fun for kids, checkout free coloring sheets at (secret guilt: I love sketching & water colors!):

http://www.freecoloringsheets.net/

http://coloringbookfun.com/

http://www.coloring.ws/

Telecom Operators in HDFC Bank Scholarship Program CHARGE PREMIUM RATES TO STUDENTS

2009-02-04T01:03:00.000-08:00

HDFC Bank has launched a national level scholarship program to give out "over 5000 Scholarships ranging from Rs. 2,500 to Rs. 10 Lakh amounting to Rs. 1.5 crore, to students from the 4th to the 9th standard."

A Judges panel will choose the winners, the evaluation criteria being:

a. Academics – Last 2 years performance in school
b. Extracurricular activities and Sports – Competitions won in intra-school, inter-school, state level and national level
c. Final written tests

Last date for registration 18th Feb. 2009; for more details, mail meritus@hdfcbank.com.

A set of Frequently Asked Questions is available at HDFC Bank Meritus Scholarship.

Look at following two questions:

What are the call charges to take IVR test?
Premium call charges would be applicable to take the IVR test. Rates are different for each service provider. The same is mentioned in the table below.

Operator	IVR number	Price in Rs. per minute	Availability
AIRCEL	505101012	6	South and North East
AIRTEL	505101012	6	National
BPL	505101012	6	Mumbai
IDEA	505101012	6.99	National
RELIANCE	505101012	6	National
TATA	505101012	6	National
TOUCHTEL (Airtel Fixed Line)	505101012	6	National
VODAFONE	505101012	6	National
BSNL (Landline)	1255512	2.4	National
BSNL (Mobile)	1255512	5	National
MTNL (Mobile)	1255512	5	Mumbai and Delhi
MTNL (Landline) - Delhi	12555	2	Delhi
MTNL (Landline) - Mumbai	127777	2	Mumbai

How much time would it take to complete the IVR test?
If a participant answers all the questions correctly in first attempt, they should finish the IVR test in ten minutes.

Why the "Premium call charges"? Is HDFC sponsoring STUDENTS?

Or, is HDFC sponsoring Telecom Operators?

Playfulness as an educational tool

2009-01-14T23:37:00.000-08:00

Johan Huizinga (who wrote Homo Ludens, or "Man the Player," in 1938) suggested that "play is primary to and necessary (though not sufficient) condition of the generation of culture".

Playfulness can be a great educational tool to help children enjoy (and easily retain) learnings. Teachers can adapt many games for teaching most of the subjects. What could be some examples? Let us do a quick think:

http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Flags-of-All-Nations
http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Pass-the-Parcel: At each turn, the student can be asked to do an activity: explain a concept, recite a poem, etc.
http://www.group-games.com/ice-breakers/homemade-pictionary-game.html
http://www.group-games.com/stationary-games/hot-seat.html (there can be a five-minute hot seat every day, conducted in a fun manner so that students want to be really at the hot seat)
Dumb Charade (use relevant subject instead of movies)
A quick round of Rapid Fire Quiz (First to raise hand gets to answer)

Handing out gifts for the winners can do wonders. Children love gifts! Even if it is an eraser or a pencil or simply a "star" drawn on the hand.

What would be the impact if more and more teachers play similar games to teach as many subjects as possible in this manner?

Actually, playfulness has a deeper impact. As Hector Rodriguez shares in The Playful and the Serious: An approximation to Huizinga's Homo Ludens:

The purpose of playful learning is not to improve the "effectiveness" of teaching but to encourage a profound rethinking of the essential nature of its methods and subject matter.

A report "Playfulness-based Design in Educational Games: A perspective on an Evolutionary Contest Game" cites:

When players are interested in something, it keeps them engaged, and when their attention is on one thing, they are described as playful (Eysenck & Keane, 2000).Webster and Martocchio (1992) define playfulness as the device that attracts players’attention and involves them during their play.

Huizinga said:

Let my playing be my learning, and my learning be my playing.

Amen!

Museums, Fun and Education

2008-10-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

Bharat reminds me how Museums are a powerful tool for education and it is sad that many Museums in India are in a sad state of affairs.

So, let us revisit Museums' role in education:

Prabhas Kumar Singh quotes John Falk & Lynn (1992), who had extensively studied museum education in U.S.A, India, U.K and many other countries:

The information a visitor receives during a museum visit tends to bear a ‘contextual map’. The museum visit represents a collection of experiences rather than a single unitary phenomenon.

Any information obtained during the museum visit is likely to include social related, attitude related, cognitive related and sensory related association.

These associations will become embedded in memory altogether with the result that anyone facet of these experiences can facilitate the recall of the entire experience.

Thus Museums are rather a source of intellectual stimulation and entertainment.

Exhibition halls, properly arranged secondary collections, labels, guided tours, traveling exhibitions, school class visits, loan services to the schools, training courses to the teachers, illustrated lectures, motion pictures, film trips and publications, etc. are the various means which constitute the educational activities in a museum.

There are many organizations, projects and budgets, but no ENTHUSIASTS among those who run these initiatives!

For example, National Council of Science Museums (NCSM), an autonomous society under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India (formed 1978), administers 27 science centres/museums/planetariums spread all over India.

The Delhi unit is National Science Centre , www.nscdelhi.org, (Pragati Maidan, Near Gate No.1).

Its various VARIOUS INDOOR & OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES include:

An interesting project : Virtual Museums as Innovative Tool for Adult Education (VMIT)

Pay MORE to Teachers

2008-10-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

It is well known that most people avoid teaching as a profession (usually it is the last resort.)

The United Nations has reiterated that "Low salaries, lack of job security, inadequate training and overcrowded classrooms have combined to deter many willing and eligible people from becoming teachers....The shortage of qualified teachers is one of the biggest challenges to achieving the Education for All goals.”

How can we encourage talented people to take up the teaching profession?

First thing, of course, is to pay them more. But, what else?

What ALL do we need to do to CAUSE a world-wide revolution in education?

How can we create a powerful context for people to CHOOSE teaching as a first-preference profession?

हे शिक्षक जागो!

2008-09-27T04:52:00.000-07:00

हर बच्चा एक चंचल कन्हैया है,
खूबसूरत सपनों की सुगन्धित पुरवैया है।
बाहर से कच्ची मिटटी का ढेला है,
किंतु भीतर असीम आत्मबल का मेला है।

हे शिक्षक जागो! अपने कर्तव्य से मत भागो,
इन बच्चों से ही देश का भविष्य दिव्य है।
इसलिए इनके बुनते हुए सपनों को संवारों,
यही तुम्हारा धर्म है, और यही राष्ट्र-सेवा है।

Ekal Vidyalaya

2008-09-21T10:39:00.001-07:00

Ekal Vidyalaya: "A charitable trust that initiates, supports, and runs non-formal one-teacher schools (popularly known as Ekal Vidyalayas) all over the country. With the participation of numerous non-profit trusts and organizations, this program has now become the greatest non-governmental education movement in the country."

Vision: To banish illiteracy from the face of tribal India by providing free, non-formal education through a People-Movement.

Mission: The Ekal Vidyalaya movement aims to help eradicate illiteracy from rural and tribal India by 2011. To date, Ekal Vidyalaya is a movement of over 24,006 teachers, 5,000 (Approximately) voluntary workers, 20 field organizations (scattered in 20 Indian states), and 8 support agencies as on December 2007.

Join as a Volunteer here.

Sponsor a School here.

Teach Children to Draw Animals

2008-09-12T05:14:00.000-07:00

Here is great site to help children learn to draw a variety of animals:

How to Draw It :

How to draw animals from pears
How to draw sheep
How to draw a parrot
How to draw an owl
How to draw a dachshund
How to draw a frog
How to draw a hen
How to draw a rooster
How to draw a pig
How to draw a goat
How to draw a cow
How to draw deer
How to draw ducks
How to draw birds
How to draw snails
How to draw a cocker spaniel
How to draw a poodle
How to draw a squirrel
How to draw a koala bear
How to draw a rabbit
How to draw kittens
How to draw bears
How to draw horses
How to draw a crocodile
How to draw a porcupine
How to draw an opossum
How to draw a seahorse
How to draw a swan
How to draw a whale
How to draw a camel
How to draw a kangaroo
How to draw a giraffe
How to make alphabets into animals
How to draw lions
How to draw tigers
How to draw a dinosaur
How to draw a walrus
How to draw penguins
How to draw a rhinocerus
How to draw a hippopotamus
How to draw a peacock
How to draw an angelfish
How to draw elephants
How to draw centaurs
How to draw a unicorn
How to draw a griffin
How to draw an octopus

Which Disney Princess are you?

2008-09-12T02:44:00.000-07:00

Bharat (who has an eight year old daughter) had shared a fun link (Disney Princess) for my seven year old daughter, Aditi.

Aditi had been exploring the site for the last few and days and today she stumbled upon the 5-Question Personality Quiz "Which Disney Princess are you?"

It was amusing see my daughter choose among the various options and finally read her result: You're are most like Belle:

You are loving and giving and can always see the good in others. You love to read and spend time with friends.

Very interesting for a 5-Question personality test!

What can schools do to help students dream bigger?

2008-07-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon professor and alumnus, died on July 25 of complications from pancreatic cancer.

One of the questions put up to him was (10 Questions for Randy Pausch):

What can schools do to help students dream bigger?

His answer:

All universities ought to do a better job
of encouraging students to take courses outside of their major.
Dreams come from broadening your horizons and
rubbing elbows with different kinds of people.

Watch his Famous Last Lecture on YouTube. Download the transcript [.pdf].

WAH! Empowering Rural India. One Child at a Time.

2008-07-22T05:57:00.000-07:00

Work An Hour 2008: Asha for Education has launched the 11th edition of its flagship online fundraiser Work An Hour. From July 15th to September 15th, you are invited to donate to 15 very special projects in need of funding to help educate underprivileged children in India.

The concept is simple "Participants are asked to symbolically Work an Hour towards the cause of children's education by donating an hour's worth or more of their salary."

Some highlights:

Donors will have the ability to give to a project of their choice.
First WAH campaign started in 1998, raised over $30,000 from close to 700 donors. Last year, WAH raised over $140,000 with a donor base of over 1,250 participants.
Projects chosen in the past included a wide range of education initiatives, such as educating slum children, supporting schools for the disabled and non-formal education centers, educating children of sexworkers, mitigating child labor etc.
This year's campaign addresses the empowerment of rural and tribal communities & centered around, Empowering Rural India. One Child at a Time.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE.

Youth at Rescue!

2008-07-20T21:42:00.000-07:00

Can Youth Save Our World ?: Alexander M Zoltai writes about the story of The World’s Youngest Principal - 17-year-old Zhang Yong and throws up some very powerful questions!

How do you think youth can be helped best to understand the world?

How do you think adults can be educated to accept the power and creativity of youth?

As we ponder over these, Alex shares a few inspiring quotes, one of them being:

“The cause of universal education deserves the utmost support,
for no nation can achieve success unless education is accorded all its citizens.
Such an education should promote
the consciousness of both the oneness of humanity
and the integral connection between humankind and the world of nature.
By nurturing a sense of world citizenship,
education can prepare the youth of the world
for the organic changes in the structure of society
which the principle of oneness implies.”
Bahá’í International Community, 1992 June 06, Earth Charter

Read it all at Our Evolution.

Teaching Methods

2008-07-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

Teaching Methods: An interesting list of suggestions by Abraham Maslow on teaching children:

* Be authentic.
* Transcend their cultural conditioning and become world citizens.
* Find their vocation and right mate.
* Know that life is precious.
* Be good and joyous in all kinds of situations.
* Learn from their inner nature.
* See that basic needs are satisfied.
* Refresh their consciousness; appreciate beauty and other good things in life.
* Understand that controls are good, and complete abandon is bad.
* Transcend trifling problems
* Grapple with serious problems such as injustice, pain suffering and death
* Be good choosers
* Be given practice in making choices, later allowing choices in their religious beliefs.

Want to add to this list?

Should you volunteer, or support financially?

2008-07-17T01:09:00.000-07:00

How do you deal with children begging on the streets?

Nandita Das shares:

Children begging in the streets, for instance – that’s one issue that I have not sorted out in my mind, yet. I don’t know whether I should give alms and encourage begging. I also know that is not going to change the situation. But then, am I doing anything else in lieu of not giving a tenner? When I see them at traffic lights, I feel that at least I should make eye contact, talk to them. Many of my friends keep telling me, ‘Don’t talk to them’, ‘Don’t even look at them. You are asking for trouble.’ But I try to connect with them. I make faces, talk to them... that is a moment of lightness in their lives, and, as I have realised, in mine too.

I don’t undermine monetary contribution, because there is such an unequal distribution of money in this world. It is important that people contribute financially too. But being involved, volunteering to give some time, apart from money, often enriches one’s own life.

If, as a human being, one wants to grow and be more sensitive, there’s nothing like giving time and creating those experiences for oneself.

What is your take?

How would you like to contribute towards education of underprivileged children?

Inclusive Education

2008-07-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

Teach India: 'Don't weed out kids, work them in' : Amol Gupte, writer and creative-director of Taare Zameen Par, has very strong views on overhauling the Indian Education System. He says:

An Inclusive education, to me,
is one that does not practice selective exclusion—
weeding out children on the basis of unreasonable milestones.....,
and I am shocked by the way
the education system systematically and selectively
denies children with special needs access to the classroom.
What people forget is that
the speed of the herd is not determined
by the fastest but the slowest in the pack.

On, what would he like to change?

A total overhaul of the curriculum.
I would like to see a more holistic curriculum,
where the focus is on knowledge not scores.
Besides, I would like to replace rote learning
with subjective knowledge that would benefit a child much more.

Hmmn...that is lot work! Let us get going!

Sign up for the 'Teach Neta' campaign

2008-07-12T22:42:00.000-07:00

"My theory is that this whole campaign is not about Illiteracy Hatao,
but about hataoing ethically illiterate politicians.
I suspect that 'Teach India' is secretly about teaching our leaders a lesson,
creating a huge mass of empowered citizens
who will be able to sternly order them,
'Get out of the ruling class!'; 'Stand in the corner!'; 'Stand on the bench.
No, not on the Opposition Benches!'"

But, what will you REALLY TEACH & IMPART?

2008-07-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

But, what will you REALLY TEACH & IMPART?:

"BUT, ARE YOU REALLY AWARE OF THEIR WORLD?
WHAT ARE THEIR REAL ISSUES?
Back home OR back on the streets WHAT ARE THEY UP AGAINST?
A hostile world?
Scared Parents (or, worse, abusive parents) ?
How can they experience freedom from such severe conditioning?"

Teach India

2008-07-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

Teach India: Teach India aims to support the education of underprivileged children....

DONATE SOMETHING MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAT FUNDS.......

YOUR TIME

HOW MUCH TIME do you HAVE for underprivileged children?