Prajayatna
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Mission Statement
It has been universally recognised that education is the defining factor that has a bearing on the quality of life of communities across the world. For it goes without saying that to live in and respond to the varied social, political, economic and cultural contexts that encompass us, an individual needs to understand and make meaning of her environment to learn about life. It is believed that these functions of learning are provided by institutions at various levels: the pre-school, school, college, university and other professional bodies /organisations. But the question is, are these educational institutions able to fulfil these functions to the fullest? This question especially pertinent for the public (government) schools and preschools in India. The government schooling system in India is significant and reaches out to more than 70% of the children across the country. Most of the children attending these preschools and schools are from the most backward and marginalized communities. Managed largely by the government, it has turned out to become one huge bureaucratic exercise, and the structure, by design, as is with any centralized system is not able to recognize and respond to local needs and realities with efficiency and effectiveness. This creates a fundamental problem of lack of ownership thus resulting in high dropout rates, low learning levels, poor infrastructure and sometimes lack of teachers and absenteeism. Additionally, there are no dynamic structures or institutionalized processes for and with the community to engage with the system in a sustainable manner across the various levels of governance that could a lead to greater accountability and transparency in the system. All this holds true for the government run preschools of India, namely, the anganwadis, as well. Similarly, the conventional approach towards learning in classrooms has been unable to address concerns related to learning in spite of the various methodologies and techniques tried out in classrooms. Traditionally learning within classrooms has focused on the transfer of information through rote learning of content provided from standardized textbooks. The focus has always been on what children should learn rather than on how children learn. This approach has ignored the development of various capabilities that are relevant for a child and also ignored the innate abilities that are present in any child. The Preschools (Anganwadis) in India are primarily considered as feeding centres rather than spaces for learning. This may be mainly because of lack of awareness of the community on importance of ECCE or lack of competencies of the Anganwadi teachers in the field of ECCE. About 90% of the brain development happens through these 6 years where the neuron synaptic connections grow and strengthen through stimulations and exposures. Research has also indicated that if these early years are not supported by, or embedded in, a stimulating and enriching physical and psychosocial environment, the chances of the child’s brain developing to its full potential are considerably, and often irreversibly, reduced. Hence the importance of ECCE. Yet it is one of the most neglected subjects in the country, both for the community and the government. Prajayatna recognizes that issues faced by government schools and preschools across the country are complex and systemic in nature and needs to be addressed in order for children to have a chance at a more quality and equitable life. From this perspective, Prajayatna understands that the most important aspect that is necessary for continuous improvement in quality and long lasting change is community involvement in the development of schools and preschools. Towards quality in public schools/ preschools, Prajayatna has a holistic approach which works in two broad areas, which are: improving how schools/preschools are managed and enhancing learning within their framework, ie, what schools/preschools deliver In improving how schools and preschools are managed or governed, Prajayatna works with communities, elected representatives and the bureaucracy. Prajayatna endorses a decentralized approach towards the governance of these institutions. A stakeholder ownership of education does not imply mere administrative decentralisation but a democratic process evolved and determined by the community to articulate their needs and expectations (here educational) and arrive at solutions. A political demand for quality education needs to be generated, built from a groundswell of public opinion that creates conditions for increased articulation by citizens in the decision-making process. Towards improving the learning process, the organization attempts to move towards an approach that prioritizes the development of capabilities in children from the present system that is highly information oriented.
About This Cause
Prajayatna, a development organisation, aims to improve the quality of government schools. The initiative attempts to facilitate decentralization of educational governance, through the institutionalization of community ownership and through an approach towards learning where the focus is on the process of ‘how to learn’ and developing the abilities of the children. Prajayatna, which means the 'citizens' initiative', evolved in 2000 as a response to this question, in Karnataka. Its earlier experiences of working with the issue of child labour enabled the organisation to recognise that one of the key causes for children not being enrolled in an early childcare facility or dropping out of school was more due to the lack of engagement of the primary stakeholders with the existing education system. Prajayatna's work with government schools only deepened this understanding further. The organisation currently works in 4 districts in Karnataka, 3 districts in Jharkhand and 2 districts in Uttar Pradesh, reaching out to 550 public schools and 180 public pre-schools, covering 50,000 children Context: It is recognised that school is a reflection of a society's perception or interpretation of its educational needs – an expression of the kind of society one wants to create or live in. It represents a collective consciousness of what kind of a 'present' and 'future' one wants to build as a village, state and nation. Prajayatna believes that to build an institution (school) that represents a perspective of the living system, there has to be a shared vision of what a school means or does to society. In a country like India, a country with a richly varied geographic, social, economic and cultural terrain: here communities practice different religions, speak innumerable languages and have a multiplicity of cultural practices, which has created a kaleidoscopic environment. In this milieu, a shared vision becomes even more important. It is in this context that the very purpose of education needs to be understood. Hence education cannot just be a process where a child is equipped with the mechanics of reading, writing and arithmetic and maybe a foundation for science and social studies.It has to be a process of learning that strengthens people's relationship with their socio-cultural contexts, develops in them a spirit of collaboration and collective decision-making as well as hone their innate potential for creativity and innovation. This is the perspective that needs to be developed in public (government) schools starting right from the preschool stage. Recognizing that numerous issues affecting the government schools such as high student drop-out, low learning levels, poor infrastructure, lack of teacher involvement etc., were not specific to certain areas but manifested as typical patterns across the country, the initiative views various problems as symptoms of a larger systemic issue and primarily, the issue of a complete lack of involvement of communities, whose needs the system is meant to address and the lack of a learning paradigm which built on the children’s abilities and thereby enabling them to live with dignity. Thus to address these issues from a system perspective, the initiative works in two key areas- Education governance (the way schools are designed and managed) and Learning (classroom transactions- what schools deliver). Strategy The initiative attempts to facilitate : A. Decentralization of educational governance- where school development vis -à - vis quality of education is seen as a direct result of community ownership, where local communities can define and contribute much towards developing a vision for education in the country and ensure proper functioning and delivery of quality. B. Redefining the learning perspective - enhancing the quality of the learning process by making it meaningful, enabling and oriented toward developing capabilities in children within the Government schooling structure (from pre-primary onwards). Key Processes A. Decentralisation of education governance 1. Creating a structure for communities to participate – - Shikshana Gram Sabha Shikshana gram sabha is a primary and powerful form of enabling local level direct democracy. This process sees to the participation of parents, teachers, School Committees, local self government (Gram Panchayat) members, youth and women's groups and other interested individuals, to discuss school development and evolve a school plan. These open discussions include not only a presentation and verification of information, but also a community level dialogue on critical areas of concern pertaining to the local school and children's education, necessary action to address these concerns and identification of responsibilities for ensuring the same. A plan is made which encompasses the vision of the community vis-à-vis education. As a primary step towards influencing education governance, the ShikshanaGrama Sabha contextualises the roles, responsibilities and work of the school committees, teachers and elected representatives, thereby ensuring a mechanism of accountability of the school committees to the parent community and most importantly helping strengthen the school committees to function better with the support of the community. This is enabled through the follow-up meetings held with the committees to enhance their institutional capabilities - Institutionalise these structures and in the process build their capabilities to engage with issues of learning. To institutionalise the education governance structure at the local self-government level (Gram Panchayat), joint meetings between the Standing Committee of Education in the local government and the school committees are held. This is a joint meeting of the Standing Committee members, constituent school committees, the supervisor of both the schools and the preschool (Anganwadi) to represent issues at the local self-government (Gram Panchayat) level. A network meeting builds and enables a collective vision of the school and reinforces this vision through the formulation and implementation of the school education plan. This process builds on the mutual strength of these two key stakeholder groups (local self-government and the school committee) and supports institutional building in terms of planning, resource mobilisation, budgeting, sharing of responsibility and also working together as a group. Work with different structures such as the local self-governments at the block and district level to address issues of schools and anganwadis is facilitated to ensure that the issues at the village level are heard and advocated for at the upper layers of governance as well. B. Develop a capability-based approach to learning 1. Kalikayatna- Quality Learning Initiative The approach intends to facilitate and support children's learning in a manner that they can apply what they learn in school to real-life situations. At a primary stage, the approach focuses on 'learning how to learn' which in turn emphasizes building the abilities of children such as to create, evaluate, recall, analyse, remember, understand and apply and to be adaptive learners throughout their lives. The key features of this approach are experiential and collaborative learning, formative assessment, empowerment of teachers and engagement of the community in the learning process. 2. Early Childhood Care and Education The approach of the Early Child Care and Education is intended for a redefinition of the existing perspective of ECCE. This program was based on the all-round early education needs of the child in the areas of learning and development. The program aims at the attainment of the objective by bringing the teachers and community members together to identify the needs and requirements of their children to provide the required support. Their participation is institutionalized by establishing and building the capacities of the local community structures and especially that of the parents to engage in the development of their children. A platform is provided for the teachers in the form of monthly meetings, to enable them to provide a learning environment for the children which will in turn lead to the holistic development of the child. Making education inclusive for all children Issues of children with disabilities have been addressed by Prajayatna in its various community processes by enabling infrastructure development for the schools. Seeing the need to address the issue systemically and ensure true universalisation both in terms of enrolment and learning as well, attention is paid to ensuring inclusive education for all. This is done by creating an ecosystem that is sensitive to the needs of children with disabilities and ensuring that their needs are addressed in a manner that nurtures and enhances their capabilities. Prajayatna envisages a society that enables every child to live with dignity. It aims to facilitate systemic reform towards quality education by institutionalizing processes of community ownership and developing a capability-based approach to learning, to ensure that ‘every’ child is learning.