Programmes

Monthly Report -January, 2010

Through its Community and School based Programme, PDEI reached out to 1,83,854 children in 5 zones of Delhi during January

Programme Brief

Balwadi

Balwadi is a preschool program for 3-5 years old children which provides school readiness skills among children through play way method. During January, Pratham reached out to 4,616 children. As per the curriculum, this month’s theme for Balwadi’s was “Transport/ Yatayat ke Saadhan”. As per theme all activities i.e. rhyme, games etc. were directed towards informing preschoolers about the same. Apart from this, 197 Pratham volunteers are active in 264 Anganwadi centers engaging 4,938 children. Thus, our pre-school coverage during the month of January was 9,554 children.

Community Based Center-Learning Center and Model Learning Center

PDEI has set up community based centers to provide learning support to children of Std. III-V who are lagging behind and whose parents cannot afford private tuition. Total 301 units are operational enrolling 5001 children. Learning center provides crash classes i.e. for children who can't read and content classes which include 4 subjects i.e. Hindi, Environment Science (EVS), Social Studies (SST) and Maths for children who can read. During January, number of crash classes reduced considerably which shows that numbers of children who can read fluently have increased and then these students were bridged to their school textbooks with our content classes. In Hindi curriculum emphasis this month has been on concepts like "anulom-vilom shabd, Prayvachi shabd, nibhand etc". Similarly in case of Maths emphasis has been given to basics like fraction, measurement etc. In case of EVS and SST, teachers are teaching themes in a story form which are extracted from the textbooks and also use various forms of activities thus making it easy for children to understand and learn.

School Based Library (SBL)

Pratham worked in 660 MCD schools spread across 5 zones thus catering to 1.67 lacs children. Contents of the library programme include reading pedagogy in Hindi, English (schools where more than 80% children in Std III-V can read Hindi fluently), and Urdu (in Urdu medium schools) apart from book distribution and related activities. In January, Pratham worked on Hindi reading in 394 MCD Schools. As per curriculum for Hindi, English and Urdu, refresher trainings were conducted for teachers and 20 days planner has been introduced with the aim of increasing the level of children who were at letter, word or story level. For the rest of the children who have reached story level, regular book exchange and library related activities were conducted. In 246 schools, PDEI conducted English Reading and conversation activities because more than 80% children in Std. III-V in these MCD schools can read Hindi fluently. Similarly, 19 schools are Urdu medium where PDEI is using Urdu reading pedagogy and catering to 4181 children. In the month of January, 166071 children accessed books. As a part of library related activities 1,20,964 children read at least 1- 10 books. PDEI also supported 89 schools in preparing children of Std IV-V for the scholarship exams with the help of 176 volunteers. This initiative is helping 3058 children. Apart from that, PDEI has also set up 8 units in its 2 Learning centers to help children prepare for their scholarship exam.

Special programme

Women's Literacy programme

Pratham coordinates 2 units of Women's Literacy Programme in one of the zones of PDEI, aiming to literate 30 young women aged 15 years or above living in the community.

Events

On 14th January, Legislative Assistants of US Congressmen involved in Foreign aid polices visited Pratham. Dr. Rukmini Banerji, Director ASER Center, Mr. Shahid Mahdi, Managing Trustee Pratham Delhi Trust, Ms. Indira Yadav, CEO Pratham Delhi and Mr. Shailendra Sharma, Programme Director, Pratham Delhi briefed them about organization's work. Sanna Billestedt, a Swedish volunteer from Price Waterhouse coopers along with Shipra Sharma, a Pratham functionary has worked on the theme of "Creativity and Sensitivity towards differently-abled people" and took sessions with children of one of Learning Center in Civil Lines zone. The aim of the sessions was to introduce children to lateral thinking and also to sensitize them towards differently-abled children. In total 32 sessions were carried out till early February.