Programme
Monthly Report -February, 2010
During February, PDEI reached out to 1.72 lacs children in 5 zones of Delhi through its Community and School based Programs.
Programme Brief
Balwadi
Balwadi is a preschool program for 3-5 years old children which provide school readiness skills through play way method. During February, Pratham reached out to 4,522 children. As per the curriculum, this month's theme for Balwadi's was "Animals and Birds". The theme was divided into 4 parts i.e. Pet animals, Wild animals, Birds and Insects. As per the theme all activities named rhymes, akshar khel, akshar se akshar milana (pairing), recognition of number 1-9, stories, games, letter recognition (Akshar pehchaan), riddles, thumb painting, Paper folding, cutting pasting activity etc. were directed towards informing preschoolers about the same. Apart from this, 197 Pratham volunteers were active in 263 Anganwadi centers engaging 4,930 children. Thus, our pre-school coverage during the month of February was 9,452 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 296 units are operational enrolling 4852 children. Learning center provides support in 4 subjects i.e. Hindi, Environment Science (EVS), Social Studies (SST) and Maths. During February, post testing was conducted in all learning centers. Each learning center has 2 weeks planner and revision of those topics with children which they found difficult.
School Based Library (SBL)
Pratham worked in 659 MCD schools spread across 5 zones thus catering to 1.58 lacs children. Contents of the library program 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 February, Pratham worked on 'Hindi reading' in 396 MCD Schools. In case of curriculum for Hindi, English and Urdu, teacher's mainly worked on a 20 days planner introduced in January and tried to increase the level of children who were at letter, word to story level. For the rest of the children who had reached story level, regular book exchange and library related activities were conducted. In 244 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 4003 children. During February, post testing was conducted in all the schools to assess the impact of Pratham's intervention. In the month of February, 157729 children accessed books. As a part of library related activities 89,030 children read at least 1- 10 books.
Special programme
Women's Literacy programme
Pratham coordinates 2 units of Women's Literacy Program in one of the zones, aiming to make 30 young women literate, these women are aged 15 years or above living in the community.
Events
Visitors from Oxfam India
On 6 February, 2010 CEO of Oxfam India Mrs. Nisha Aggarwal and Mr. Andrew visited Pratham's Learning Center and Balwadi that runs in Zakheera, Karol Bagh which is one of the five zones in which Pratham is working. They interacted with children. Since the Balwadi was having the activities related to the theme of transport, children discussed about traffic lights and sang rhymes related to transport and its modes.
Seminar on Contemporary issues in Global Finance Markets
On 6th February, 2010, Department of Finance, University of Delhi had organized a seminar on the topic "Contemporary Issues in Global Finance Markets". They chose Pratham to be their social partner for this seminar. They invited Mr. Shailendra Sharma, Programme Director of Pratham Delhi as a Guest Speaker to represent Pratham and to give a brief background of the work that Pratham is doing. Issues like recession, post recession scenario, liquidity, financial literacy etc. were taken up by other guest speakers. Mr. Shailendra talked about Pratham and discussed the educational status of children attending primary and elementary schools in India. He also highlighted the need of being a literate as a first step for children towards reaching the stage of financial literacy later in the future.
Story Telling Sessions
On 2nd February, 2010 Pratham participated in a story telling session organized by National Book Trust at children's pavilion during 19th Delhi Book Fair. Pratham organized a story telling session and activities for children. A large number of children participated and drew series in which story is displayed on the chart papers. Another story telling session organized by Association of Writers and Illustrators for children (AWIC) - International Conferences on Children's Libraries- 2010 on 5th and 6th February, 2010 in which Pratham also participated. Mrs. Kuldeep Sandhu narrated a story named "Poori jo kadai se nikal bhaagi" to children using posters and organized several creative activities for children.
Quiz Competition
On 13th February, 2010 a NGO named Nature organized a quiz competition in which students from Pratham participated and won the third prize.
Capacity Building Trainings
During February, NIPCCID invited Pratham to conduct training for professionals working in the field of Preschool Education. On behalf of Pratham, Arshi Naaz and Mrs. Kuldeep Sandhu conducted 3 hour training session on two themes named Physical and Social Development.
From 15- 17th February, Mobile Crèches conducted 3 day training for 35 Balwadi personnel pf Pratham who are assisting Anganwadi in few zones. The main aim of the workshop was to impart and exercise effective communication skills which will further help in establishing community linkages.