Active Blogs | Popular Blogs | Recent Blogs A School is a place where each one of us have learnt to live and graduated in to the world to become what we are today and what we become tomorrow. The simple word "My school" sends most of us, rather all of us tumbling down the memory lane with loads of nostalgic images and childhood playfulness.
There are 3 million Street children in India, who have never tasted the sweetness of alphabets. It is not just missing the school that affects the child and the nation as a whole but the childhood and learning at the tender age that is really a matter of grave concern.
A mothers lap becomes the first school and teachers' company the second, it can be under a tree, in a community hall or under a thatched roof. It is here that an individual is molded in to a better or whatever citizen of tomorrow. The school infrastructure and morale of the teacher who used to be the nucleus of the village is fast dwindling. Vandemataram Foundation wishes to contribute in the development of the children with help from Community and the teachers, making learning fun.
Situation grave:
Nearly 1.4 crore children are out of school; this situation is especially worse in Bihar, Rajashtan and Jharkand, where 10% or more of school-age children are not enrolled.
The gender gap in the percentage of children out of school, however, has dropped. In 2001, it was estimated that 2 out of 3 dropouts were girls, but this study finds that only a little more than half (52-55%) of the children out of school are girls.
In three out of four schools visited by volunteers collecting data, the teachers were present, as they are expected to be. In several states, all the teachers assigned to surveyed schools were present. Unexpectedly, however, teacher absenteeism was high in Kerala, where 3 out of 10 schools visited did not have any teacher present.
The really worrisome findings from ASER relate not to attendance and demographics, but to learning. The tests of reading ability were quite simple (a short paragraph at the grade 2 level), but even then 35% of children aged 7-14 could not pass this test, and 60% of the children could not read a simple story, also at grade 2 level. This situation was in fact worse in states like Tamil nadu and Gujarat, where the usual indicators (school availability, enrolment, teachers, etc.) are all good. Students in Bihar and Chatisgarh fared better, despite really poor education infrastructure indicators for their states.
(Source: PRATHAM Annual study of Education Report-2006, ASER)
Over 79% of the out-of-school children belong to the rural areas, SC/ST children account for nearly 11.5 % of the total out-of-school children. The most common cause for remaining out of school was due to household work, taking care of siblings and working to improve the family income.
The drop-out rates in Mahabubnagar, Medak, Warangal, Nizamabad (above 50%) and Nalgonda (above 40%) are very high and needs urgent attention. The Dropout rate wavers from 19 % to 36% depending up on the class and poverty level of the child's family.
Visit VF at:- http://www.vandemataramfoundation.com/
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