Child Education

India recognises education as a fundamental right of a child and has made appropriate provisions in its Constitution to impart the same. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, ensures that every child in the age group 0f 6-14 years has a right to full time elementary education of satisfactory and standard quality in a formal school that fulfils essential norms and standard as per the requirements.

Despite this, as per 2010-11 Census, the dropout rate of children in 6-17 years age in Uttar Pradesh was 10.3 per cent. Many reasons are cited for this high drop out rate.

Lack of interest in studies

Due to economic reasons

Family migrated to another place

Help in domestic work to the parents

Lack of toilets in school premises especially for girls

Distance of school from home

Lack of female teachers in the schools

Early marriage

It is in this backdrop that UPVHA intervened in education sector to send dropout children and never-enrolled children to schools after brushing up their knowledge at the education centres. This intervention was as a part of a large-scale initiative of Rotary India Literacy Mission (RILM) under the name Asha Kiran (Ray of Hope).

The initiative was aimed at sending 1,00,000 out of school children back to the schools. UPVHA worked in two blocks of two districts: Wazirganj block in Badaun district and Gilaula block in Shravasti district. It covered over 3,000 children through 75 Asha Kiran Centres.

The activities so far:

Identification of never enrolled/dropout children from vulnerable communities

Verification of the children by Rotary Club members

Training of all 75 community teachers

Provision of study material for children

Provide necessary supplemental/non-formal education to shore up children’s learning abilities

Counsel and encourage the parents to send their children to regular formal schools

Organise PTA and SMC meetings to mobilise community for active participation in their children’s education

Enrolment of children into schools according to their learning abilities

Monitor the attendance of the child in schools for three months

Outcome

Over 2,867 children were mainstreamed into the government and/or government aided schools. The girls were the biggest gainers of the project.