SUMMER INTERNSHIP RPORT

DIRECTORATE OF SCHOOL EDUCATION, KASHMIR

KUPWARA (JAMMU AND KASHMIR)

Date (20-05-2016 to 11-07-2016) 7 weeks

ESTABLISHMENT OF PLAY SCHOOLS OR EARLY CHILDHOOD

EDUCATION IN GOVT. SCHOOLS IN DISTRICT KUPWARA

When pre-schoolers goes into formal schooling after finishing early childhood

education, teachers have to start from basic. It means the transition should be a smooth

one. Recently the govt. of Jammu and Kashmir circulated an order that the govt. schools

will have to start the classes for early childhood education. The regular govt. school

teachers will take classes for the early childhood education. The rationale behind the

whole idea was the worry of the school education department and its dwindling number

of children taking admission in govt. schools.

Proposals for the reform of ICDS are currently being considered. With regard to ECE,

among these proposals is one that the demand for pre-school education, and for feeding

the older children, could be met by devolving these responsibilities to the Department of

Education or to local authorities. The DPEP and SSA already deliver pre-school education

services in some districts, and the feeding of four to six-year-olds could become part of

the National Mid-Day Meals Programme. In this manner, more of the AWW’s time could

be freed up for nutrition and health education and growth promotion, increasing the

prospect of achieving better nutrition outcomes. If this kind of reform is not possible,

there should at any rate, be more emphasis given by the managers of primary education

and ICDS to convergence between the two services. The potential benefits of greater

convergence are enormous. (Ward)

Michael Ward is Senior Education Adviser for the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) India

Country Programme, based in Delhi

It is estimated that Anganwadi Workers are spending 39 percent of their time on pre-

school education and in 2003 the Government of India reported that the total coverage

of the program for children in the 3–6 age group was nearly 170 million (MHRD, 2003).

The ICDS program runs Anganwadi centers in villages with a population above 1000 in

selected blocks with a relaxed norm of 700 for tribal areas (Ward) . The National

University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) reports that in January

2006, 17 percent of all schools in rural areas had pre-primary facilities (NUEPA, 2006).

However, the idea, which seems a good one, went into many hurdles which department

of school education Kashmir did not recognise. They are;

1) Govt. schoolteachers not trained to handle the pupil for early childhood education.

2) Complaints about the merger of lower primary pupils with pre-schoolers e.g.

standard 1st till standard 2nd usually merged with the pre-schoolers.

3) Pre-schoolers taught as in formal school going students.

4) What will happen to Anganwadi centres

5) The problem of midday meals and ration with the Anganwadi centres for pre-

schoolers.

6) The tension between the department of social welfare and department of school

education.

7) No thought given to the training of school teacher for the purpose of early

childhood education or hiring qualified teachers to teach pre-schoolers.

8) The problem of having adequate infrastructure or allocation of a separate room in

the school for pre-schoolers was not considered an important one

9) No discussion with the department of social welfare (ICDS) to have further

information regarding the issues of the early childhood education.

There are many more challenges, which are surfacing, but the govt. is not paying any

heed to them. To look into the problems we took a different path to achieve the same

result of providing early childhood education to pre-schoolers. Our idea was like;

By doing so we can minimise many of the challenges faced by the department of

school education Kashmir. In any given village, there are enough Anganwadi centres

and govt. schools. We can club four to five Anganwadi centres (AWC’s) and allocate

them a nearby govt. school. Where Anganwadi workers (AWW’s) will be

teaching/playing with the pre-schoolers and we can minimise the possibility of hiring

new staff. It will not go to add any burden on Anganwadi workers because there is

already a provision of providing four hours of early childhood education daily to pre -

schoolers in the Anganwadi centres. Nevertheless, that provision hardly followed in

the Anganwadi centres.

By clubbing Anganwadi centres for pre-schooling for some time, we will be having

enough pre-schoolers at one place where Anganwadi workers can employed. In doing

so the Anganwadi workers have to follow a systematic line of work for about four

hours of daily duty. Because it is kind of schooling, parents will be eager to send their

children to schools and not to Anganwadi centres for having some kind of snacks. This

process will also help in increasing the nutrition of the pre-schoolers. Because besides

having midday meals at schools pre-schoolers are eligible to have food at Anganwadi

centres also.

Furthermore, all of the Anganwadi workers are women we do not have to worry about

hiring women only staff for the purpose of early childhood education. In addition,

Govt. School

Anganwadi centre & Workers

anganwadi centre & Workers

anganwadi centre & Workers

anganwadi centre & Workers

when children will be in the schools learning with the schools going counterparts will

pick up the habit of going to school and they will not remain a stranger to the

environment of formal schooling.

Perhaps the greater benefit is of the teachers and Anganwadi workers both. There will

be a systematic distribution of the duties and responsibilities. They will learn from

each other. It will also reduce the challenge of providing training to the teachers and

Anganwadi workers. Furthermore, it will boost the morale of the Anganwadi workers

and they will feel more respected in the community (which came in during my

interaction with the Anganwadi workers).

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTIFICATION

There would be an improvement in the social status of Anganwadi workers. As

shifting of early childhood education in a govt. school will not add-on responsibility,

which is already there in the policy framework of govt. In addition, working side by

side with the schoolteachers will bring a sense of prestige and respect. Furthermore,

the children will become habitual to the environment of formal schooling and it will

increase their confidence level. There may be many positive externalities e.g. if there

are four Anganwadi workers going to one school they can distribute time between

them. They can also learn from the teachers and teachers can learn from them about

the habits and nature of the children.

The important change would be that the parents would send their children to govt.

schools because of school offering early childhood education (particularly the poor

families/parents whose children usually remain out of touch with ECE). If some poor

parents are sending their children for pre-schooling in some private school, they can

save the income for any other purpose e.g. food, clothes, health, if the govt. schools

start offering early childhood education.

There would be many economic benefits to the government.

1) Government can save money by not hiring by employing the Anganwadi workers

for pre-schooling.

2) Government can also save money by not constructing new building to start early

childhood education.

3) There will be more coordination between department of social welfare and

department of school education.

4) Children will not miss the nutrition (those who have joined the private offering)

5) In the end, there may be a decrease in dropout rate from the schools.

6) There may be the professionalisation of the job of the Anganwadi workers e.g. as

teachers

NEED FOR INTERVENTION

One particular reason to start this intervention is that the parents’ preference of

sending their children for pre-schooling. Non-availability of early childhood

education in govt. schools, parents prefer private schools, which affects the long-term

decision-making choices of parents of sending their children to private schools.

Because private schools are located in some areas and out of reach for the poor

children. Due to this pattern, which dictates the educational achievements of the

children, and affect the overall societal development (which may be a skewed one).

Furthermore the increasing numbers of dropout from govt. schools particularly the

children those have poorer economic background. The development that are taking

place have enough negative externalities to look into the problem of not having the

arrangement for early childhood education in the govt. Schools. As the selective

process of admission based on income will only marginalise the already marginalised

communities.

Taking into account that govt. schoolteachers not trained to impart the early

childhood education. To look after this challenge of who will do the same? Will

handled by the Anganwadi workers. Also, the belief of the parents, because it makes

sense to send children to school who reached three years of age are more then to send

to Anganwadi centres. Which believed to be only serve nutritional supplements?

Not staying of children in the Anganwadi centres for longer hours is another issue

facing Anganwadi centres. Furthermore, the issue of fake rolls and accusation by the

community members regarding the malpractices in the functioning of Anganwadi

centres also a major issue.

METHODS

Methods required are community meeting where people can discuss the challenges

faced by Anganwadi centres. Where question will asked revolving around education

and nutrition in the Anganwadi centres and schools as well. In addition, the data from

the district social welfare department regarding the rolls and issue of nutritional

supplement not reaching on time to the Anganwadi centres.

There would be surveys of different Anganwadi centres to check if during the visits

children were in the centres or not. There would be some workshops regarding the

coming changes (providing information) for Anganwadi workers and taking their

question to streamline the process of starting pre-schooling.

There would be interviews, organised and unorganised with different stakeholders

like teachers, Anganwadi workers, community leaders and members.

Taking permission from the department and particularly convincing department of

education would be a necessary requirement to start early childhood education in

govt. schools keeping in mind the role of Social Welfare Department i.e. Aanganwadi

workers and of course pre-schoolers.

The decision of starting early childhood education in govt. schools taken this year

only, by the Jammu and Kashmir government. However, the decision taken did not fits

into the current environment of formal schooling, which currently imparted by the

govt. schools. Same teachers will teach (by providing some days of training) is rather

a larger issue.

Looking at the gap created by the decision of the govt. to start ECE in govt. schools by

not having trained teachers and imposition of new responsibilities to complicate the

timetable of regular classes. Because of not being trained for ECE teachers usually mix

pre-schoolers with the regular students in the same room e.g. from pre-schoolers to

first and second standard children usually sits in the same classroom. Furthermore,

there is high chances of child will suffer corporal punishment and lose confidence by

directly introducing her/him to regular education.

I am doing this intervention because I think I have not seen this kind of idea coming

up in the minds of policy makers. Perhaps they do but have not found the right

approach to carry on the challenge of imparting early childhood education.

Furthermore, there is also some literature available supporting the view made me

confident to start this intervention.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFIT

There are two things, which shows that there is demand and urgency for the early

childhood education in the area. First, the official order form Govt. to start early

childhood education in govt. schools (also the rate of dropouts are increasing from

govt. schools). The order came seeing the competition from private schools who are

performing well in spite of not having enough qualified teachers. Second, the

preference of parents to send their three-year-old child to school for early childhood

education. Because of not having early childhood education in govt. schools parents

are sending their children to private schools. The pattern can lead to long term

societal inequalities because it can have effect on decision-making choice of parents

for longer term.

Because the intervention do not require enough investment the cost will be negligible

compared to its benefits.

Take an example of govt. primary school where we had established a play-school in

Govt. primary schools. These schools usually have four rooms. After acquiring land

(including playground) and construction of school it cost Rs. 4 lakhs per room. Which

will be a costly affair for a short span of time in which govt. is trying to ECE in govt.

scholls. The money will be saved by not acquiring and constructing new building (can

be a costly affair at current prices). Suppose if again we want to decorate or paint and

want to purchase teaching-learning material for the play schoolers. It will cost us only

about Rs. 1 lakh (study kits are available at the anganwadi centres also we can use

that). By shifting to schools, we can still have a benefit of Rs. 3 lakhs.

However, the main benefit will be not hiring new staff, and which will not increase

workload on regular teachers at the schools. If we employ anganwadi workers for the

same. Because the govt. will not be hiring new teachers for a completely different job

will going to have many implication in the future for continuing the early childhood

education in the govt. schools.

Pre-schoolers has to go to two places for nutrition purpose

Keeping Department of Social Welfare out is not in the interest of pre -

schoolers. Because the department of social welfare experience should be

taken into account.

There will be wastage of resources of ICDS

The benefits are many some of them are;

Saving on salary by not hiring new teacher, the current salary that stands at Rs.

24,000 for a govt. schoolteacher, which is a saving of Rs. 2, 88,000 a year and can

be invested for any other purpose. Hiring anganwadi workers by not paying any

extra in terms of salaries.

The study kits, provided by the department of social welfare, can work here

instead of for purchasing new study kits. It will be financially intelligent decision

to make use of things, which are already available, and take help of those who can

use material effectively. In this case, the anganwadi workers can be helpful.

It might be possible that the govt. do not wants to establish new play schools in sep arate

structure due to various economic reasons. But if the state govt. wants to stick with the

same policy of starting early childhood education in govt. schools, in coming years it will

become necessary to have complete new approach towards ECE, which the same policy

didn’t offers. The demerit of the policy is that it might not able to solve the problem of

dropouts from govt. schools. Because dropout happens when there is no learning in the

schools. How this will happen in this case? Because it is already known that in govt.

schools some classes usually gets merged, which didn’t offers any initiative to learn in the

same environment. Hence, it will not able to solve the problem of dropouts.

In addition to above if state govt. don’t wants to hire new staf f and keep dependent on

regular teachers. It will also not help for long term. Because the policy which is a word of

mouth (not available as a policy framework kind of document) in the form of an order

from the side of department of school education Kashmir. The order completely ignores

the department of social welfare, where there is lot at stake for the children.

Number of govt. schools in district Kupwara is 1863. Even if we are looking at a minimum

in the future for getting things done, the education department is not in position to

employ even one teacher per school who maybe trained in early childhood education.

Furthermore, there are 302 private registered schools in district Kupwara. If only 50

percent of schools are providing early childhood education and charging an average fees

of Rs. 200 monthly. Poor families are automatically be excluded from the process and

children will miss on nutrition. Hence working with department of social welfare will not

only help children but also state govt. financially. In this case;

1) 1,863 new teachers will be paid an average salary of Rs. 24,000/month each

Serial no. Number of new

teachers to be

appointed

Salary monthly

Rs.

Yearly

expenditure

Rs.

1 1,863 24,000 44,712,000

To incur this all expenditure the education department have to pay from its own

pocket.

On the other hand if state education department collaborates with the department

of social welfare in providing early childhood education in govt. schools. There will

be enough Aanganwadi workers in each govt. school for pre-schooling. In this case

minimum of four Aanganwadi workers in one school, which is more than required.

The benefit of have Aanganwadi workers for the same purpose already discussed.

In addition, financially it is an intelligent choice to have the kind of intervention,

which is less expensive. Furthermore, the department of school education don’t

need to pay any salary to Aanganwadi workers. Because Aanganwadi workers

comes under the department of social welfare.

Serial no. No of Aanganwadi

workers/centres

Monthly salary

Rs.

Yearly

expenditure

Rs.

1 2,400 3,000 7,200,000

First, the department of social welfare incurs the expenditure. Secondly, there is a

choice in appointment of Aanganwadi workers for pre-schooling, due to their

availability. Thirdly, it will pave a way for further integrating education policy on

the line of health policy.

As it is a bridge intervention between department of school education and department of

social welfare. It requires no further huge investment in terms of money. Because many

of things already available which we are putting to use. Like employing Aanganwadi

workers instead of hiring new teachers for early childhood education. Here it should be

noted that hiring new teachers for the same demands time and probably huge

investment. Many of the merits for hiring Aanganwadi workers i already mentioned in

the proposal. The intervention can be started in a month. Because the intervention is

based on the infrastructure which is already available. Regarding the issue of

sustainability of the intervention there might be some apprehension at first. However, at

the same time the department of school education is not equipped to handle early

childhood education. Instead, the department is following the orders given by the state

govt. To achieve results on the papers is not going to help pre-schooler in the long run

and cannot able to check the quality of education being imparted to the children. Because

the sustainability of the same project applied differently (suppose not employing

Aanganwadi workers and ECE imparted by school teachers) is itself in many questions.

The intervention keeps quality of ECE in mind, which will reduce the dropout from govt.

schools. As oppose to the policy laid down by the govt., which rather mismatches to the

ground reality and again become a number issue on the papers.

Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

PROJECT SUMMARY INDICATORS DATA RISKS / ASSUMPTIONS

Goal - 80% increase in

the number of

pre-schooler

taking admission

in 25 govt.

schools within 3

years.

- Percentage

of pre-

schoolers

continuing

on to govt.

primary

schools.

- Comparison

of ECE and primary school enrolment record.

- Reduce overall

dropout rate of

children from

govt. schools,

District

Kupwara, J & K

- Percentage

of pre-

schoolers

taking

admission

outside govt.

schools

- School

record of

pre-

schoolers.

Outcomes Improve reading proficiency among pre-schooler by 60% within 3 years for smooth transition to regular education

Reading proficiency among pre-schooler and those who have joined regular schooling after ECE

Six monthly reading test using the standard assessment tool (which is applicable anywhere in the country.)

Improved reading proficiency provides self-confidence to stay in school.

Outputs 1) 600 pre-

schoolers

started ECE in

govt. schools

Number of AWW’s who are involved in ECE and helping pre-schoolers.

ECE attendance record

Children are interested in ECE and learning games.

2) 600 pre-

schoolers have

increased the

their proficiency

Number of children who can read alphabets and numbers.

Survey of children conducted after each quarter

Children apply what they learn.

Activities 1) Employ 100

Aanganwadi

workers for the

purpose of ECE

Number of AWW’s going to schools.

Record of joining the duty.

AWW joined ECE to enhance their prestige and interested in ECE and are better equipped to handle ECE than regular teachers

2) Use the 100

study kits from

AWW and other

material from

education

department for

pre- schooling

Number of kits being used

Wear and tear record of study kits.

AWW with low proficiency are interested to enhance their proficiency.

Children are using study kits

3) Training 200

AWW to prepare

them for ECE

Number of AWW participating

Training participation record.

AWW are interested to attend training and capable of handling ECE.

Special thanks to directorate of school education for this opportunity and various

departments of district Kupwara for their pro-activeness towards the cause of education.

Help received from department of social welfare Kupwara particularly district social

welfare officer Mumtaz sir for his collaboration in the intervention. In addition, the help

and advice from PMRDF Shaheid Chowdry sir who was also seeing the overall

development of the intervention was of immense helpful on every step. Pro-activeness of

district commissioner Shri Rajeev Ranjan that worked as motivation for me through the

whole process of this intervention.

I would like to thank whole district administration of Kupwara for their help and

believing in us towards the change in education in district Kupwara. One cannot forget

the Aanganwadi workers, their all-time presence on the duty and their belief in change in

education scenario of Kupwara.

Bibliography MHRD. (2003). MHRD (2003b). Early childhood Care and Education. An overview,. New Dehli: MHRD.

NUEPA. (2006). District Information System for Education, NUEPA. New Delhi: national university of education and administration.

Ward, M. (n.d.). Rural Education.

Inputs - Trainer

- Money

- Material for

demonstration

- Other inputs like

computer, for

presentation

- Study kits

- Room allocation

for ECE in

schools

- Workshops

IFTIKHAR HUSSAIN SHAH

MA DEVELOPMENT

AZIM PEMJI UNIVERSITY, BANGALORE