Street Corners on Right to Education Act-2009

 

Meeting on RtE act-09 in Kolsur



          13 Dec, 2012:  A street corner meeting was held on Right To Education ( RtE) Act, 2009 at the adjacent area of Kolsur Gram Panchayat. The resource persons were two local teachers as well as the Berachampa Circle High School RtE Act-09 and the Barachampa Circle Primary School RtE Act-09, respectively, The Secretary, Kolsur High School, Local Shiksha Bandhu, Librarian, Ex- teacher and the recipient of National award, Amarendra Nath Das and many other retired teachers and educationist were also present in that meeting. On behalf of The West Bengal Education Network (WBEN), Susmita Chanda and staff of Swanirvar were also present. The meeting was started at 3pm with a group performance (stick dance) of the students of Swanirvar Primary school, Chandalati. Then the speakers expressed their opinions and different aspects of the RtE act, 2009 passed by the Indian Parliament. They also expressed the pros and cons and also told the audience how the common people would be benefited through it. They also expressed the roles and duties of the schools/ teachers / CBOs mentioned in the act. The meeting was ended at 7pm. Two similar meetings were also held on the same topics on 16^th Dec, 12 at Beliakhali and Chandalati villages.

Reported By:

Souren Sen

KKB Team, Swanirvar

PROMOTION OF 'SAHITYA SABHA' BY SWANIRVAR



SAHITYA SABHA IN FATULLAPUR SCHOOL

             Swanirvar started its Primary Education Department with a vision - "Evolve a more effective model for primary education (class I to IV, 5-10yrs age group)". Beside the bookish text memorize, we always encourage our students in different extra-curricular activities, like singing, dance, drama, recitation etc. From the time of inception, there were some cultural activities in our centres. On the other hand, we also send our teachers in different trainings/ workshops / symposiums and exposures to learn new techniques and methodologies and also to get new ideas from there.
In January, 1998 our teachers and supervisor went to Patha Bhavan, Shantiniketan School (founded by Rabindra Nath Tagore) located at Bolpur in Birbhum District of West Bengal. There they attended a cultural fest organized by the students. They also came to know that this was started by Rabindranath Tagore and the objectives of this programme were as follows:
a. To enhance the creativity and expansion of imaginations of the children.
b. Develop writing skills and promotion of self-expression.
c. Promotion of creative skills of the pupils.
d. Planning-Management-Review-lesson learnt;
e. Leadership development, etc
            Tagore also termed that programme as ‘SAHITYA SABHA’. We also came to know from the teachers of the Patha Bhavan that some the students who are not so good in the academic session but performing excellent in the Sahitya Sabha, also learnt that these programmes helped them to develop communication skills.
            Returning from Patha Bhavan, Shantiniketan the supervisor of Primary Education Dept. submitted a detailed report of the visit and also expressed the willingness to introduce Sahitya Sabha in our schools as well as local Govt Schools.
            First such sahitya sabha started in March, 2000 in Chandalati Swanirvar Primary School. In 2001, two more schools, Fatullapur and Andharmanik Primary schools organized two Sahitya Sabha. In, 2002 some local Govt Schools participated with us, a joint sathitya sabha was being held in which 12 Govt institutions participated. Gradually, Sahitya Sabha became very popular event in the academic calendar of an institution. On 20th August, 2005, Swanirvar Primary schools and 30 local Govt Primary Schools jointly organized a Sahitya Sabha and a symposium on recent trends in Bengali literatures. This was held in the premises of Katiahat F.P. School. Eminent poet, Krishnalal Maity and many local educationists participated in that seminar. They also praised us for introducing such action based skill development programme in curriculum. In 2006 all the schools organized small sahitya sabhas in their own institutions. 3 large scale joint sahitya sabha were held in 3 different schools in which many Govt institutions participated.

SAHITYA SABHA IN GOVT SCHOOL

             On 14th November, 2006 a big cultural programme, Sahitya Sabha was organized under the joint collaboration of Swanirvar and 2 Govt. Primary Teachers Associations. Students from Swanirvar schools and from 55 Govt institutions participated along with their parents. It was held in the community hall of Baduria Municipality. Minister of state SHG development, Mrs. Rekha Goswami, Md. Selim Gain, MLA Baduria, The Block Development officers of Baduria and Deganga, Local Gram Panchayat Pradhans, Many eminent writers, poets and educationists, Sailen Ghosh, Bhavaniprasad Mazumder, Shyamal Kanti Das, Avik Basu, Dr. Niranjan Banerjee, Deep Mukherjee etc joined in that programme. The entire programme was planned, managed, performed and directed by the different committees of students. Gradually sahitya Sabha became one of the popular events of the rural people. Whenever a school or a group of schools organized Sahitya Sabha, along with the parents the local villagers participated in those functions and sometimes gave some financial assistance.
             At present it has became a must for every rural institution in our project areas: Below there were a table of the sahitya sabha s organized in the schools from 2007 onwords...
Year                        No of Sahitya Sabha             Students        Teachers

2007 – 2008              10                                          589                 65
2008 – 2009              12                                          645                 80
2009 – 2010              11                                          632                 73
2010 – 2011              22                                          861                 149
2011 – 2012              36                                          1416               174
2012 – 2013             (till NOV) 26                            826                 122
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Total                       117                                          4969               663


Reported By,
Sri Prosanto Mondal
Supervisor, Primary Education Dept, Swanirvar
9732829202(M)

PROMOTING EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES IN GOVT. HIGH SCHOOLS

Head Master of Piyara T H.S. performing with the students

       Swanirvar staff are now taking environment classes in 10 Govt High Schools and they also give various input in more than 30 Govt. High Schools. We also run innovative teachers NETWORKs with Mathematic, English and Work Education teachers. Beside the hand holding experiments in science and EVS we also encourage students on extracurricular activities like singing, dances, drama, amusing games, quiz, recitation, debates, extempore, etc. Most of the schools did not have any session/class on extracurricular activities. There are some innovative and enthusiastic teachers who had some skills but did not get any scope to introduce these in the class. One of our staff- musicians, Mr. Sakatulya Mondal selected 5 Govt schools - Pearah Tegharia High School, Kumudini Girls’high School, Maheshpur High School, Mandra High School and Keotsha High School and started music classes in the above institutions after the school hour. Presently, 859 students from 5 Govt High schools are now learning music (singing and playing Harmonium) from him. Some of the students who are not so good in their studies but doing excellent in the music classes. Moreover, they got the opportunities to perform in the school functions, sports day and also on special day’s celebration. Teachers who are interested in music and those who could sing or play musical instruments joining in these classes. They also are performing along with students in school programmes.

Scan of Photos in News paper report.

       Recently an open stage was built in the campus of Pearah Tegharia High School. One retired teacher, Mr. Subal Chandra Biswas donated money to make that stage. Mr. Biswas who was famous for his patronization in folk culture in the villages dies in a road accident. The stage was named as "Subal Biswas Smriti Mancha" and was inaugurated on 5th October, 2012. The student of Pearah Tegharia School who learnt music from Mr. Sakatulya performed  on that occasion. This report was published in no. 1 Bengali News Paper on 6th Oct, 2012 along with their photograph.

Reported by,

KKB Team, Swanirvar  

WEEKLY WEATHER BULLETIN IN GOVT HIGH SCHOOL

Using Rain Gauge

        Swanirvar staff was taking environmental science class in Jakir Hossain High School from 2003. Beside the regular bookish text we also introduced many hand held activities like- dustbin making and using dustbin in the classroom, segregation of waste, different surveys and data collection and data analysis, making different science models etc. With the help of our donor, AID BAY AREA, United State we gave maximum and minimum thermometer to the Govt schools and Jakir Hossain School also got one such thermometer. We also gave the students an orientation to note down the maximum and minimum temperature and also learnt them to keep the record on daily basis. The students of class VI were given the responsibility to keep the record and they did this with great enthusiasm.

Weather Information Board

        The enthusiasm of the students also moved the Geography teacher of the school. Mrs. Manashi Pramanik, Geography teacher purchased a hygrometer  and presented that hygrometer to the students of class VII. Last year, Swanirvar also donated a rain gauge to the school with the financial assistance from AID Bay Area, US. Then the students of VI, VII and IX were given responsibilities to measure daily temperature, humidity and rainfall respectively. To more teachers, Goutam Nath and Asit Mondal along with Mrs. Pramanik had made a small team of students and gave them practical orientations on – to collect the data, calculating minimum and maximum temperature, making charts and graphs and also taught them how to make charts and graphs from the collected database. With that extended large database they also were finding out the impact of climate change and its direct link upon the production of local crops and vegetables. They publishing their findings on the notice boards and also putting weekly weather forecast bulletin in the notice board.

Reported by:

KKB team, Swanirvar

Training (phase-I) given to the teachers of Narayantala Mass communication Society:

Interactive word making session

Narayantala Mass Communication Society (NMCS) is a Kolkata based Non-profit organization. NMCS’s mandate is to ensure the overall development of the downtrodden underprivileged section of our society in the area of - Reproductive Child health, Sexual Health, Women Empowerment, Basic Education, Child welfare and sustainable agriculture development. Narayantala Mass Communication Society (NMCS) has been working for quite some time with the migrant laborers in the brick kilns of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Save the Children has been supporting their efforts to improve the status of the Children, and ensuring their basic Rights for Education working in 30 Brick Kilns.


They had already sent their teachers for two trainings from two different NGOs. Recently they met another organization, Right Track who is doing similar kind of interventions with the down trodden children of slum areas. Right Track had taken trainings from us and now doing excellent works. They had found our training are more specific and object oriented. They got our contact from them. After brief communication, we send our staff on 11th September, 12 for a pre-training visit to their centre at Boyalghata, North 24 Parganas. We found that there were children from different places of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and some are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Most of them were dropouts (>95%) and parents were not interested to send their kids to schools. They did not have any permanent classroom or such place; they sit in a temporary tent in the corner of the brick kilns. These centres had no Teaching Learning Materials (TLMs) to use in the classroom. But we found that the teachers were enthusiastic and had enough empathy for these underprivileged. Returning from the project area, we made a need based curriculum for them.

The three days Phase-I( for class-I & II) training was given from 21st Sept to 23rd Sept, 12. One supervisor, one assistant coordinator, coordinator, and 27 teachers (all women) participated in that training session. They were given hand help trainings on TLMs making and also was taught how to use the TLMs. They were given trainings on Bengali, Mathematics, Environmental science, Arts & Crafts. They were given ideas on student management and time based segregation of curriculum. There was session on games and action rhymes, music so that the students become more active in the classes.

Soon we will send our staff for a follow up visit and he will also observe how they are actually implementing techniques in the classroom.

Reported by, Prosanto Mondal, 9732829202

TRAINING GIVEN TO THE TEACHERS OF WORLD VISION KOLKATA:



Trainees in the arts & crafts session

       Swanirvar started training and refreshers workshop cum training programmes from 2004. So far we have trainings to more than 1500 primary school teachers. Our clients were Govt. Primary & SSK teachers as well as teachers from different NGO run primary schools. Apart from the training programme we also helped our trainees to make new Teaching learning materials (TLMs) through the TLM workshops and also gave hand-held trainings to them on how to use TLMs in the classroom. We also gave our trainees a new set of TLMs after the successful completion of the trainings and those sets were designed through directly observed experiments and ground level testing.

        On 12th April, 2012 four Swanirvar staff went to the World Vision Schools for a pre-training visit. During our visit we found the following problems of this institution:

 1. Teachers/ volunteers were enthusiastic but they had no trainings.

 2. No lesson plan. Improper Class management.

 3. Most of the parents were not aware about their kids and not at all interested in their studies. Most of them wanted to engage their child as a labour. Etc

        On 4th May, 12 we discussed our observation with them and on 16th May they came to see our school and met with our trainers and teachers. They also met with our administrative officials. It was decided that Swanirvar would gave them a 5 day residential training to the teacher and volunteers.

        The training was started on 21st May, 12 at the training hall of WBVHA Tower, Kolkata. 13 trainees participated in that training programme. They were given on the following items:

• Pre Primary children: Primary work, Sensorial activities, primary math, cultural activities
• Primary children: On Bengali: Letters knowing, word making, sentence making, sentence expansion,
•  On EVS: classification living and non-living, materials that sink in the water and float on the water, nature made and manmade, primary colour to secondary colour, some games
• On math: number knowing, zero concept, place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, Division and problem solving.
•  On Art& craft: Fruit chain, tree making, circle, plain chain
• In all the session we taught them how to incorporate the TLMs and also given hand held trainings to use the TLMs in class room.
• They were also given trainings on making lesson plans and class room management.

 Soon we will send our staff for the necessary follow-ups.

 

Reported by,
Prosanto Mondal
Supervisor, SWANIRVAR

Training given by Primary Education Dept, Swanirvar

Dear friends,
Kindly click the following link to get the latest report -on training given to the primary school teachers by the trainers of Swanirvar's Primary Education Department from 2004
http://www.ziddu.com/download/19448431/traininggivenbyPrimaryDepartment22.05.2012.xls.html