EGG is working in the state of Rajasthan in India under the Rajasthan Education Initiative (REI), co-sponsored by the Government of Rajasthan and the World Economic Forum. EGG is managing a pilot project in fifty schools in two districts in the state-Jalore and Pali-serving about 15,000 children. The project in Rajasthan is EGG's first working through a state ministry staff and through teachers. As in Uttarakhand, EGG is working to empower communities to take "ownership" of the schools. The purposes are to make the schools work for girls and to ensure that no school-age girl is out of school. EGG is also working with the Ministry to improve the quality of the schools.
The program begins by surveying the state of education, collecting the name of every girl out of school, and then through a village meeting at which the community organizes itself to help reform its school. Starting in January 2006, in mid-2007 we will work with the Ministry to start expanding the program, initially to 500 schools. EGG is building a model for more than 50,000 schools serving 11 million children.
Progress so far:
In 2006 EGG conducted school information campaigns in all 50 schools, collecting data on the state of girls' education. Because Rajasthan is a conservative society, the main challenges for girls' education are related to high drop-out rates, low attendance, and low retention. EGG estimates that between 10-15% of the girls of school going age (6-14 years) have dropped out of school or were never enrolled; and of the 80-85% enrolled, only about 50-60% attend school regularly. Therefore, at any given time between 40-50% girls are not in school .
This has led us to focus our initial work to identify the drop-out girls and conduct regular village meetings to re-roll them in school. To help increase attendance and retention, EGG is implementing several quality components into the schools, including life-skills training, creative learning and work skills. To encourage children's voices to be heard in matters affecting them, EGG is working with Children's Groups (Bal Sabha) in the pilot schools.
EGG is also working in government funded Bridge Course Camps for girls who have never been to school or those who have dropped out of school. In the six-month Bridge Course, children are provided "work skills" as well as "life skills". Teachers are trained in creative learning techniques to ensure children learn quickly and effectively and not (as they often do) by rote.
Present Status
Baseline data are in place with regard to girl's enrollment and attendance in schools. A child tracking system is being put in place to identify and prevent girls from dropping out of school, once they are enrolled.
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School Information Campaign (SIC) has been completed and Village Education Meetings (Gram Shiksha Sabha) are being conducted on regular basis.
Life Skills Training has been imparted to the school teachers who in turn will teach their students. This training focuses on 10 life skills identified by WHO-UNFPA as important for the development of an individual. Acquisition of these skills will enable the girls to detect the challenges of everyday life and consequently nurture the ability for adaptive positive behavior. These skills are: effective communication, creative thinking, decision making, problem solving, critical thinking, interpersonal relationships, self-awareness, empathy, coping with stress and coping with emotions. Some of these schoolteachers are now the Master Trainers for training other schoolteachers in the districts for Life Skills Training.
A Creative Teaching and Learning Module is being created for implementation in the Bridge Course Camp, with the objective of making this a model for other Camps to follow.
Dec 2005 to Date:
RE I: Rajasthan Education Initiative: Pilot project in 50 schools:
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In the first 6 months community mobilization and participation leads to 550 drop out girls identified.
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Close to 200 village meetings have been conducted to mobilize communities to make girls education a priority.
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352 girls re-enrolled into the schools.
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Six month bridge courses underway for drop out girls to prepare for formal schools.
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Like skills training conducted for school teachers for quality improvements in the classroom.
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In 2007:
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Creative learning and other quality improvement packages will be implemented in the next 6 months.
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Training for Ministry staff to take over the implementation of the project.
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EGG will expand its areas of activities from 50 to 500 schools in Rajasthan.
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