EQUIP Project

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EQUIP Project

• www.eurekachild.org

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Problems addressed

• 50 children in 5th standard cannot read a
  paragraph in Tamil. 10 cannot even identify
  letters.
• 50 children in 5th standard cannot even subtract
  two 2-digit numbers.
• Science education is just rote memorization no
  concepts, no experiments, no connection with the
  real world.
• Many 4-year-olds in balwadis cannot even match
  two identical pictures - something even
  1-year-olds in middle class families easily do.

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Reasons for this state

• No School Focus on Basic Skills Focus on exam
  mark textbook memorization and not on ensuring
  basic skills.
• Lack of Learning Resources No access to learning
  resources. Schools and teachers have no
  libraries, no reading materials, no activity
  kits, no science experiment materials, etc.
  Balwadis have no learning aids or even simple
  toys.
• Ineffective Methodology Teachers lecture and
  read out from books. There is no focus on
  activities or even demonstrations in class. No
  avenues for children to think independently or to
  work in groups or to learn by doing. Poor
  training of teachers. Teachers are not trained
  in practical ideas nor on good teaching
  methodologies.
• Low community involvement Low community interest
  and involvement in education. Poor children have
  no access to a learning environment at home.

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Two Pronged Implementation Strategy
Create Community Learning Initiatives We
mobilize village volunteers, train them and start
village libraries, childrens learning centers,
form science clubs, math clubs, sports clubs,
etc. We also get the community volunteers to
both help schools improve as well as to
pressurize schools to deliver quality.
Improve Learning Quality in Schools We work
with teachers to bring about measurable
improvements in specific learning skills like
reading, maths and science. We train and motivate
teachers, provide teaching learning materials and
change classroom practices through regular visits
and practical demonstrations.
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Results So Far

• Primary Education
• Improving Reading Skills of Children
• Improving Basic Math Skills of Children
• Pre-primary Education
• Visual Recognition, Counting, Motor Skills and
  Sensory Skills
• Pre-reading and pre-writing skills
• Secondary Education
• Science Education
• Math Education
• Life Skills and Health Education
• Community Initiatives and Community Learning
  Centers
• Village Libraries and Childrens Clubs
• Science and Math clubs
• Support Centers and Summer Campaigns

450,000 children in 7300 schools improved their
Tamil reading skills through our Padippum Inikkum
Reading Campaign. Across 5 districts, children
who can read went up from 54 to 85 within 5
months of our starting the reading campaign!
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Padippum Inikkum

• Group activity based reading program
• Aim Is to bring rapid improvement in reading
  levels of a child
• Structure
• Initial Evaluation and Categorization into 5
  levels
• Everyday 1hr level specific activities
• Child-to-Child reading methods
• Reading materials and story boards to make it a
  fun event

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Impact of PP

• Reaches about 4,50,000 children
• Teachers are taking more active participation in
  these activities

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Padippum Inikkum Levels
5 Reading Levels
Level 4 Child Reads stories fluentlyLevel 3 Child Reads sentences but not storiesLevel 2 Child Reads words but not sentencesLevel 1 Child Reads letters but not wordsLevel 0 Child Cannot even identify letters
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Arivial Anandam

• Do-it-yourself experiments for children
• Low cost science experiments as a means to teach
• Encouraging a child to think and come up with
  their own experiments

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Impact of AA

• 1,30,000 Children in 900 schools are benefitting
  currently
• Children are able to relate real world science
  phenomena and able to quote it in their answers,
  instead of memorizing and repeating the books

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Eureka Public Library

• Community based learning using Library in a Bag
  concept
• Aim is to use this as a booster to Padippum
  Inikkum program
• When community involves, the schools feel
  responsible to deliver better quality education
• In addition to library style learning, additional
  activities with games, fun events and activities
  etc.
• Encourage formation of children clubs

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Impact of EPL

• This is still in experimental phase
• 90,000 children in 2000 villages are using this
  right now
• Several constraints to implement the program..
  e.g. finding volunteers in villages is hard
• Providing reading materials appropriate for the
  age and sufficient amount is difficult

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Proposal
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Changes

• The project has been changed from original
  Tiruvannamalai district to Sivaganga district

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Sivaganga Details

• Revenue Divisions 2
• Taluks 6
• Blocks 12
• Town Panchayats 12
• Revenue Villages 521
• Panchayat Villages 431

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ASER Findings in 2005
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EQUIP Update

• Reading program started in all the 12 blocks
• Science and library programs in 7 and 4 blocks
• Of the 1108 primary schools in the district, we
  started a low intensive reading campaign 1054
  schools
• From these schools, 695 schools were identified,
  where the teachers were very enthusiastic and are
  now running an intensive reading program
  (Padippum Inikkum Intensive program) in these
  schools
• The science program is running in a total of 215
  schools and the libraries are being run in 250
  villages with the help of 4 local NGOs.

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EQUIP Update
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Padippum Inikkum Details

• Campaign started at the end of Aug. 2007
• Padippum Inikkum School and Village Intensive
  Program To be done in schools that are
  cooperative and where teachers are willing to do
  reading evaluation and in villages with village
  volunteers.
• Padippum Inikkum First Step Program To be done
  in all schools for the 5th Std students to pull
  up children who have difficulties in reading
  words or sentences.
• Reading Melas District team also planned a
  series of reading melas in villages to generate
  excitement about reading.

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Padikkum Inikkum Details

• Key Points
• Good rapport with district administration
• After the initial 2 block pilot program, with
  AshaSV support it was expanded to full district
• Positive praise regarding the materials used for
  the reading program

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PI Intensive Classes

• 695 Schools 386 Villages with 21821 children
• Consists of very enthusiastic teachers
• In 386 villages, volunteers are identified and
  through them reading kits of 1st and 2nd grade
  were provided.

Standard Story Level Sentence Level Word Level Letter Level Cannot even read letters
1st Std - - 27 36 37
2nd Std - - 48 36 16
3rd Std 32 28 23 11 6
4th Std 42 28 18 8 5
5th Std 49 24 17 7 4
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PI First Step

• 1084 schools in the 12 blocks
• Less Intensive classes for the 5th standard
  students
• Does not have 5 level groups. Instead have 3
  levels (can read, cannot read and partial ability
  )
• Teacher training and materials were provided.
• This is the first step towards launching the full
  fledged program

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Reading Mela

• In order to encourage reading outside of school
• It was first conceived by Sivagangai team and
  later used in other districts
• Entire community is involved.
• Unlike school, children ask the questions, while
  adults respond.

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Eureka Childrens Library

• Started out with 250 libraries in 4 blocks
• 7620 children part of this scheme
• Training for volunteers to engage children in
  various activities (21 training sessions)
• Children converted the stories to dramas
• 162 village level drama were performed
• 17 of these were selected for block and district
  level
• 30 children from district participated in state
  level drama

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Arivial Anandam

• Running in 214 schools in 7 blocks and 50
  village science clubs
• At present they have completed exhibition in 7
  schools.
• Every 2 months after a round of training and a
  kit for 10 experiments on one topic is provided
• School Science Clubs We are forming clubs in
  school level for children interested in science.
  We have started these in all the 214 schools
• State is borrowing some of the ideas for its
  Activity Learning Method program
• Information from Arivial Anandam is spread to
  about 422 blocks (all 12 blocks in Sivangangai by
  the state) through video cds prepared by the
  team.

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Future Plans

• The fulltime team is also getting built quite
  rapidly. The documentation and communication
  systems in the district are still weak.
• It is important to supply some material every
  month to the schools. Monthly education magazine
  for teachers and volunteers to ensure this
  need is met.
• Sales of low cost science and language books in
  schools and villages through our volunteers and
  fulltimer.
• Expansion Plans
• Reading program to all the 1000 schools and 450
  villages in all the 12 blocks in the district.
• continue the science program in the 7 blocks
• organize a series of village level and block
  level exhibitions and young scientist network
  activities.
• increase the number of village libraries from 250
  to 300 in the next 3 months.

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Q A