APRIL 2011 – SEPTEMBER 2011

PRAYAS

SANGANER INCLUSIVE SCHOOL REPORT

SANGANER INCLUSIVE SCHOOL REPORT(APRIL-SEPTEMBER 2011)

The last project report sent was earlier for the period October 2010 – March 2011. Taking from the activities and progress mentioned therein, below is the report for the current reporting period of April - September 2011.

ABOUT PRAYASWe are pleased to share with you that Prayas is now serving over 2600 children through our different projects. Our big achievement

has been working in 12 government primary schools and serving the special children living in these communities (slums). Earlier these children were not enrolled in the government schools but with our intervention the children are enrolled and served by our special educators appointed in these schools.

We have also redesigned and updated our website (www.prayasjaipur.com).

STUDENT STRENGTH

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CATEGORY OF STUDENTS

NO. OF STUDENTS (Oct ’10 – March ’11)

NO. OF STUDENTS (April-Sept. 2011)

Mentally Retarded 007 007Hearing Impaired 001 001Multiple Disabled 001 001Slow Learners (SL) 007 008Normal 100 105TOTAL 116 122

Table 1: Category-wise student strength

A gender-wise and class-wise break-up of new students in the academic session 2011-12 as on 30 September 2011.

CLASS BOYS GIRLSSpecial 00 02Nursery 08 09

Preparatory 01 031 02 012 01 013 00 004 00 005 01 00

TOTAL 13 16

A gender-wise and class-wise break-up of all students in the session 2011-12 as on 30 September 2011.

CLASSGIRLS BOYS

TOTALNORMAL SLOW LEARNERS NORMAL SLOW

LEARNERSNursery 24 00 18 00 42

Preparatory 10 00 10 00 201 03 01 06 02 122 04 00 06 00 103 04 02 08 02 164 05 00 03 01 095 02 00 02 00 04

SUB-TOTAL 52 03 53 05 113GIRLS BOYS

Special 04 05 09TOTAL 122

Note: In the academic session 2011-12, Nursery B has been done away with. Therefore, while students in Nursery A would go to Nursery B and then Preparatory, now they will directly go from Nursery (previously known as Nursery A) to Preparatory.

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The following students were with us during the previous reporting period but have discontinued in the current reporting period:1. Imraan – He has moved with his family to another part of Jaipur.2. Irfan - He has moved with his family to another part of Jaipur.3. Muskaan – She used to live with her maternal grandparents but has now returned to live with her

parents.4. Rehnuma - She used to live with her maternal grandparents but has now returned to live with her

parents.5. Alfaiz - He used to live with his maternal grandparents but has now returned to live with his parents.6. Sangeeta – She has returned to her village.7. Sunita - She has returned to her village.8. Nazmeen – She is 15 years old and would have been in grade 5 in academic session 2011-12. Due to

her age over the other students, she feels uncomfortable and does not wish to study.9. Seenam - She has returned to her village.10. Neha – Her family shifted their residence.11. Waseem – He has gone to live with his maternal uncle.12. Banshi Lal – His family has moved away from Sanganer.13. Tauhid - His family shifted their residence.14. Shabnam - Her family shifted their residence.15. Sahil - His family shifted their residence.16. Farhan –He has moved to another city and lives in a hostel.17. Fareen – She moved to another city.18. Nazmeen – She went to study in her brother’s school which is a secondary school (till grade 10).19. Tabassum – Her family shifted their residence.20. Arseen – She is sick very often and thus is rarely able to come to school.21. Nadeem – His parents have sent him to a school with hostel facility.22. Ibrat – This special child was enrolled in the school but due to the nature of his disability, he was

unable to attend school Therefore, he has been shifted to the Home-Based Program.23. Arsi – Her family has shifted their residence to another part of Jaipur.

In the academic session 2010-11, there were no students in grade 5 and hence there were no out-going students in the academic session 2011-12 who joined grade 6 in other schools.

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIESTeachers continued to develop teaching aids according to their lessons plans and syllabus. Students too helped in the making of some of these aids, which also served as a class project with guidance from the teacher.

The special students in the special class had their quarterly assessments and progress reports done in early February 2011, after which new targets were taken for the quarter February-April 2011. This was followed by assessments for that quarter and preparation of Annual Progress Reports in May 2011. At present, targets for the July-

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September 2011 session are in effect. In early October, assessments of the children would be done against these targets and new targets for October-December 2011 would be taken.

Parent-Teacher Meetings continued to be held every month, the agenda being the same. Parents continued to shown interest in their children’s progress and were more alert of how much time the child spent studying.

Annual examinations were held from 13 to 23 April 2011. From 2 to 11 May 2011, the National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS) examinations were conducted.

In August 2011, the 1st set of class tests as per the Rajasthan Board was conducted.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS & STORIES1. Aarif studies in grade 4 at Prayas while his elder brother Ashraf, a slow learner, studies in grade 3 at

Prayas. Their father did not pay much attention to Ashraf’s studies and Ashraf would be at times be absent from school. While the teachers continued to counsel the father, it was when Aarif asked his father to pay attention to Ashraf and his studies that the father started doing so. Now, Ashraf is regular to school and therefore doing better.

2. Raziya studies in grade 4. Her desire to study and focus on schooling is such that she straight away refuses her parents when they ask her to take leave from school or even if they come during school hours to take her home. She is regular to school and attends the entire school day, no matter what. Her presence in school is also seen during festivals which are celebrated in the school but do not figure as holidays in the school calendar.

3. Shahid (aged 6 years) studies in Nursery and when he first started attending school in July 2011, he had no academic skills. Also, he used to cry a lot and it’d be difficult to have him spend the entire day in school. Today, however, he not only enjoys his time at school but has picked up the material taught so well that he helps his classmates as well. He even helps his younger brother (also in the same class) with pencil gripping and pre-writing skills.

4. Zaheer of grade 3 has solved the entire Math syllabus when there are still 5 months of the school year to go. He did so primarily on his own, with only a few hints/clues from his Math teacher. Such is his interest in the subject and aptitude for Math.

ARTS AND CRAFTStudents did a variety of things in arts and craft, of which some are:

1. Mehendi designs2. Rakhi

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3. Indian flags4. Drawing and paintings5. Lamps6. Pen and mobile stands

STUDENT ACTIVITIESDuring this reporting period, students showed much enthusiasm and actively participated in celebrations of various festivals and competitions such as debates and drawing/painting. Many national and international days were observed where students were not only told about these but they too expressed their views on and understanding of the same.

1. On 4 April 2011, students celebrated the 2068th Indian New year and the beginning of Navratra.

2. On 5 April 2011, Chetichand was celebrated to mark the birth of Saint Jhulelal who is considered to be a symbol of unity between Hindus and Muslims.

3. On 6 April 2011, students celebrated Gangaur.

4. On 12 April 2011, Ram Naomi was celebrated to mark the birth of Lord Ram.

5. On 14 April 2011, Ambedkar Jayanti was observed.

6. On 15 April 2011, Mahaveer Jayanti was observed.

7. On 19 April 2011, Hanuman Jayanti was observed.

8. On 22 April 2011, Good Friday was observed.

9. On 1 May 2011, Bird Day was observed. Students were told about the conservation of birds. Students permanently put out a container with bird feed and water for the birds.

10. On 2 July 2011, Guru Hargovind Singh Jayanti was observed.

11. On 11 July 2011, World Population Day was observed where students were told about the rapidly rising population. Students expressed their views on the reasons for this rise and the resultant issues.

12. On 15 July 2011, Guru Poornima was celebrated. Goddess Saraswati was prayed to and students did tilak for their teachers and talked about the benefits they see of having teachers.

13. On 18 July 2011, all the students and staff of Prayas celebrated Prayas’ 15th Foundation Day.

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14. On 20 July 2011, Naag Panchmi was observed where students were told that on this day, Lord Tejaji, the God of snakes, is prayed to.

15. On 23 July 2011, Lok Manya Tilak and Chandrashekhar Azad Jayanti were observed. Students of grades 4 and 5 informed the younger students about the lives of these persons.

16. On 28 July 2011, Van Mahotsav was observed. Students were told about the importance of forests and asked to plant a sapling each.

17. On 30 July 2011, students put up a skit on ‘Say No To Smoking’ to discourage the habit of smoking taken up by their parents and community members.

18. On 2 August 2011, Ramzan and Teej were observed.

19. On 12 August 2011, Raksha Bandhan was celebrated. Students told the story behind this festival and girls tied rakhis to the boys.

20. On 15 August 2011, the Indian Independence was celebrated.

21. On 20 August 2011, a long jump competition was held for all students.

22. On 22 August 2011, Krishna Jamnashtmi was celebrated where Rehan and Uzma of Nursery were dressed as Lord Krishna and Goddess Radha and an earthen pot of makhan was broken.

23. On 25 August 2011, student elections were held. Students learnt about the democratic process of electing representatives and the elected student body’s head was Raziya.

24. On 30 August 2011, Eid was celebrated as students were told about this festival and they wished each other for Eid.

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25. On 1 September 2011, Ganesh Chaturthi was celebrated. Lord Ganesh was prayed to and students were given sweets as Prasad.

26. On 5 September 2011, Teacher’s Day was celebrated as students of grade 5 took classes for the day.

27. On 7 September 2011, Ramdev Jayanti was observed.

28. On 14 September 2011, Hindi Day was observed.

29. On 16 September 2011, World Ozone Day was observed and students were told about the formation, importance and present condition of the ozone layer.

30. On 27 September 2011, International Tourism Day was observed. A competition was held between students to test their knowledge of tourist attractions around the world.

TEACHERS’ TRAININGAll teachers and special educators of Prayas spend the second Saturday of each month together where they learn new methods, share success stories, brainstorm on difficult cases to provide possible solutions. Besides activities related to academics, focus was also given to interactions and learning drawn from experiences in the different communities. In the summer of 2011, various workshops were conducted in the following areas:

1. Teaching Science using experiments for primary classes as well. 2. Teaching Mathematics using games and innovative practices.3. Discussion on the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995.4. Teaching children with Learning Disabilities.5. An orientation of Mental Retardation (MR).6. Working with children with Multiple Disabilities (MD).7. Working on and ensuring exercising of child rights by children.8. Counseling and participation of parents and children.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAMDuring the reporting period, community meetings were continually held as part of the community outreach program to further our work on education, disability, rights and community mobilization in

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general. Over time, a lot of positive results have been seen and much remains to be done as attitudes take time to change.

At present 141 birth-certificate forms have been filled up and have been submitted to the concerned authorities to issue the birth certificates to these persons and give them their first document of Indian citizenship.

A children’s club, Subhash Club, has also been started. It currently has 22 members, which includes both, children attending Prayas and those not attending Prayas. Participation from children is growing as more are willing to join the club and get involved in its activities. This club was started with the objective of developing unity, confidence and leadership skills in children where they begin to rightly believe that they are capable agents of change in their lives, communities and the world at large.

A good number of students would go back home play with marbles, hardly devoting any time to studies. They’d also become very dirty, playing in the mud and retrieving marbles that had rolled into drains. Prayas’ teachers started taking the marbles from the children whenever they’d see the children playing with these. These marbles are kept in school. The students started spending less time on the streets playing and loitering and more time doing something productive, including studying. Seeing the change, parents of children not attending Prayas also asked our teachers to take away their children’s marbles. Now children are rarely seen playing marbles. They focus on studies and productive things and also are much more hygienic (due to the end of their tryst with mud and drain).

In the reporting period, 11 pregnant women were identified. The same guidance was provided to these women and regular follow-up done as has been the practice in the past. A total of 2 girls and 1 boy were born during this period. Women are so aware of proper registration with hospitals and caution to be maintained during pregnancy that they themselves come and tell us to talk to expectant mothers in their social circles. Such guidance is provided with the sole objective of ensuring that the child is born healthy and without any limits to his or her abilities, physical and mental. Over the years, the level of awareness in women has increased such that it validates our intervention and encourages us to join hands with them in various other aspects of life.

A woman had her tubal litigation done. She was a mother of four at an age of approximately 32 years. She was counseled on the economic bearing additional children would have on the family and the possible risks to the mother and child with an increasing number of children.

CONSTRAINTSSpace is a big constraint for us as there is a large number of children who seek admissions into our school each year but they have to be refused unfortunately. We have spoken with the landlord to construct more rooms in the premises. If he acts favourably on this request, we would be able to enroll more children and extend the school in the coming years.

LOOKING AHEAD

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We plan to have the following in the coming months:1. Recreational and educational visits for children.2. Games and painting competition.3. Celebrations of festivals, National Days and International Days.4. Deliberations among teachers and other staff to find solutions for issues identified with the

students and in the community.5. Discussion of case studies on children and community for the staff to build capacity.6. Involving parents in the development of children and school activities.7. Intervention with the government to solve the various problems faced by the community to avail

their legitimate rights.8. Health and Disability Camps for the benefit of children and other community members.

CONCLUSIONThe children are performing very well and they show keen interest and active participation in studies and extra-curricular activities. Such is their dedication that they attend extra classes as well. Over the years there have rarely been cases where children have dropped-out and left studies. These rare instances have been due to the financial condition of the family being very weak and the child has become the sole or 2nd bread-earner for the family. However, the parents are prioritizing education as their other children continue to attend school.

We are trying to get the school recognized by Rajasthan Board and later extend it to Grade 8. However, while doing so, we have to keep in mind the prevailing financial constraints.

We are thankful to Asha for their continued support. We are confident that with Asha’s support and guidance we’ll be able to do much better and it would help the children grow.

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