Within Reach: the Story of PROPEL, a Non-Formal Education Project for Rural Children in India. Education for All: Making It Work. Innovation Series, 3
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 380 208 PS 023 037 AUTHOR Guttman, Cynthia; Kosonen, Kimmo TITLE Within Reach: The Story of PROPEL, a Non-Formal Education Project for Rural Children in India. Education for All: Making it Work. Innovation Series, 3. INSTITUTION United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, r,ris (France). REPORT NO ISSN-1020-0800 PUB DATE 94 NOTE 37p.; Photographs may not copy well. For other documents in this series, see ED 369 535 and PS 023 036-039. AVAILABLE FROMBasic Education Division, UNESCO, 7 place de Fortenoy, 75353 Paris 07, SP, France. PUB TYPE Reports Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Community Involvement; *Educational Development; Educational Innovation; *Elementary Education; Equal Education; Foreign Countries; Literacy Education; *Nonformal Education; *Rural Population; Rural Women; Sex Discrimination; Social Discrimination; Teacher Education; Womens Education IDENTIFIERS *Community Development Personnel; India; Local Facilitators; *PROPEL Project (India) ABSTRACT In 1979, the Indian Institute of Education launched the country's first comprehensive project in part-time,non-formal primary education. Now in its third phase, PROPEL(Promoting Primary and Elementary Education Project) is training theinhabitants of 137 villages to take responsibility for the quality of education in the non-formal stream. This booklet describes the PROPEL project, illustrating how a decentralized model of primary education can succeed. The introductory chapter describes the developmentof the project as a holistic model of rural development embracing early childhood care, women's groups, adult literacy, post-literacy learning, and teacher training. The first chapter discussesIndia's educational challenge and the barriers to universal primaryeducation among children from disadvantaged groups.Various features related to the project are discussed in the remaining chapters.They are as follows: (1) the action-research approach;(2) understanding the needs of the local community;(3) formation of non-formal education centers; (4) developing learning and teachingstrategies in the classrooms;(5) developing a locally relevant curriculum;(6) compiling class materials with a rural orientation;(7) recruiting teachers from the villages;(8) evaluating progress; and (9) sources of funding. In addition, the booklet documentsPROPEL's use of support programs such as women's development groups andvillage education committees to mobilize the community in favor ofschooling; its success in influencing the formal primary educationsystem; and its efforts to fight the two obstacles of poverty andearly marriage. The booklet :oncludes by noting that theproject's strength lies in reaching children, especially girls, and in training people atthe grassroots level to take responsibility foreducation. Demographic details about India and the PROPEL project areincluded. (BAC) mom. aler.CMIIIMMIENIMMIN U S DEPASTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) *us aocument has been reproduced as eCeived trom the person Or organization Originating it Minor changes nave been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view cr opinions stated m thiS docu ment do not necessarily represent official OERI position or pOlicy Tiles/on. of PROPEL, Hoil4in711al cam :calm' project for P111(1/ childrcn in India .:` 11001010111ktilti,"-Zis "PERMISSION TO REPHODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED Bt v\t..TAIV1Y",t TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERICA -" "I saywithout fear of my figures being challenged gone by the hoard because there was no recognition.* successlidly, that today India is more illiterate than it these schools, and the schools established after the was fifty or a hundred years ago, and so is Burma. European pattern were too expensive* the people, and because the British administrators, when they came to therefore they could not possibly overtake the thing. I India, instead of taking hold of things as they were. deli' anybody to Jidfil a programme of compulsory began to root them omit. They scratched the soil and primary education of these masses inside of a century. began to look at the root, and left the root like that, and This very poor country of mine ms ill able to sustain such the beautifid tree perished. The village schools were not an expensive method of education. Our state would good enough for the British adminCstrator, so he came revive the old village schoolmaster and dot every village out with his programme. Evert' school must have so with a school both for boys and girls." much paraphernalia, building and so forth. Well. there were no such schools at all. There are statistics left by a British administrator which show that, in places where Mahatma Gandhi at Chatham House. London. "4-""-. - they have carried out a survey ancient schools have October 20, 1931 e. 2'' :'":2'''1"` r- ''-'1 --41ft'`...";,,,f,...v*-1.1cii.,,-_,,- ,.,6;:os --,`3.1 :xi X.--,:f 4."'''Z.,:'-. a-:.-15:.a. .171 tt 14N, 7-1s -.;; .; I " cif. Y. ; 1/44-it ,.., ..s I- 11.3 . 4.4 1, ... e.,::;-, -1-, _...ri, 1. ,e-z-444a .,,,,r,z,,,, 0,., 5,;(1:4:f,...1.01. 4-arivegeq2z_ --=-- -` . - A ;-. /b r"4 .. PC I C -11111r5:-0-- 4 tit - = ,7, I- `s" rift Elkiv 13 EST COPY AVAItARLE f. .:-.104444444 ta," f . .4% f I er 4A 113:1011.0Mi 4.-tfiVe V' ri,s4- -----aktrt - '1in:.:%-7.- 4A wi,64re43*ZZ,Z, f -ri:;;:e -" .,-(4.---,;. A'sr--4' ITT g. W4k '.r.1 1.1.,..t .... ' ;Lie' ..S.4.1 V 4' .s t.C14 , lti _ ...i. %.(;%,.;r, --.11" J t t* --a....--.....urva}., -4:....-...; 111. -r'..214,- ,44 "...P. ...IN. 4 ti 44 Nktn By Cynthia Guttman r4( 6 and Kimmo Kosoncn Per -MI, Ma { 41... am COPY AVAILABLE A Contents Introduction 6 India's educational challenge 8 The PROPEL model: an action-research approach 10 Starting off: what are the local needs? 12 The centres: a place called Apla Vargh 13 The classes: making learning a joy 15 A curriculum to suit local needs 16 Class materials: a true rural orientation 17 Teachers: from the village 18 Stress-free evaluations 19 Reaching out to all ages 20 Influencing the formal system 22 Obstacles: poverty and early marriage 24 Resources: winning state recognition 25 Achievements and lessons 26 Conclusion 28 Features: 29 The Indian Institute of Education 29 Indian facts and figures 29 PROPEL: reaching out to all 30 Bibliography 32 Acknowledgements 33 4 "Mahatma Gandhi had emphasized the need to work outside the educational smell, even with the ultimate objective 01're/brining the system itself The programmes of non-lb/mai education provide a good basis for these efforts. To the extent these outside eifbrts grow and succeed, the conditions within the system will also begin to change and it is the simultaneous action both within and without the system that wi,1 help us bring about the essential educational transfOr- /nation and provide good education to all the people.'' J.P. Naik, founder of the Indian Institute of Education, in "Education for Our People" (1978). r. iliLABLE Introduction This project has avita, Mangal, Sunita, and Kama la are girls been particularly between the ages of nine and fourteen from effective in reaching the Indian state of Maharashtra. During the day, they contribute to their family's income by girls, the largest grazing cattle and helping in the house, just like group excluded some 15 million Indian children under 14 who from schooling by have never attended school or were forced to household tasks drop out at an early age. and deep-rooted But a new window on living and learning social customs. has opened since they started attending night classes in their village as part of a project designed by the Indian Institute of Education (DE, see page 29). Sitting in a circle, the girls talk about the day's happenings an'. join in reading, writing and telling stories, singing songs and playing games. Indian leaders have called for universal primary education in India since the mid-19th century. While the Imperial Government asked a commission to recommend an educational system suited to colonial rule, educated Indians set up Elementary Education Project) is training the primary schools on a voluntary basis, especiallyinhabitants of 137 villages to take responsibility for girls, in the towns. The first one that admitted for the quality of education in the non-formal girls as well as women was opened in Pune City steam. in 1848, enabling several widows and destitute The rural community is PROPEL's back- women to complete primary education and bone: from analysing a village's educational pro- become teachers. file and deciding to start a non-formal education Pune, in Maharashtra state, has kept up course, to choosing instructors and solving prob- this tradition of social reform. Today, it is home to lems in running the project, the communi- the Indian Institute of Education, which in 1979 ty -including local leaders, women and primary launched the country's first comprehensive school teachers- is at the heart of the IIE model. action-research project in part-time, non-formal Flexible timetables, curricula tailored to the local primary education. In its first and second phases environment, instructors familiar with the com- (1979-1985 and 1985-1988), it worked respect- munity and easy access to classes are highlights ively with 110 and 35 villages. Now in its thirdof a project which has been particularly effective phase, PROPEL (Promoting Primary and in reaching girls, the largest group excluded from 6 7 _',011111agn ; .1- schooling by household tasks and deep-rootedyears to make it into a holistic model of rural Obstacles to learning: social customs. By running two-hour classes fordevelopment embracing early childhood care, (left page) fetching water is some 300 evenings a year, the programme hopes women's groups, adult literacy, post-literacy lear- one of the most common to raise all children to the level of formal school ning and training villagers to manage local educa- household chores preventing grade 3 or 4 within two years.