Literacy Focus – June 2017 issue

Just one click away from your Asha Kiran child

Have you seen the progress of the Asha Kiran child you sponsored? If not, then please visit www.rotaryteach.org and click on ‘My Asha Kiran Child’ tab to know about the progress of your ­sponsored child. Each of the approximately 27,000 donors have been tagged for long now.

RILM’s call for volunteers for Asha Kiran

Have you downloaded the ­T-E-A-C-H App yet? If not, do it now. Go to Play Store and search for ‘TEACH by RILM’. Once downloaded, go to ‘Engage’ on the home page and ­register yourself as a TEACH ­volunteer. ­Currently we need ­volunteers to train teachers of the Asha Kiran centres.

The training would focus on ­classroom management skills of ­teachers teaching Hindi, English, ­Bengali and Mathematics to the ­children enrolled in the Centre.

We need volunteers mostly from Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh.

Launch of Swabhimaan with the NGO model

Rotary India Literacy Mission (RILM) has embarked on a mission to make a difference in the lives of non-literate adults (15+ years) in India through its Adult Literacy Project — ­Swabhimaan: Dignity through Education.

Earlier these Swabhimaan ­centres were run independently by ­Rotarians. Innovation and ­volunteerism are at the core of the programme with locally devised incentives used to motivate adult non-literates to engage in a ­literacy programme and socially responsible volunteerism at every level.

However we wanted to see if ­Swabhimaan centres through the NGO model will yield any better results. So we have done a pilot in ­collaboration with two NGOs in West Bengal — Agradut Pally Unnayan Samity in Howrah and Sitarampur Vivekananda Seba Pratisthan in Magrahat.

What is an NGO model?

RILM will select and tie up with ­various NGOs who will in turn ­identify adult non-literates across India and enroll them for the functional literacy course at the Swabhimaan centres. The course spreads across four months, at the end of which the learner appears for the NIOS examination which takes place every March and August. On clearing the examination, the beneficiaries are certified as functionally literate by the Government of India.

RILM’s role

RILM’s role would be to identify the partnering NGO, sign an MoU with the NGO and monitor the entire process.
One hundred learners have enrolled from each of these two NGOs and they are mostly women from BPL background and are engaged in seasonal farming. The NGOs focus on imparting functional literacy through the Swabhimaan centres and train teachers for mentoring and guiding the learners through the course; organise supplemental educational sessions to raise awareness about health, hygiene, sanitation and governmental schemes and strengthen the SHGs through the literacy course.

While the learners are in the age group 20–65 and members of SHGs in one NGO, in the other, they are in the age group 17–60 and are engaged in weaving zari work on sarees. They are more confident and are mostly ­self-reliant, taking care of the daily accounting and documentation of the SHGs or the zari weaving work they are engaged in. They help their siblings and children with studies at home and are enthusiastic to continue education, post the course completion.

All the learners had appeared for the NIOS examination on March 19 and are awaiting results.

1,000 municipal corporation ­teachers trained in Mumbai

Rotary International District 3141 organised a teacher training ­programme during April 15–27 for 1,000 BrihanMumbai Municipal ­Corporation teachers. The training was held for six hours for a batch of 100 teachers each day.

The teachers were trained on ­topics such as curriculum, ­pedagogy, enhancement of ­English ­language skills and life skills, ­student ­leadership, personality ­development, gender sensitivity and stress management.

There were four trainers and they conducted various activities and games to bring out the essence of each topic. The teachers were also provided with relevant ­reference materials. DG Gopal Mandhania, ZLC Balkrishna Inamdar, DLCC Sunil Mehra, Education Officer Mahesh Palkar, Deputy Education Officer Prakash Charate and District Trainer Mahendra Sawant attended the programme.

Six schools converted into Happy Schools with RILM Grant

Six schools in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Haryana have been ­supported by RILM with grant from Euro Kids. Rotary Clubs of Pune Westside, Hosur Midtown, Rasipuram and Inner Wheel Club of Ambala had been involved in transforming these schools into Happy Schools.

To receive financial support, a Rotary Club has to apply for a grant online on our Rotary Teach ­website. These grant applications were ­thoroughly reviewed and sanctioned at various levels such as the Rotary Club President, District ­Literacy Chair, ­District Governor, Happy School National Committee Members and the officials at the Rotary India literacy Mission.

A club seeking grant has to give quotations from specific vendors and list out other strategies of implementing the project. The application will be scrutinised and modified at various levels. RILM then reviews the proposal, assesses the costs involved and other details. The final payment, which is 50 per cent of the cost incurred by the clubs or Rs 2.5 lakh, whichever is lower, will be made after the receipt of the completed report from the club, along with utilisation certificates signed by a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Accountant.

No ‘Bars’ for Education

Chairman of Inner Wheel District 325 Deepti Sahay, along with Shweta Sinha, CLCC of Inner Wheel Club of Patna and Club President Priyanka Kumar, conducted an adult literacy programme for the inmates of Beyur Jail. There were 80 women and 15 ­children. Though they were initially skeptical about learning they later found the classes informative and engaging. While some of them enrolled for the adult literacy classes, others took up the vocational courses.