Door Step School

Every Child Counts – Citizens’ Campaign

Overview

The ‘Right To Education Act 2009’ (RTE) provides for ‘Free and Compulsory’ Education to all children in the 6 to 14 age group. However communities of construction laborers, pavement dwellers and other migrant communities are not seen to be aware of their rights. As a result, even in the third year of RTE implementation, we can see a large number of out-of-school children around us.

With an objective to identify such children in Pune city and to ensure their enrollment in nearby schools, a citizens’ campaign – ‘Every Child Counts’ (ECC) – was launched in November 2011. The campaign envisages mobilization and involvement of large number of citizens towards participation in the Goal of Universal Elementary Education and also creating awareness among the people about the practical problems of the marginalized in educating their children besides the popularly believed reasons such as lack of motivation and lack of money.

Activities

During the first 2 years( 2012-2014), with the help of citizen volunteers and partner organisations in Pune, this campaign could reach out-of school children at 800+  construction sites and migrant dwellings annually and enrol 3000 children in Government schools across Pune city. Since April 2014, the scope has been expanded to include Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and emerging fringe areas of Pune with high density of construction activity.

The campaign activities involve :

  • Mobilizing individual and partner volunteers through online, media and other means
  • Identifying  out of school children
  • Locating schools for enrollment
  • Creating awareness among parents and children
  • Enrolling children in schools
  • Ensure continuity of the child in school with necessary support and interventions

Download a report on ECC_YR 1- TISS Full report – prepared by Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (TISS)

For detailed activities please visit the ECC blog page.

Connecting The Dots…

Over the years, we have come across many self-motivated individuals and groups that are contributing to the cause of education for underprivileged children in the society. Some of them are helping the children learn through classes conducted at community level, some are creating awareness among the parents about importance of education, while some are actually taking the children to nearby formal schools and trying to retain them there. Although all of them are determined and motivated, it is a fact that they are facing many challenges due to limited physical and knowledge resources.

Door Step School is trying to connect the dots by offering knowledge support to such volunteers and groups. As an organization with 25 years of presence in the field of education, Door Step School can provide training and monitoring support, guidance in preparing and using innovative teaching tools, insights on community-level issues, and methods of pulling in other resources.

If you are part of (or know about) any such volunteer groups working (or willing to work) for education of underprivileged children in their area, do connect with us. We would be happy to help for optimum utilization of volunteering resources towards the larger objective of ‘Education for All’…

Write to eccex@doorstepschool.org or call 986-000-8070 for more details.

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