Across Balkumar’s family cattle pen is the Remedial Education Centre (REC) set up by World Vision India for learning support of children between 6-11 years. At evening after a hard day’s work in the wheat field and cutting grass for livestock, Balkumar, 14, would feed their cattle. His routine was mundane and tough as an adult. As he fed the animals he looked across the street from the corner of his eyes. Some children in REC were his friends and he envied them. Every evening his heart was heavied at what he could have become and for what he had traded for.
Balkumar, dropped out of school two years ago. At that time he was in the 5th standard. He couldn’t read or write a word. Exams were just formalities. He was promoted without even trying or learning anything substantial. He was lacking behind his classmates and in frustration he decided to quit school. “I couldn’t understand anything,” he said.
Rasulpur Bhabhecha is a small village in Haswa Block, predominantly a farmer community and surrounded by miles and miles of agriculture land. Ripe wheat danced to the warm evening breeze. It was here that Balkumar began his new life away from school. The decision to quit school proved to be an expensive bargain: for a year he toiled in the soil. His hands and feet turned coarse, and his eyes steely.
Balkumar’s mother and father had tilled and toiled in the same land for years. It was the only way of life they knew. They never attended school or formal trainings. Balkumar is the youngest of five siblings. Two elder sisters and two elder brothers are married now.
It worried Balkumar’s mother to see his son standing at the doorway of the cattle pen while his peers were in school. She envisioned and knew the path his son would follow down the years. It was no different to her’s. She saw the anguish in her son’s eyes too. “One day I told him to go to the learning centre if he wished to. He didn’t know anything. I thought he would at least learn something. I said to him, ‘If you don’t study you have to work just like us’,” said his mother Geeta Devi plainly as she could. She was surprised that her son went to REC the next day itself. “His Hindi was very poor when he first came. He couldn’t read or write. He needed handhold support even with math too,” said Kajal, the REC teacher.
At the REC, just a stone throw from Balkumar’s house, his teacher Kajal spread out a mat at the veranda. There in the cool shade of the house, more than 30 children gathered for five evenings in a week. An open classroom with just a dark green board and white chalks belies the substance of learning received here.
Children are taught Hindi and Maths for four days and one day is kept for fun learning through activities and games. “After attending REC, I began to understand. I learned to read and write,” said Balkumar. “Here I’m paid more attention. The teacher come to my seat and teaches me personally. I can ask anything, something I can’t do in school.” According to the National University of Educational Planing and Administration report (2015-2016) the average teacher per school in Fatehpur is 4.1.
REC is an innovative approach and community-led process that seeks to ensure learning support to children of age 6-14 years, in the community to inculcate basic knowledge about reading, writing, math and life skills. Every study centre has a teacher and free classes are given for two hours. It is to ensure that children attain appropriate age learning and also develop foundational, essential and applied life skills.
Children at REC are placed in three categories to make it easier for assessment and learning: level A (5+grade), level B (3-4 grade) and level C (1-2grade); A being the highest level. Teaching Learning Materials (TLMs) are developed by REC facilitators, aligned to the mainstream education. Exclusive monthly reviews and academic planning is done.
Balkumar is in level B. He stood next to the dark-green board and wrote sentences in Hindi as the teacher dictated. He even demonstrated his math skills, which is his favourite subject now. Mobility rate from level C to B for intervention group in Lalitpur is 18.9% where as for control group (non-intervention area) is 5.7. The mobility rate from B to A for intervention group is 8.5%, where as for control group is 00%.
At Haswa Block in Fatehpur District, World Vision India has set up 225 Remedial Education Centres in 31 villages covering 8226 households. At present 4800 poor performing children are enrolled in these centres and monitored every month to track their progress of reading and comprehension of local language and basic math. World Vision India has set up 1028 Remedial Education Centre across 4 states in India.
According to the District Report cards 2015-2016 by National University of Educational Planing and Administration, the percentage of school dropouts increases from 2.25% in 2nd standard to 15.78% in the 8th Standard in Fatehpur. The highest drop-out rate is recorded at 15.87% in the 7th standard. This is a crucial stage where according to WVI’s reading test competencies: children must learn to read a passage of local authentic text and must be able to respond to two act retrieval questions.
Both REC monitoring report and LQAS (Lot quality assurance sampling) reports show that there is a considerable improvement in the learning achievement of children. The Functional literate which was 22% in baseline survey has increased to 38% as per LQAS 2017. Similarly REC monitoring revealed that out of 4800 children, 1378 children made progress in Hindi and 1232 children in Math.
“When I joined REC I had no intention of going back to school but I began to understand so I asked my brother to take admission in school. I wanted to return to school,” said Balkumar. His brother is one of the few graduates in the village and also the village quack. Balkamur was admitted in the 7th standard. After a year’s break, he returned to school. He walked 4 km to school each day. On hot day when temperature soared to 45˚C, attending school is not easy, but he believed he had seen the worst, working in the paddy field.
At REC, Balkumar stood out because he was taller and looked older. He had wasted a couple of years but he is determined to stay in school and become an army officer. His mother has a very simple advice for him, “Just study hard and everything will be all right.”