Girl Child Education

Project-2: Girl Child Education Program

Institute for Development Support with the partnership of IIMPACT is continuously facilitating Girls Child Education Program in the 3 districts i.e. Dehradun, Uttarkashi district and Sirmour, HP. The program provides free quality educational opportunity to girls aged 6-14 years from socially and economically disadvantaged community of selected area. The objectives of the program are

(a) Provide meaningful and stimulating education to girls and guide their entry into formal schooling.

(b) Empower and mobilize girls child to become active change agent in their community by helping change society and mind sets around them.

The key activities under the program are described below.

Operation of the Learning Centers The learning centers are community based located closed to girl's home to facilitate access and to deal with potential parental concerns. The presence of the female teachers also helps them overcome their inhibitions. Each and every center is being operated for 4-5 hours per day. The continuous involvement of the parents in the management of the centers eventually gives total ownership of primary education to the local community which helps in the retention of the girls facilitating continuous learning.

The education model ensures that there is flexibility and adaptability of pace of teaching, teaching methodology, school time table, etc., that suits every out of school girl and no such girl is left out of the program in the project area/villages. The numbers of operational learning centers in both the state are given below.

S.N.	Name of district	No of Learning Center	No of Girl child
1	Dehradun	51	1530
2	Uttarkashi	98	2842
3	Sirmour, HP	15	430
		164	4802

Training of Teachers
Teachers are the key to meaningful learning and education selected from local villages itself after well laid down process. An education system succeeds or fails due to quality of its teacher. Therefore, valuing and investment in teachers is a necessity. IDS is conducting quarterly teachers training workshops seeking to improve teacher's subjective knowledge and innovation in teaching skills. The teachers are also trained is issues like health, hygiene, nutrition, and environmental sanitation including preparation of learning material.

Community mobilization and meeting
Center Management Committee (CMC) is organized by IDS for the management of each and every learning center. The parents and members of village community are the members of the committee. Interaction meeting with the larger community members is a regular activity to ensure participation in educating girls. The main aim of the meetings is to discuss the academic progress of the children as also attendance issues with the parents. Parents are also provided orientation on various aspects of their children's development. Apart from academic discussion, issues related to child protection, health, nutrition are also discussed so that they can guide their children properly at home to lead a healthy life. The CMC also provides infrastructural support to operate the learning center.