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The
organization will establish three model
schools (Uday Pathshala) with objectives of
setting standards for education. These
education centers will be owned by the
community. It is expected that once a
certain quality is provided and observed and
perceived by the community it will demand a
similar level of quality from the other
educational facilities in the area -
especially government facilities. It is
expected that with this understanding people
will generate political pressure for
improvement in government schools. In the
case of private schools it will perhaps be
easier as they would then be expected to
provide that quality in order to stay in
business.
These schools will
also create models of alternative ownership
of schools, which till date are known to be
owned either by government or private
entrepreneurs. The community finds itself
stuck between the two worst options: a
school that does not work and a school that
is not accountable.
Any community if it
has and feels the ownership will be
concerned about the quality of the school
and the education that it is providing. It
is expected that over time seeing the
benefit in having community schools, the
government would be able to convert some of
its schools into community owned and managed
schools.
A quality school is
something that the community is conscious
of. And the presence of such a school is
primary to ensure that the communities seek
quality in other schools. The project aims
to have a concerted approach on bringing
about the consciousness in the community to
levels where they begin demanding change and
the presence of the school will ensure that
the change that the communities demand is
sustained.
The success of this
project is not in making the schools that
are set up run effectively but in bringing a
change in the way the other schools in the
area operate.
The government has
been trying to improve the education system
of the state for long. Their first priority
was in ensuring "reach" to education by any
means and which they did by setting up
rather sub-standard schools. This led to a
crisis of quality, which the government is
still not in a position to address. There is
an assumption that improved quality implies
better infrastructure.
GSK aims to address
this issue of quality squarely and provide
an option that is easily adaptable and
implement-able in the government school
sphere. The first element is in developing a
truly community led and owned school. A
school where the community has a major say
in deciding what is taught and where the
children do not get alienated from the rural
area as a result of education.
Education and its
relevance have been debated long enough;
through the GSK approach we would like to
provide it a solid grounding to this
approach in practice. We would like to be
able to link education with the rural
(rather than the urban) economy.
Purpose /
Goals
Setting Standards of
quality in school education establishing
model of community owned school evolving
pedagogy and curriculum for relevant
education
Mission
Statement
Gramin Shiksha Kendra
will over a ten-year period set up three
high quality learning-centres and schools in
the Sawai Madhopur and Khandar blocks of
Sawai Madhopur district. This will help
communities see and learn what quality in
education actually means. In addition,
through a community outreach programme,
encourages them to demand better quality of
education from the existing governmental
school system and the private sector. Gramin
Shiksha Kendra will also design, develop and
implement a curriculum and evolve a pedagogy
which makes education more relevant to
people's lives in the rural areas and gives
them the information necessary to take
informed decisions and make informed choices
about their livelihoods and their future.
Please
click here
for more
information on
this project.
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