EVERY CHILD CAN

A Campaign to ensure basic reading and arithmetic skills for all children

Newsletter Issue 3 June 2012

In this issue
READ works to improve reading levels P1 Aruni shows the way P1 NEEDS survey in Srivilliputhur P2 Every Child Can in the Press P2 Volunteers take up campaign challenge P2 Above: Volunteers from the NGO READ conducting a parents meet after the evaluation of children and discussing the how parents can get involved in their childrens education

Aruni shows the way!

READ works to improve reading levels!

READ (Rights Education and Development Center) is an NGO working in Erode district, mainly with the dalit community. They have done learning audits in 18 villages in Sathyamangalam block, and surveyed about 300 children. A majority of people living in these villages are Arunthathiyars, who not only belong to the dalit community, but are an oppressed group even among dalits, due to the occupations that they are associated with. READs findings show that reading and math levels among Arunthathiyars are even lower than what is observed in other villages. In Kolinjanur village, 13 out of 17 children could not even read simple sentences in Tamil. In Nanjappan Goundan udhur village, only 4 out of 23 children in classes 3-5 could subtract, a skill expected in class 2. Overall, only 36% children could subtract. They have also got the community involved in the process. At the parents meeting in Moonu veedu village, a parent who works in the teachers house said our teachers teach well, but our children are not able to learn. But the other parents were agitated and asked if that is the case, why are so many children not able to do the sums correctly? In PanayamPalli, when parents met the HM, he tried to erach out to them he invited them to come and observe classes in the school and give comments! READ is determined to follow up with these villages and ensure that all children acquire basic skills. We wish them good luck in their endeavours!

Aruni, a graduate and a home-maker attended the campaign event in Vellore (see May issue of newsletter) out of her own interest. When she learned about the learning quality problem, she wanted to do her bit, and started a class for 15 children in her native Thuraippadi village in Vellore, with the goal of ensuring basic skills for all. She came with innovative methods to teach them. When one boy could not recognize numbers, she used the remote of her TV and got him to learn numerals by pressing numbers on it! She has now requested for learning materials and training, which the Eureka team in Vellore has promised to provide, to help achieve her goal!

NEEDS survey in Srivilliputhur

Rajapandi from Trichy district reports that an orientation and training on the Every Child Can campaign was given to about 35 volunteers of NEEDS (Nethers Economic and Educational Development Society) NGO at Srivilliputhur Block, and 15 volunteers of FORD (Foundation for Rural Development) NGO in Aruppukkottai block, both in Virudunagar District. Volunteers from NEEDS have conducted the audit in 4 villages. They also later met the parents in the village and discussed about the findings from their evaluation and urged them to follow up with the school. One interesting feature of the NEEDS initiative is the involvement of volunteers from local womens groups. Many women, who also happened to be mothers, took part in the learning audit. They were shocked by the results of the audit, and are also determined to do this survey with children in their own villages!

Every Child Can in the News!!!

Clippings of press coverage about the training for NEEDS volunteers

Volunteers take up campaign challenge

At a meeting of called to discuss about the plan for campaign month during July 2012, volunteers from various corporates took up a challenge of reaching out to 100 villages! A group of 30 volunteers from the outreach wing of Cognizant are travelling to villages every Saturday to perform the learning audit. Findings of Cognizant volunteers will be shared in our next issue of newsletter. Bhargav from Bhumi was thrilled about the campaign and has promised to get Bhumi volunteers to participate in the campaign. Eureka volunteers Aurn and Vikrant immediately signed up to visit a village the next weekend and perform the audit themselves.

More information about the campaign at http://www.everychildcan.in

Selva Ganapathy: 97909 51652 Gowri : 98405 60521