The Learning Curve

The Annual Status Education Report ASER 2005 painted a grim picture of Bathinda. But rescue has come in the form of a project called Learning to Read

SARANDEEP Kaur, 6, is a small girl with a huge smile. Dressed in an oversized blue salwar-kameez, she turns a deep shade of pink as she reads out two stories, and does three formidable additions and subtractions. Six months ago, this class II girl of Govt Primary School at Kamalu village could not even recognise alphabets, and the less said the better about arithmetic. Today, she is the poster girl for Learning to Read L2R, a community-administration effort spearheaded by an NGO called Pratham in 100 schools of Bathinda district.

Daughter of dairy farmer Harsha Singh, Sarandeep is among the 4,262 children who8217;ve lapped up the three Rs under this programme that got rolling in April. For the twin villages of Kamalu-Siwach tucked away in the depressing boondocks of Talwandi Sabo, miles away from bright city lights and prosperity, L2R spells hope for the future.

As Sarpanch Shanti Kaur puts it: 8216;8217;Thank God, our children have finally begun to read and write. May be, they will one day be freed from this drudgery of farming.8217;8217;

Vivek Sharma, the state coordinator for Pratham, and the brain behind L2R, was more concerned with improving the 3Rs when he conceived this programme soon after reading the Annual Status Education Report ASER 2005 that painted a grim picture of Bathinda. 8216;8217;It had found that over 82 per cent of kids in class II to V could not read a simple story in Punjabi and 62 per cent were a zero at subtraction,8217;8217; recalls Sharma.

Things began to fall in place when he found an enthusiastic partner in Rahul Bhandari, the young deputy commissioner, and a generous donor in Om Singla, an NRI philanthropist from Bathinda.

Soon the almost all-girl army of 100 Sikhya Mittars Friends of teaching governed by nine-odd supervisors and an academic head, was in place along with a learning model that stressed on phonetics and story-telling. Children were tested for their skills in 3 Rs and then clubbed into two classes of 25 each, one to be taught before recess and the other after. Six months on, it has reaped rich results with 79.5 per cent of its children learning to read, and 89 per cent getting proficient in maths.

It8217;s quite evident at the Govt Primary School, Harijan Basti, in Kot Fatta village which is alive with barefoot students in tattered clothes feasting on mid-day meals and the 3Rs. Head teacher Surjeet Kaur says it8217;s a miracle of sorts given the fact their parents are unlettered.

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Vivek, who has faith in every child8217;s ability to learn, attributes this success to the Sikhya Mittars, girls from villages under the project, who taught without using the rod. Thanks to this, the dropout rate has been negligible and the collateral benefits overwhelming. The project has ensured community participation like never before.

The teachers, most of them gawky girls who have passed out of school, have blossomed into confident m8217;ams respected by both young and old. It8217;s also been a learning experience for many veterans like Karamjit Kaur, head teacher of Govt Primary School, Chanser Basti, Bathinda. 8216;8216;I want to incorporate this teaching methodology in the regular classes,8217;8217; she declares.

So does DC Rahul Bhandari who has already started the process of gathering resources under government schemes to ensure the project continues.

As for Vivek Sharma, he8217;s got more work on his plate with the HP Govt deciding to replicate the Bathinda model in 2,000 cluster schools.