I arrived in Delhi from Amritsar last night at 11pm and flew to the capital of Bihar, Patna, this morning at 10am. I'm traveling to the Sitamarhi District (which borders on Nepal) with Pratham North India Director, Rukmini Banerji, who helps coordinate Pratham's Bihar programs and is my mentor on this project.
On the plane this morning (while half-asleep, but don't tell her...) I interviewed Ma'am about the Bihar summer camp program and Pratham's history in Bihar. Here's a condensed version of the interview:A great intro to Pratham's work in Bihar is available at the PrathamUK YouTube channel (narrated by the best voice I've ever heard in my life):
 | Pratham in Bihar |
Pratham's first venture into summer camps was in the summer of 2006 in Bihar (touched on in the film above). These camps were for girls ; girls who had not been to school before and for girls who were in school but were not able to read fluently. The 2006 summer camps were carried out jointly by three partners: Bihar Education Project (BEP, which is the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Ministry of the Bihari Government), Pratham, and UNICEF. Throughout the summer vacation in June, these summer camps ran in 2 blocks of every district in Bihar.
The successful experience of the summer camps led Pratham, BEP, and UNICEF to work in a more long-run partnership. A larger joint program called "Sankalp" was launched in late 2006 in 7 of Bihar's most educationally weak districts. The aim of Sankalp was to improve basic learning levels and ensure that all children were enrolled in school and attending regularly. Pratham integrated its Read India campaign into Sankalp. In 2008, 10 more districts have been added to the Sankalp program.
For the 2008 summer camps in Bihar, the target groups are children in Std 3, 4 and 5 who are not yet able to read sentences or do simple arithmetic operations. The aim is that by the time regular schools open in July, children who had fallen behind academically will have made up lost ground. To reach this goal, 2 government school teachers or para-teachers will work in school during the summer and will be joined by 1-2 village volunteers who have been mobilized by Pratham. While government summer camps will run in all schools in the state; in 20 districts, Pratham teams will serve as volunteers while other Pratham members will constantly visit schools, observing camps and supporting teachers and volunteers.
Bihar has 37 districts and about 65,000 government primary schools. Pratham has a presence in 19 districts and has mobilized close to 50,000 volunteers - 1 or 2 village volunteers in each one of 30,000 villages/schools. In all summer camps should benefit close to 3.5 million children across the state.
Side-note highlight of the day:
During a large meeting this evening with all Sitamarhi Block Coordinators, I noticed one Block Coordinator wearing a purple t-shirt with the words "Apes Never Kill Apes" on it-- a reference to The Planet of the Apes movies... I didn't know that the Pratham Bihar team was so well-versed in late 60s American sci-fi cinema....
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www.pratham.org
www.readindia.org
www.prathamusa.org
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