Maithon Power Limited (A Joint Venture of TATA Power and Damodar Valley Corporation) in association with ‘Pratham’, a non governmental organization has undertaken an extensive and aggressive education outreach The Block Excellence Program’ in the Nirsa block of Dhanbad, Jharkand. The program aims at improving the learning level of children between the age group 5 to 14 years and has reached out to 13,460 school students across 262 villages in Nirsa within a span of two years.
‘The Block Excellence Program’ was designed and initiated post a detailed study undertaken to assess the existing education level and system in the villages. A survey conducted by Pratham highlighted that about 40%-50% of the children in theNirsa block were between the 5 to 14 years age group; however, their education standardwas significantly below the accepted national standards. The pre test learning levels conducted for 6500 children studying in class Ito V Standard putforth a startling revelationthat only 4500 children met the national standards of learning. Taking cognizance of this disparity, TATA Power rolled out ‘TheBlock Excellence Program’in 2009-2010 across 100 villages in the region covering around 6800 students.
The success of the first phase paved the way for scaling up the program’s reach subsequently to the entire Nirsa block of 262 villages, covering 13460 students (6613 boys and 6847 girls). The project is under implementation across 227 primary/middle schools and 73 community classes (for children involved in labor and also drop out cases).
Following the high response and positive results of the ‘The Block Excellence Program’,Pratham organized a day long workshop called ‘MANTHAN’on 13th Jan 2012. The Workshop was conducted among the implementing team comprising of cluster/block coordinators to discuss the achievements of last year’s efforts in terms of learning improvements, community mobilization, skill development of youths through EfE (Education for Education)etc.
The basic theme of‘MANTHAN’ was to reflect upon the achievements, learning’s, challenges in a way where legacies of the past can pave the way for a better future with better planning. Each cluster coordinator presented their achievements through chart papers highlighting specific reason why particular villages achieved better results, and why some villages need more efforts.
It was positively reflected in‘MANTHAN’ that the ‘The Block Excellence Program’ has deployed a unique and active approach towards learning i.e. learning by doing, hinging on non textual based activities to promote the culture of education and imparting knowledge. For eg: Concepts regarding addition and subtraction are taught with stick of bundles. Similarly, pre school students are engaged in basic mathematics using colored balls to enable learning of numbers and identifying colors, simultaneously. The curriculum also includes English songs to help students achieve the required comfort level to speak and understand the language.
The concerted effort through TATA Power Pratham ‘Block Excellence program’ has led to a 70 to 75% increase in the learning level of children and active participation of the community and parents in their education and education system, as a whole. This has led to a vast improvement in the overall education scenario in the Nirsa block.
Speaking on the initiative, Mr Praveer Sinha (EVP and PD, Eastern Region Projects of TATA Power) said that ”We are glad with the success that this initiative has accomplished. 70 to 75% improvement in the learning level of our targeted children achieved around 800 village youth is a very significant achievement. We at TATA Power will continue in our efforts to improve the quality of life among people around our place of operations and the community as a whole.”
As an extension to this initiative TATA Power Pratham also facilitated INTEL certified certificates on basic computer skills to around 100 village youth. One of the biggest achievements was the demand of community for spoken English courses, responding to which Pratham rolled out 10 spoken English classes for youths along with computer courses. Similarly all the team members of Pratham that constituted almost all the local people got enrolled in “Diploma in Community Leadership in Education” recognized by IGNOU-Pratham Community College.
