|
Summer Learning Camps
as part of READ ORISSA campaign flagged off
Pratham, a well known non-governmental organization
working in the field of primary education has released its
Annual Status of Education Report (ASER 2007) at a
function held at the Kala Vikash Kendra Auditorium on 10th
May 2008. The report measures learning levels of primary
school children in the age group of 6-14 in the rural
areas of the country. The survey is based on data
collected from 30 villages randomly selected from each
district. The survey among various other important
findings, shows that more than 50% of primary school
children are unable to read a Std II level text. The
function was attended among others Smt. Laxmi Bilasini
Biswal, Zilla Parishad Chairman - Cuttack, Sri Dharmesh
Nayak, Corporator Ward II and Sri Biplab Kishore Nayak, a
noted social worker. Smt. Biswal in her address
appreciated the work being done by Pratham and pledged all
help from her to make the campaign effective. Other
speakers encouraged the gathered audience to become part
of the campaign and help make Orissa free of illiteracy.
To address the depressing finding of ASER, Pratham has
launched its 'Read Orissa' campaign with the aim of
achieving substantial improvement in the basic reading,
writing and arithmetic skills of all children in primary
schools. This campaign is part of the larger READ INDIA
campaign with the objective of ensuring that more than 80%
of our children are able read fluently by end of the year
2009.
Pratham is partnering with the Orissa Primary Education
Program Authority (OPEPA), education department, district
and block level officials, teachers, PRI members, NGOs and
large number of grass root level volunteers to achieve its
objective. The process will involve teacher's training,
creation of new teaching-learning material specific to
local context yet based on existing curriculum, use of
accelerated learning methodologies developed by Pratham
and rigorous testing and monitoring. Pratham is planning a
number of activities this year in a campaign mode to try
and reach every child in a government run primary school
and those out of school in rural areas of Orissa.
Pratham intends to make its Accelerated Learning Programme
accessible to every child in rural Orissa through a one
month summer camp starting around 15th May 2008. Towards
this goal, volunteers, teachers, PRI members and others
will be mobilized in all rural areas and at last one
volunteer will be identified in each of Orissa's 51000
villages who will conduct the summer camps in the local
government school.
Earlier in the day he summer campaign was flagged off in
Cuttack at a rally that started at College square by Sri
Dharmesh Nayak- Corporator and went to Samaj office to pay
respect to Gopabandhu's statue in presence of Smt.
Annapurna Maharana who implored the 200 strong youth
activists of Pratham to follow in the footsteps of
Gopabandhu and Madhu babu and help build the Orissa of
their dreams.
For more details contact:
Puspa Parida, State Coordinator, Ph. 9861442167
Dhanada Kanta Mishra, State Adviser, Ph. 9437513080 |
