Sarita - Community based teacher using teaching aids

TEACH Plus and the Reading Room Program for children of primary school going age, under Government of India’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan - SSA

In 2003 ABHAS started 15 learning centres under SSA which were attended by 650 never enrolled & drop out children between 6 to 14 years of age. More than 80% of these children were mainstreamed from these centres in primary schools. Besides, 200 children of primary school going age were identified and directly enrolled in schools.

ABHAS also started providing academic coaching to primary school going children as a means of sustaining at risk children in schools and successful transition to higher classes. The above program was scaled up and expanded to provide quality education to all children both out of school and school and ensuring their successful going.

The USAID supported Reach India Program has  helped ABHAS to achieve the objective of enrolling and mainstreaming more and more children to government schools  by running  community based bridge centers for out of school children.

Teachers attending workshop

During the two and half years of the project ABHAS successfully enrolled 715 out of school children in formal schools and developed linkages with the 12 primary schools in the area. ABHAS has been able to set up reading rooms in each of the schools to improve the reading habits of the children.

ABHAS has been able to advocate for learning spaces within the school to improve retention and Municipal Corporation of Delhi-MCD gained the participation of the school teachers and head masters and MCD officials in its education program.

The REACH project was instrumental in building the capacities of the educators to provide quality education through improved teaching learning processes.  The best practices have been adopted in other projects and the knowledge and skills acquired by the educators has enabled us to continue the knowledge and skills acquired by the educators has enabled us to continue the project.

The children who were mainstreamed to the government schools were then followed up through the TEACH Plus project.

The TEACH Plus Program was started in Jan 2007, in response to improving quality education   and enhancing retention of children in the context of the urban disadvantaged child. ABHAS collaborated with World Education India (WEI) to pilot TEACH Plus which is an innovative integrated education model that responds to the needs of underprivileged girls living in Tughlakabad, one of New Delhi’s slum communities. The goal of the program was to increase retention in and completion of lower and upper primary school amongst vulnerable children living in this slum community in Delhi.

Children enjoying the Library reading session

To accomplish this, the program works to generate systemic change in teaching and learning processes and fosters a process of school-community dialogue that ensures improved effectiveness of government schools in Delhi.

TEACH Plus program is a quality education initiative of ABHAS for the urban disadvantaged. The program enabled us to enhance the Learning achievements of poor academic achievers by designing Learning Achievement Tests for classes 1 to 5, administering these in Government schools and helping teachers and students to enhance performance levels of children in schools. This has been achieved by setting up School and Community based retention centres and has since benefited more than 700 primary school and out of school children.

This project is now being supported by the ESSEL Social Welfare Foundation.