OREANDA-NEWS. January 25, 2012. Maithon Power (a joint venture of Tata Power and Damodar Valley Corporation) in association with Pratham, a non-governmental organisation, has undertaken an extensive and aggressive education outreach, The Block Excellence Program, in the Nirsa block of Dhanbad, Jharkand. The programme aims at improving the learning skills of children between the age group 5-14 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 education levels and systems in the villages. A survey conducted by Pratham highlighted that about 40-50 per cent of the children in Nirsa block were between the 5-14 age group; however, their education standard was significantly below the accepted national standards. The pre-test learning levels conducted for 6,500 children studying in Classes 1 to 5 put forth a startling revelation that only 4,500 children met the national standards of learning. Taking cognisance of this disparity, Tata Power rolled out The Block Excellence Program in 2009-2010 across 100 villages in the region, covering around 6,800 students.

The success of the first phase paved the way for scaling up the programme’s reach to the entire Nirsa block of 262 villages, covering 13,460 students (6,613 boys and 6,847 girls). The project is being implemented across 227 primary / middle schools and 73 community classes (for children involved in labour and also drop-out students).

Following the high response to and positive results of the The Block Excellence Program, Pratham organised a day-long workshop called Manthan on January 13, 2012. The workshop was conducted for the implementing team comprising cluster / block coordinators to discuss the achievements of last year’s efforts in terms of learning improvements, community mobilisation, skill development of youth through the Education for Education initiative, etc.

The basic theme of Manthan was to reflect upon the achievements, learnings and challenges in a way where legacies of the past could pave the way for a better future with better planning. Cluster coordinators presented their achievements through chart papers highlighting specific reasons why particular villages achieved better results, and why some villages needed more efforts.

It was positively reflected in Manthan that the The Block Excellence Program has deployed a unique and active approach towards learning — learning by doing, hinging on non-textual activities to promote the culture of education and imparting of knowledge. For example, concepts regarding addition and subtraction are taught with bundles of sticks. Similarly, pre-school students are engaged in basic mathematics activities using coloured balls to enable the learning of numbers and colours 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 70-75 per cent increase in the learning levels of children and active participation of the community and parents in their education and the education system as a whole. This has led to a vast improvement in the overall education scenario in Nirsa block.

Speaking on the initiative, Praveer Sinha, EVP and PD, eastern region projects, Tata Power, said, ”We are glad with the success that this initiative has accomplished. The 70-75 per cent improvement in the learning level of targeted children and of around 800 village youth is a significant achievement. We at Tata Power will continue in our efforts to improve the quality of life of people around our place of operations and the community as a whole.”

As an extension of this initiative, Tata Power - Pratham also awarded Intel-certified certificates for basic computer skills to around 100 village youth. One of the biggest achievements was the roll out of 10 spoken English classes for youth, along with computer courses, in response to the demand for spoken English courses by the community. Similarly all the team members of Pratham enrolled for a Diploma in Community Leadership in Education, recognised by IGNOU-Pratham Community College.