Akshara Foundation gifts libraries to Government schools in Bangalore

This Christmas of 2011 was special to many children. Children studying in 565 government primary schools in Bangalore were gifted with libraries equipped with multi-lingual books and computers by Akshara Foundation.

In 2006, Akshara started setting up libraries in government primary schools across the city after studies conducted by it showed that most children in these schools were reading much below their age-appropriate levels. Soon, libraries were set up to cater all the 1420 government primary schools in the city. The libraries were created to function in a hub-and-spoke fashion: each physical library served not just the students in the school in which it was housed, it would also serve other schools in the neighborhood. Librarians were appointed to not just "manage books" but also to meaningfully engage the children to inculcate reading habits. The libraries are stocked with close to 6.5 lakh books in various languages which cater to children from grades 2 to 7. On an average, 15,000 books are borrowed each day by the children.

After creating and running the program for over five years, Akshara is now handling over libraries to schools and the education department through a memorandum. As per the MoU, these libraries will be run and maintained by the department. Akshara is ensuring the smooth transition by also training the teachers, so that they can take over as librarians.

You can read more on this story in:

The Times of India : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Creating-a-reading-culture-and-love-for-knowledge/articleshow/11248533.cms

The Hindu : http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2743510.ece

Express Buzz : http://expressbuzz.com/cities/bangalore/sustainable-libraries-in-government-schools-soon/346532.html

Govt schools shut, children forced to work

The Government of Karnataka's decision to shut down schools that have an enrollment of less than five students is highly condemned. As many as 590 primary and 27 higher primary schools in Karnataka have less than five children this year. Government schools with less than 10 children enrolled in them numbered 2,557 in 2010-11.

The students and the teachers from the shut down schools are said to be shifted to near-by schools, but for many of the children who belong to these closed down schools, their education just ends there. Children like Satish Dharmaiah and Sophiya of Mariyamma Temple Lower Primary school in Tilaknagar are just some examples. Satish now works in a Mutton stall close to the school and Sophiya has not yet enrolled into any school as yet. Most of the parents of the children who used to study in this school do construction work in the slums. Most of them did not know that the school was to shut down. Some of the parents are making ends meet to send their children to the so called "low-cost" private schools in the locality. These schools are relative farther, and the parents have a difficulty to afford transportation to the new schools.

The authorities paint a different picture. According to the DPI (Department of Public Instruction) rules, teachers from the shut-down schools have to ensure that all the children are enrolled in other schools, but in reality, there is no such mechanism to ensure it. Mr. M Munireddy , BEO (Block Education Officer) of the South-3 block said that there were no children atall this year in the Mariayamma Temple school, but the attendance registers indicate that this year alone, there were 9 new admissions. Over all this, there is a dispute between the department and the temple authorities where the school was being run. The temple authorities have taken over the school building, while Mr. Munireddy denies it and says that he is unaware of any such activities.

The story is no different with other schools like Jayanagar 4th T block HP (Higher Primary) School, Ragigudda LPS and Ashoknagar LPS. These schools were shut down last year citing infrastructure and poor attendance reasons.

On December 3rd, litterateurs Dr G S Shivarudrappa, Prof. U R Ananthamurthy, Dr Girish Karnad and Dr Chandrashekar Kambar filed a PIL in High Court challenging closure of schools and requesting them to be reopened and strengthened.

The PIL says that closing schools violates children's right to free and compulsory education under Right To Education (RTE) Act, and specifically affects disadvantaged communities. Under RTE Act local government bodies have to maintain neighborhood schools, not state government.

Due to the shut down of the schools, one thing is certain - The future education of many a children from these schools are at stake as many of them will drop out of education forever !!

Source : Navya P.K. 's article in Citizen Matters

Celebrating Children's Day in Dharwad

Akshara decided to celebrate ‘Children’s day’ at Siddeshwarnagar Higher Primary School.

We reached the school around 8.30 am, teachers and children were just entering into school campus. We had declared the celebration as “My colour My day”. We tied 20 meters white cloth on the wall of the school. The natural colours like red, yellow, green, dark pink, beetroot colour, black, blue were kept in the plates. The children were interested to know what they were supposed to do. We announced that every child has to choose the colour they like and dip their tiny palm into it and print on the tied white cloth. They were so happy by listening this and as they were sitting on the ground after their daily prayer, we could see that some children started wiping their hand to keep themselves a clean hand to dip. This act was really wonderful to see that they had a good conscious of cleanliness. These children are from a cult called “Sudagadu siddaru”. These are actually nomadic people and speak ‘Telegu’. They earn their livelihood by telling fortunes and selling calendars. Around 250 houses are situated in this area and located on a hill surrounded by many small hills around. There is a small pond which welcomes people with lotus flowers in it. Basically many children are first generation learners here. Akshara had previously supported to these children in setting up of community libraries, preschool centers and reading programme in schools.

The ‘Palm print’ started with the class 1 children who went upto the colours kept and were early looking at all colours and couldn’t decide which to choose, but finally they chose their favourite colour and dipped their palm and started looking their palms instead of printing, their eyes were sparkling to see their hand full in their favourite colour. Finally when we called the child to print they happily came forward and printed their tiny hands. Their names were written by our field coordinators which made them very happy. It went on class wise as directed by their teachers, all the children were so happy to see their hand printing printed together. Even the teachers and SDMC president were happy to be a part of this event by printing their palms and engraving their names.

As a part of the programme, drawing competition was held for the children from class 2 to 7. Twenty three children participated in the drawing competition. They were given topic, “A favourite scene they remember”. All most all drew the ‘Rising sun, birds and houses’ which is very beautifully, commonly seen from their area. This shows that they appreciated the nature.

Finally, all the children were gifted with a pencil and a drawing book. They were very happy to take back with them. The SDMC and teachers thanked Akshara foundation for the opportunity created for the children of their school.

Economist: The Great Schools Revolution

The Economist has an extensive piece on lessons learned from the education reform agenda.


From Toronto to Wroclaw, London to Rome, pupils and teachers have been returning to the classroom after their summer break. But this September schools themselves are caught up in a global battle of ideas. In many countries education is at the forefront of political debate, and reformers desperate to improve their national performance are drawing examples of good practice from all over the world.

Why now? One answer is the sheer amount of data available on performance, not just within countries but between them. In 2000 the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) at the OECD, a rich-country club, began tracking academic attainment by the age of 15 in 32 countries. Many were shocked by where they came in the rankings. Other outfits, too, have been measuring how good or bad schools are. McKinsey, a consultancy, has monitored which education systems have improved most in recent years.

Read the full piece here.

Freedom of Expression on Independence Day

Kids from our Community Library in Periyar Nagar and Rajendra Nagar spent the Independence Day in a unique way. They painted the rear-wall of the Deccan Herald office in an event organized by Manasi Kirloskar, an ardent supporter of Akshara Foundation.

You can read the blog post on this event here : Kids express themselves on Independence Day

We have received a new bunch of pictures of the event. You can see them at : Wall Painting

Don't forget to post a comment on these pictures and write to us if you find an interesting shot !!

Target India inculcates reading habits on International Literacy Day

Target India, an extension of the US-based retail company, Target is working towards the cause of improving education by celebrating and supporting literacy. This year, to commemorate the International Literacy Day which was celebrated on 8th of September , Target India has worked towards raising the awareness on the importance of their employees being part of literacy campaigns. With the help of local NGOs, they distributed 5,000 books in slums in Bangalore to inculcate reading habits amongst children between class 3 and class 8.

The employees of Target have been dedicatedly working towards this book donation drive. They had formed three groups in three different parts of the city - RT Nagar, Bannerghatta Road and Hennur to collect and sort books according to age-groups for distribution.

On 8th of September, many volunteers from Target India, with the help of NGOs like United Way visited slums across the city to distribute books to the children and organized various games for the children which helped them to open up.

Efforts like this from the community are commendable and will surely go a long way in improving the status of literacy and education around the world.

Only 17 p.c. of Urdu-speaking children in Bangalore Urban go to Urdu schools

Akshara Foundation recently released a report on a study conducted on the Government Urdu primary Schools in Bangalore. A survey was conducted on all the 171 Urdu-medium government primary schools in the city and 25 HMs and 35 teachers from these schools were interviewed. Few of the highlights of the results are:

• Out of the 1,94,346 speaking children in the city, only 32,823 goto Urdu schools, constituting just about 17%.
  
• Around 20% of children are not enrolled in any schools. The remaining children are either enrolled in English/Kannada medium schools or Madrasas.
• 11% of the total Urdu medium schools have a student strength of 25 and below.
• There are only 4 Urdu medium high-schools and hence due to the low availability of secondary schools, the children are either forced to drop out after 8th grade or enroll into English/Kannada medium schools.

The team also conducted a parallel study on the economic background of the parents who send their children to Urdu-medium government schools.

You can read the complete report by clicking on this link : A study of Urdu Primary Schools in Bengaluru

The Hindu has analyzed this report and published the key findings. Please check the link to view the observations - http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2390922.ece