Implementing institution: Pratham e IPA
Country: India
Source: IPA
Execution period: 2005 - in progress
Plataforma de Prácticas Efectivas:
Sensitize the community to the importance of education for their children and their community.
Three interventions aimed at restructuring Local Education Committees (VECs) and empowering their members.
The training and organization of volunteers to conduct reading reinforcement sessions for illiterate children was the only intervention that has had an impact outside of school.
As part of the government’s strategy for elementary school called “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan”, India’s Ministry of Social Development established Village Education Committees (VECs) throughout the country in 2001. The purpose has been the integration of both local leaders and parents of students in an instance in charge of allocating resources to schools and monitoring their performance. In this way, the VECs are formed by 3 parents, a representative of the teachers and a representative of the local authority, the parents being appointed by their peers.
Innovation Poverty Action (IPA), in conjunction with the NGO Pratham, has carried out a series of three innovative interventions to empower parents who are members of VECs and increase the effectiveness of these bodies. The three interventions are based on a logic of progressive inclusion of the community through discussion groups at the community level and at the intercommunal level.
The first intervention includes the dissemination of information in small discussion groups across 65 rural communities about the education system in India, including its administrative structure, available resources and main challenges. The second intervention involves training community members to assess children’s ability to read a basic text and solve simple arithmetic problems. This intervention took place in conjunction with the first, but in 65 different communities. In addition to the two previous interventions, another group of 65 communities received the third intervention of the initiative. This included training volunteers in a simple technique to help children learn to read.
Overall, almost one third of India’s population still lives below the poverty line, with a large proportion living in rural areas. The main causes of poverty in these areas are the lack of access to productive assets, financial resources and other services such as health and education. The number of illiterates in the country has been fairly stable since the 1980s, fluctuating between 250 and 270 million people. In the youth population, the same number declined dramatically since the 1990s (from 64.5 million people to 25 million by 2015), although 30% of 15-29 year olds did not attend formal education. Most of them work in informal jobs in the agricultural sector or in basic services, which are characterized by low incomes and instability. Faced with this situation —and as part of a decentralization effort— the Indian Ministry of Education launched the Village Education Committees (VECs) program in the 1990s to improve the quality of teaching by involving the community.
The three interventions described above are part of an impact study carried out by Innovation Poverty Action (IPA). Its objective was to determine whether the dissemination of information and the training of individuals could have a positive impact on the functioning of Local Education Committees (VECs). 280 rural communities in the districts of Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh) were randomly selected and divided into 4 groups: the first one (A) received only the first intervention, while the second one (B) received the first two. The third group (C), received all interventions, and the last one (D), served as a control group. Comparison of the average results of each group – in terms of the functioning of the VECs and awareness on the part of the families – has shown that only group C had a significant impact, as it allowed individuals to improve teaching in their own communities and increase children’s reading ability by 7.9%. In terms of information, the set of interventions has increased community awareness of VECs by 3%.
Link: https://www.poverty-action.org/study/information-and-community-mobilization-rural-india
Report: Ver informe
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