A Better Than The Best Educational Institute

In my profession I have to travel a lot across Assam and India. Its a very common view in Assam is that big Hoardings of different coaching centers positioning them or their service as a unbeatable one. They target from class 1.I have no problem with that, they are doing their business. My question is that why so much of  private coaching center are coming up. Dose it indicate the decline in the quality of government education system as well as private schools who demands a healthy amount for quality education from the guardians.

In ASER 2011 report it reflect that the magnitude of private tuition in rural Assam is constantly increasing. The trend shows a upward growth  for both government school students and private school going students.

Here a question arise, why these primary and upper primary level students need tuition. Dose it indicate a huge change in curriculum?  If yes, then how these private coaching institutes can cater those child's requirement? As they don't have proper training about the curriculum and the teaching methodology of the new one. 

Another question is about the capacity of the teachers! teachers may not be adequately qualified to teach those child. If they are not qualified then why they were appointed? 

Is there a gap in teachers training! If yes then why there is no provision for proper training? And if a private tutor can improve himself then why the teachers cannot.

Mostly it seems that those private tutorial classes caters only those child who are already performing quite well, not to those child who are weak in academics.

What ever may be the reason private coaching center are going to be a parallel education system. A child who reads in class 4 or class 5 getting to different instruction in coaching center and in school create a lots of confusion. In such situation dose these private coaching center help them to develop better knowledge. 

I leave all these questions for you to answer!

CAPACITY BUILDING AND PRATHAM WORK IN ASSAM

Skill train are important to improve the livelihood of the poor people. Now a days population explosion is no more a head-ache for the policy makers, rather now they are changing their version by using the term called "Demographic dividend". in simple term they are now more optimistic about the large pool of young population of India. It is very much true that young and active population can help the nation to grow fast. But there is a problem, we have a large pool of young and active population but without any skill. An individual cannot earn enough without skill. They are most likely engaged as a disguised labor. 

"Pratham" is an organisation primarily work with primary education. It uses community volunteer to teach the local child. Normally those volunteers are unpaid. Its a big challenge to raise unpaid volunteer in present context, but it is too expensive to pay them a lump sum also. basically most of the volunteers are economically not very sound, there for paying lump-sum is not a permanent solution to those volunteers' economic condition. Then the concept of EFE emerged. EFE means "education for education", which means volunteers give education to the kids and in exchange they take some vocational education like "digital literacy" "beautician" "cutting knitting" etc. Now it is being reflected in many aspect that all stack holders in this process is being benefited and compensated justifiably. 

I have visited many villages across the state where Pratham is working and seen many young people are getting an opportunities to earn. Few people are engaged with Adhar project after getting digital literacy, few ladies have become beauty consultant in their respective village or in their respective hamlet with an sustainable income source. 

I personally feel that if this can scale up to a large scale it will help us to have a educated and smiling rural Assam, India.  

Madhya Pradesh ASER2010 experience

It was 4th February 2011 when i reached Bhopal for ASER 2010 resurvey in M.P. After 3 days of orientation we moved to our respective districts. My district was Balaghat, a big district with eight blocks. After reaching there we found that it would be better to conduct the survey in a single phase rather than two phase. So we planned to raised volunteers. We targeted B. Ed colleges for our purpose. We got a very wonderful response from the colleges and we successfully collected 54 volunteers for the survey. All volunteers were B. Ed students and were very keen to the survey.

After that we conducted our training session according to the schedule. In between the training two person from a local NGO came to the venue. They were interested to participate in the process. They tried to convince us about their creditability. Suddenly they changed their topic and came to monetary matter. They asked about our budget and I told them. After listening to the budget they became less interested. After that they start questioning on ASER reports reliability. I tried my best to convince them but they were not listening. They started advising me regarding the survey process. After listening to their advices I offered them to have a field visit with us. They went away without saying anything.

During the Survey period I was very busy and i forgot about them. After the completion of survey, while our rechecking process was going on they again came to me. Now they are with a different issue. They started blaming us that we are following a wrong process and what ever results coming is not realistic. Balaghat is a very developed district with respect of education. What ever reports come from government Balaghat always do well. Almost all students go to Pvt school. I was surprised to know about that. What a myopic analysis was that. I did not tell them any thing. I just sow them few of our formates and met few of our volunteers. After seeing the formates and listening to the volunteers they had nothing to say. They went away. After wards i went to know that actually they were messenger of District Education Department.

Rural Student Cannot Read , Subtract and Divide

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2011 depicts a gloomy picture of the quality of education in Rural Assam. A shocking  reflection of poor reading and arithmetic abilities, report says that 50.8% of class Five children cannot read even class 2 level text (Story in the above picture). Similarly 76% children cannot solve Division problems and 54% children cannot solve borrowing subtraction from the same class in Assam.

The time series analysis shows a significant trend of increase in the percentage of children who cannot read class 2 level text at class 5 and same trend reflects in basic calculation also. 

tools used in ASER to assess the Reading and Basic Mathematics of child

Why North East & Kashmir rebel

One is at extreme North, other is at extreme north east, both places are extremely blessed by the nature. Both has some similarities, like both are connected by a thin line of land to the main land of India. Both are still to explore completely, main land people still miss understood about their socio-cultural background etc.Most common thing is that both has a prolonged history of blood shedding history of rebel. Natural death is the most unnatural thing in both places.
It is an common notion that the terrorism in Kashmir is totally different from the terrorism in north east, but that is not true. The history and nature of terrorism in both places are mostly same.
In North East rebel started in early sixties with the rebel of Naga Hills. They refused to stay with the newly formed India. It was not an immediate result of any regional politics, it was a result of prolonged negligence. This particular piece of land is still an unknown corner for a lots of Indians. Same thing happens with kashmir valley.
If we see the sociological and political history of both places, it is prominent that most of these places are either autonomous or a free state before 1947.
In both places the terrorism is an tissue culture which turned into cancer. And they are supported by some other external power to rip the benefit of internal conflict.

ভগৱানৰ অতিকৈ আভিনৱ সৃষ্টি

ভগৱা্নক বাৰু কিবা এটা সৃষ্টি কৰিবলৈ কিমান সময় লাগে? নিশ্চয় কেইটামান মূর্হুত। কিন্তু এটা সৃষ্টিত তেওঁৰও বহু সময় লাগিছিল। ছদিন ধৰি ঈশ্বৰে কাম কৰি থকা দেখি এজন দেবদূতে অবাক বিশ্ময়ত প্রশ্ন কৰিলে,"প্রভূ, মাত্র এটি সৃষ্টিৰ বাবে আপুনি ইম্মান সময় লৈছে! আপুনি কি সৃষ্টি কৰিব বিচাৰি্ছে?"

ঈশ্বৰে কলে- মই এগৰাকী মা্তৃ সৃষ্টি কৰিছো। যি গৰাকীয়ে অকলে ১০ জনেৰ কাম কৰিব লাগিব।কেৱল চাহ আৰু উচ্ছিস্ট খায়েই জীয়াই থাকিব পাৰিব তেওঁ। তিনিটা শিশু একেলগে থাকিব পাৰিব তেওঁৰ কোলাত আৰু ছয় যোৰহাত থাকিব তেওঁৰ।

-তিন যোৰ চকু থাকিব।
- তিন যোৰ চকু থাকিব ?
-অ', তিন যোৰ চকু । সন্তান যেতিয়া কাষত থাকিব, তেতিয়া এযোৰ চকুৰে তেওঁ তাহাতৰ ওপৰত নজৰ ৰাখিব। সন্তান যেতিয়া দূৰত থাকিব, তেতিয়া এযোৰ চকুৰে তেওঁ তাহাতৰ ওপৰত নজৰ ৰাখিব, দ্বিতীয় যোৰ চকুৰে তেওঁ তাহাতি কি কথা লুকুৱাইছে বা লুকুৱাব বিছাৰিছে তাৰ সম্ভেদ ল'ব।

আৰু তৃতীয় যোৰ চকুৰে তেওঁ কি কৰিব?
-সেই তৃতীয় যোৰ চকুৰে সন্তানৰ চকুলৈ নোচোৱাকৈ্য়ে আৰু একো নোকোৱাকৈয়ে তেওঁ সিহঁতক জনাই দিব পাৰে যে তেওঁ সিহঁতক কিমান ভাল পায়।
-ছয়দিন ধৰি আপুনি একেৰাহে কাম কৰিছে ঈশ্বৰ, আজি আপুনি আলপ বিশ্রাম লোৱা দৰকাৰ।দেবদূতে কলে।
উত্তৰত ঈশ্বৰে কলেযে এতিয়া বিশ্রমৰ প্রশ্নই নুওঠে। মই মোৰ সবাতোকৈ প্রিয় সৃষ্টিৰ প্রায় শেষ পর্যায় পাইছো। অসুস্থ হলে তেওঁ নিজেই নিজেকে সুস্থ কৰি্তুলিব। আৰু মাত্র এমুঠী চাউলেৰে ছজনীয়া পৰিয়াল এটা অনায়াসে টোপনি যোৱাব পাৰে তেওঁ।
বিস্মিত দেবদুতে ঈশ্বৰৰ অনুমতিত সচেক্ষে এবাৰ মা নামেৰ বিস্ময়কৰ নাৰীক স্পর্শ কৰি কৈ উথিল হে ঈশ্বৰ আপুনি তেওঁক ইমান কোমল কৰি সৃষ্টি কৰিছে!?

তুমি ধাৰনাই কৰিব নোৱাৰা এই নৰম মা প্রয়োজনত কিমান কঠিন হব পাৰে। তুমি ভাবিবই নোৱাৰিবা যে তেওঁৰপক্ষে কি কি অসম্ভব কর্ম সম্পাদন কৰিব পাৰে। ধৈর্য শক্তিত তেওঁ হব তুলনাহীন আৰু ধাৰনক্ষমতাত সমুদ্রও হব তেওঁৰ তুলনাত অতিশয় ক্ষুদ্রাতিক্ষুদ্র।
-চিন্তা শক্তি থাকিবনে তেওঁৰ? চিন্তা কৰিব পাৰিবনে তেওঁ?
-কেৱল যে চিন্তা কৰিব পাৰিব তেনে নহয়, যুক্তি আৰু পৰামর্শ দিয়াৰ ক্ষেত্রত তেওঁ হ'ব অনন্য। ঈশ্বৰৰ অনুমতি সাপেক্ষে দেবদূতে আৰু এবাৰ স্পর্শ কৰিলে মা নামৰ বিস্ময়কৰ নাৰীৰ কপাল- কিন্তু ইয়াত বিন্দু বিন্দু পানী কিয় ঈশ্বৰ?
ঈশ্বৰে ক'লে-সেয়া পানী নহয়, অশ্রু।
-অশ্রু? অশ্রু কিয়?
মৃদু হাঁহি ইশ্বৰে ক্'লে এই অশ্রুই হৈছে তেওঁৰ সমস্ত আনন্দ-বেদনা-দুঃখ-কষ্ট-হতাশা-গৌৰব-ঘৃনা- মমতা-ভালবাসা আৰু একাকিত্ব প্রকাশৰ মাধ্যম।
এয়াই মা।