Every Child Counts (ECC) is one such initiative or citizen’s campaign that has begun in Pune, with a clear focus of ensuring that every child of school going age i.e. 6 to 7 years of age gets admitted to a Government school by June 2012. The Government has taken the first major step by making a constitutional provision called the Right to Education. This means that every child of School going age has a right to free, formal education up to the primary Level. But it requires no rocket science to know that there exists a paradox within. In other words although the Government has made the right to education a fundamental need, there is a wide gap between the real head count of children who should be in school & the actual number of children who enter School & continue school education especially in the marginalized sections of society.
Every Child Counts (ECC), is therefore a campaign which any willing individual can join in his neighborhood and further the cause of education by identifying children of school going age, who are not attending school & by ensuring their admission in nearby Government schools, who as per this legislation, have to give admission. For this as a pilot project, ECC has tried to form volunteer groups in various Pune Municipal Corporation Areas such as Kondhawa, etc. The expertise and time of the volunteers is used in various ways including :
1. Mapping of areas of migrant population
2. Identifying the nearby schools
3. Contacting migrant parents
4. Enabling them to seek admission of their wards in nearby government schools.
The ECC campaign provides a group, resources and answers to all the doubts and questions a volunteer or parent or school authorities may raise about school admissions. They even have a weekly orientation for the children to be admitted fresh to school where by trained teacher take a weekly orientation program for them. Even the logistics of transport back and forth from school is looked into by this campaign. We only need to pledge our support to the campaign and pitch in with whatever help we can render. It does not require teaching at all, but requires the formation of a human chain of helping hands in the comfort of one’s neighborhood. It requires foot soldiers to take up the task in their own areas.
Who are these children who do not go to school? They are seen in the large population of migrant and casual labor dotting various construction camps in the city in the wards of Brick Kiln workers, children of vendors sitting on street corners who are all kept out of the formal schooling system because they need to move when their parents move. Surprisingly even the children of many domestic workers do not attend school.The ECC campaign has drawn up a systematic blue print for accomplishing this task for Pune by June, 2012. The campaign will however not end by merely enrolling the children in government schools but will go a step further in taking stock of children’s attendance, determining and assessing the problems and making relevant suggestions/ solutions for policy formulation and administrative handling, in short giving teeth to the legislation. Complete information regarding the campaign is available at :
http://everychildcounts-pune.blogspot.com
http://on.fb.me/eccpune
http://twitter.com/eccpune
There can be no better way of giving back to education and society what we have drawn from it. Believe me the spark in the eyes of these children when they are exposed to a learning environment and by bringing sunshine into their lives in this way we will also be contributing to our very own happiness/ satisfaction index. There can be no better way of promoting all inclusive growth and leaving a better society for the future than making the right to education campaign a reality. Taking a resolution that together we can and we will is all that is required to join the campaign.
Please Call:
Rajani Paranjpe - 9371007844
Mandar Shinde - 9822401246.
Sumangala Kumar (ECC Volunteer)
pnbsumangala@rediffmail.com
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