|
Background
AeA has been working in the education sector focusing on creating access to children from disadvantaged communities for the past twenty five years in India. Support to families and children to participate in education process, enhancing quality of education infrastructure and capacities of teachers and other support functionaries have been some of major investments that AeA has made for many years through its work with the partner NGOs in India. Creating child friendly education spaces out side school has also been one creative and innovative way of addressing holistic education and has been accomplished through innovative action research project titled 'Liberate school'. Similarly linking education with livelihoods is another trajectory that fulfills the needs of the future generations. Inclusive education to meet the needs of children with disabilities is yet another strategy that addresses issues of education access of the excluded communities.
While AeA has been working in the field through partner NGOs, a deliberate and systematic effort to address larger macro level issues related to policy and practice are identified as missing links in enhancing our effectiveness. Although education is one of the top priorities of the country, it has not attained the required attention by the government in tune with the urgency and the needs of the communities. While there are several agencies established by the government with specific mandates and responsibilities, outcomes in terms of access, quality and achievement are disproportionately low when compcred to the investments. Rigidities in the system mismatch between aspirations of the communities and the designs of schemes and programs are often cited as main reasons for this situation.
It is in this context, EduAction Institute has been established with a potential to emerge as a pioneer in providing holistic services to make education meaningful and a true tool for development through its work at both micro as well as macro levels.
Rationale
We believe that an institution like EduAction Institute would plug existing gap in agencies working for education in India, which are either huge and centralised or very small and working at grassroots level. And more importantly institutional mode of working would provide us much needed sustainability and would create an environment of accountability as well as responsiveness within the education system.
Scope
-
To develop pool of resource to meet the capacity needs of AeA as well as other stakeholders, especially government in the area of capacity building
-
To address critical policy issues that emanate from our field based experience as well as through systematic research and documentation of good practices
-
Develop and practice innovative models of learning for replication
Objectives
-
To improve educational interventions, especially in terms of quality, contextualisation, inclusion and vocationalisation of education
-
To emerge as a significant player capable of influencing education and development practice of the government
-
To make available all educational support facilities (technical as well as managerial) under one umbrella
-
To act as a sounding board and provide inputs for policy making at national and international levels
-
To undertake research and documentation of good practices and experiences in the education sectors and disseminate the same across the stakeholders
Strategies
-
Develop and conduct systematic client specific training and capacity building to enhance quality of education among partner agencies and in large government education programs through Back to basics initiative
-
Undertake generic capacity building events for education sector functionaries of government and non government sectors
-
Undertake action research and implement field projects on specific themes which would provide scope for replication and large scale adaptation in the areas of liberate school, inclusive education and livelihoods
-
Commission and conduct research and documentation on major themes within education sector to inform policy as well as practice
-
Collaborate and build networks and lobbying forums at various levels to address policy and implementation issues related to education in a systematic way
Initiatives in Progress ( in 2005)
Research and documentation:
Capacity building
-
Partnership with Sarva siksha abhiyan of Ranga Reddy district for quality improvement in primary schools
-
'Back to basics' an intensive capacity building initiative to address quality of education in schools supported by AeA partner NGOs, with a specific focus on competency development
Advocacy
|
