Asha for Education
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Presentation Transcript
Asha for Education Empowerment through education
Overview • External view • Organizational view • Projects view • Conclusions
Disclaimers • Personal opinion, not Asha policy • Been stated by others in past • Motivate introspection and action • No personal agenda
External view • 65 chapters in US, India, Europe, Canada • Active volunteer base of over 1500 • Annual support to 250 project partners • Annual fundraising over $3.5 million • Potential reach to over 20,000 donors • Impact lives of 0.7-1 million children
External View • Exponential growth in fundraising • #1 CharityNavigator rating • Partnership opportunities • Growing marathon program • Several new chapters • Decentralized decision making • Minimal overhead • Easy accessibility to information
Organizational view • Financials and good accounting • Website revamp and maintenance • Criticality of local accountability • Asha India projects and fellowships • Admin funds and zero overhead • Common project guidelines • Streamlining of branded events • IP, IR and legal help • Conflict resolution and arbitration board
Organizational view • Chapter and volunteer professionalism • Lack of ashawide participation • Projects decision making, ARC review • Receipts from project partners • Update of project pages and monitoring • Regional coordination among chapters • Code of conduct, arbitration and volunteerism • Long term solution for general funds
Projects view • Few islands of success • Community empowerment rare • Support rare for curriculum development • Linear input/output model of operation • Breaking at seams in monitoring/updates • Unable to expand to disburse all funds • Single point of failure at most chapters • Non-existent inter-chapter learning
Directions for growth • Mission crystallized to “empowerment through education” • Policy level focus – RTE • Empowerment through livelihood education and monitoring through RTI/NREG support • Larger scale teacher training and similar support in Govt schools • Larger scale reading/math/science skill enhancement • Focus on what is taught and how and not just providing means to teach/learn
EQUIP TAMILNADU PROJECT • Community Learning Initiatives • Eureka Village Library • Children’s Learning Clubs • Teachers and Children’s Network • Learning Quality in Schools • Reading Campaign • Math Campaign • Science Campaign • Pre-primary Skills Campaign 1500 schools per district 1000 villages per district 300,000 children in a district impacted Cost per District = $ 100,000 Cost per Block = $7000 Cost per School/Village = $70 Cost per Child = $0.35 (Rs. 15) 10 districts in TN = 15000 schools = 3 million children learning well Systemic Change Bottom Up
Shikshana Vahini, Bijapur • Teacher training • SDMC training and empowerment • 7000 teachers • 3000 GP members • 7000 SDMC members • 350,000 children in 1566 schools • 5 year plan
RTE bill • Review draft bill and comment • Petition for adoption of modified draft bill with comments • Petition for central legislation and notification • Identify partners in India and US to collaborate on same platform
RTI/NREG • Using public spending info and RTI, analyze govt expenditures in education, suggest changes • Through support for social audits etc, ensure NREG works so employment is guaranteed • Support key individuals involved in this work that impacts at a much larger scale
Content and method of teaching • Review textbooks and learning materials • Invite educationists to partner with us • Learn from Learning Networks etc. • Invite more speakers and panels • Collaborate with university departments • Prepare additional content
Empowerment through education • Catalyze through education leaves it at initial phase of empowerment • Empowerment should be goal, education just the means • Focus on livelihoods and understand interlinkages
What can you do? • Listen to all the ideas presented • Contribute your own ideas • Volunteer to take up action items and lead them towards timely closure • Be open-minded and engage in a continuous dialogue with everyone • Interact with our keynote speakers and see how their ideas fit in the larger picture • Share these with your chapter and encourage ashawide participation