1. National Seminar on “Addressing Equity Issues in Educat ion” Community Involvement Towards Greater Equity - Andhra Pradesh Experience Rajiv Vidya Mission (SSA) Andhra Pradesh

2. Demography of Andhra Pradesh No. of Districts23 Municipal Corporations14 Municipalities120 No. of Mandals1128 No. of Villages32940 No. of Habitations75509 Population8,46,65,533 Male4,25,09,881 Female4,21,55,652 Literacy Rate – 201167.66 Male75.56 Female59.74

3. Community Mobilization Community participation is the cornerstone for the successful implementation of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan activities. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan envisages active participation of the community viz. SMCs, Community Leaders / PRI’s, Parents, Teachers, NGO’s / CSO’s, NRI’s etc. in taking up School Development Activities. The areas of interface include efforts at enrolment and retention of all school age children, quality improvement, development, ensuring equity and maintenance of infrastructure

4. Principles of Ensuring Equity in Education  Accept that certain children are excluded from participating equitably in education.  Raise awareness and work towards creating an environment of equity.  Listen to the children and their parents.  Work with civil society organizations that have connections with the community.  Set up a system for watching over the school and community to address discrimination.  Strengthen SMCs for taking a pro-active role in addressing discrimination.

5. Principles of Ensuring Equity in Education..2  Establish norms of behaviour within the school for teachers and students  Timely detection of the forms of discrimination  Timely redressal of instances of discrimination at the level of the school or block.  Provide escorts for safety.  Establish norms for classroom interaction.  Encourage co-curricular activities.  Recognize the agency of teachers – sensitization and norms

6. Role of SMCs in Ensuring Equity in Education  Facilitating the SMCs to school and look at the children in the community and in their homes.  Making the SMCs to come up with simple solutions and include that in the SDPs.  Community and Child Interactions on issues and concerns  Making them aware of the rights of children and the RTE provisions that are designed to tackle exclusion e.g. Classroom practices, Education in mother tongue, water and sanitation etc.

7. Initiatives taken to address discrimination  Online web application developed to monitor the school visits by field level functionaries – school monitoring includes aspects of gender equity and inclusion of CwSN specifically  Monitoring seating arrangements during mid day meal during all visits and initiating action where discrimination is noticed – issue of memos to HMs of schools where discrimination is observed  Engaging 10,341 community mobilizers to focus on enrollment and retention in special focus group areas – i.e. SC, ST, minority and fishermen community habitations.

8. Initiatives taken to address discrimination..2  Formation of Mandal Resource Group on school leadership to create model schools. One crucial aspect is addressing gender and social discrimination. 743 KGBV Special Officers and 3384 teachers are targetted through this programme – training is ongoing.  Position paper on “Diversities – SC, ST, Minorities and Gender” prepared and incorporated in SCF.  Teacher training by Pegagogy wing of RVM (SSA) for all teachers includes a module on Gender and Social Equity. In addition, DLMTs and CRPs have been trained on the same.  Construction of ramps and providing aids and appliances to CWSN to remove barriers to attend school  Implementation of Balika Chetana programme in all schools aiming at Gender Equity in Education.

9. Initiatives taken to address discrimination..3  One teacher per school identified as Inclusive Education Teacher and given appropriate training.  IEC materials developed focussing on Gender Equity.  Education fortnight celebrated at the beginning of every academic year as part of a massive enrollment drive.  2 IERTs per mandal are appointed to provide home based education for CwSN and for working in IERC centres (Bhavitha Centres – 382 centres set up in the state)  Data on discriminatory practices has been collected as part of Shikhsha ka Haq Abhiyan. The data is available – data entry and analysis is under process.

10. Involving Community to ensure Equity  Composition of SMCs notified to ensure inclusion of socially disadvantaged groups, weaker sections and women. 66% of the members shall be women.  Training conducted for all SMC members and this included sessions on gender and social equity.  10,341 Community mobilizers recruited from the same community that they are responsible for and are the bridge between the community and the school. Their major tasks include mobilizing towards enrollment and retention, and creating awareness on importance of education, school activities, participation in the SMCs, etc. among parents.

11. Involving Community to ensure Equity…2  75,000 Gram Sabhas have been conducted focussing on RTE provisions. This can be used as an effective tool for promoting Equity in Education.  Kalajathas were conducted in the Special Focus Areas – to spread awareness regarding RTE and to mobilize the special focus groups to enroll.  Training for 50 NGOs per district on RTE provisions which includes equity issues.

12. Thank You