How a Kerala district helped migrant workers’ kids excel in school :
Shivaraj, a student of St George’s High School, Venikulam, is among the many children of migrant workers in Kerala who have been part of the Roshni scheme in Ernakulam district, which aims to help them overcome the language barrier and learn Malayalam, English and Hindi. To do.
Ernakulam (Kerala): Supriya Debnath, 24, a migrant from Odisha’s Kendrapada district, sits in a corner of the government upper primary school in Edappally in central Kerala’s Ernakulam district, wearing blue and white trousers and shirt. A thin vertical line of vermilion reached the horizontal line of sandalwood on his forehead. Next to her, Haseena Khatoon, 27, a migrant from Murshidabad district of West Bengal, was listening attentively to her colleagues who were sharing their teaching experiences as part of a program called Roshni, a project that helps migrants Helps workers’ children stay in school. , By helping them master the Malayalam language.
Non-native Malayalam speakers like Debnath and Haseena are among 40 Roshni Shiksha volunteers who help children of migrant workers in 38 government and government-aided schools in Kerala learn the local language and perform better in examinations.
According to a 2013 study conducted by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, affiliated with the Labor Ministry in Kerala, about 2.5 million migrants constitute 8% of Kerala’s population. About 38% of the total Indian population migrates for work and families, according to the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, affiliated with the Labor Ministry in Kerala. Census 2011. According to experts, children of migrants, whose families travel back and forth from their native land, are more likely to drop out of school, affecting their skills and opportunities in the future.
A 2013 study states that the largest share of migrants to Kerala come from West Bengal (20%), Bihar (18.10%), Assam (17.28%) and Uttar Pradesh (14.83%), and the majority of them It will be difficult. Getaway. Study using Malayalam as a medium of instruction. Programs like Roshni can help bridge the educational gap for migrant children.
Roshni trains volunteers in government schools and government-aided schools to help over 1,000 children of migrant workers learn Malayalam using multiple languages as the medium of instruction, including the children’s mother tongue. The breakfast component ensures that children do not go hungry, motivates attendees and helps them integrate into the local culture.
The Roshni project, launched by the Ernakulam district administration in 2017, has supported 1,265 children of migrant workers from primary to secondary level. The program data shows that dropouts fell by almost half (48%) to 65 in 20 schools in 2018-19 compared to 2017-18.
Kerala’s economy is dependent on migrants:
Based on a May 2018 report by the Center for Development Studies, with Kerala sending large numbers of workers abroad – 2.4 million in 2013 – it needs migrants from other Indian states for economic activities in Kerala, the Center for Migration and Benoy Peter of Research explains. Development. Comprehensive Development (CMID), a non-profit organization based in Ernakulam.
“Kerala has benefited greatly from migration,” said Peter. “But given unemployment among the educated and a population that is seeing negative growth in the future (in two sectors already), there is a need for migrant workers so that The country can maintain its economic activities.” The exact number of migrants coming to Kerala is not known. According to estimates from a 2017 CMID study, up to 11% of the population (between 3.5 and 4 million) may now be migrants.
Peter said the government has been “more proactive than other states” with migrant welfare programs like Apna Ghar, rental housing for interstate migrant workers, Awaaz, a health insurance scheme and education schemes like Roshni.
Making it easier for migrant children to stay in school:
“Enniku Malayalam annu asan (I find Malayalam easy),” said Sumita, while her colleague Anjali nodded in agreement. After initially hesitating to speak in Hindi, Anjali said, “I have been here for five years, so Malayalam is easy.” Although they are from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, both 10-year-olds from Bennanipuram Government Malayalam Medium High School in Ernakulam feel more comfortable speaking the local language than their mother tongue Hindi. He has been living in Kerala for more than half a decade, ever since his parents came here for work. Except for conversations with his parents at home, most of his conversations are in Malayalam.
Jayashree K, Roshni’s academic coordinator, said Sumita and Anjali were part of the first group of students learning Malayalam in 2015-16 as part of a pilot program before Roshni was officially launched in 2017.
The number of migrant students in government and government-aided schools in Ernakulam increased by 44% to 3,985 in 2019-20, according to data from the government’s education portal, Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK).
“The surveys we do every year show that there are 150-200 migrant children who are out of school. This year [2019-20] we have 160 children,” Sajoy George, Ernakulam district program officer of SSK, told IndiaSpend. meet.” Often are “first generation school students”.
One of the challenges faced by the nature of migrant work is keeping children enrolled in schools. Often migrant families return to their place of origin to attend family functions or festivals and do not return, or leave children behind when they return.
Furthermore, natural disasters such as the floods of August 2018 have a negative impact on migration. According to Roshni program data for 20 schools, in the 2018-19 academic year, 26 students dropped out due to job loss due to floods, 24 due to family problems and 15 due to seasonal festivals.
George said, “There are three types of migrant workers; those who come to work and settle down, those who are temporarily looking for work, and seasonal migrants. The school dropout rate of migrant students depends on the nature of migration. “Depends.”
Children like Mohammed Dilshad, whose family has lived in Kerala for years, have benefited from this program. He topped the school with A+ grades in all subjects. Although he knew Malayalam when he started the pilot program in 2015, “It helped him improve his Malayalam skills by learning songs and poems.”
The eldest son of immigrants from Darbhanga district of Bihar and a first-generation student, Dilshad wants to become an engineer when he grows up. His father, Mohammed Sajid, is uneducated, works in a shoe factory in Ernakulam, and is the sole earner for the family of seven. Dilshad’s mother, Abida Khatoon, studied in a madrassa (school of Islamic education) in her village in Samastipur.
“I still find it difficult to speak Malayalam, even though it is better than before,” Khatoon, who has lived in Kerala for more than two decades, told IndiaSpend. “It’s peaceful here,” compared to Bihar, where she hasn’t been in five years. Despite her limited education, Obaida wants her children to study.
“When Dilshad started school, we were spending Rs 200 per month on his tuition fees. We could save almost nothing,” Abhi said. Study what they want and move on.
“Learning Malayalam through pictures and drawings helped me when I joined school in Benanipuram in class five after coming from Bihar,” said Dharaksha Parveen, Dilshad’s classmate and neighbor. Parveen, who is studying to become a fashion designer, believes that programs like Roshni help migrant students. None of them like Hindi except when talking to their parents.
The Birth of Roshni :
“When I was appointed as an upper primary teacher in Bennanipuram in 2014, I noticed that more than 50% of the children in the school were migrant children and were facing difficulty in learning Malayalam and hence others in the school There was difficulty in learning through the subjects. Teaching,” said Jayashree, Roshni’s academic coordinator.
Problems continued even after the school principal informed authorities about the large number of migrant children and a volunteer had to help these students understand Malayalam. Since 2008, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has had volunteers to help connect teachers to schools with large numbers of migrant children. However, migrant children found it difficult to understand Malayalam, the medium of instruction in school.
In September 2015, a research group consisting of Jayashree, the headmistress, a class teacher, an SSA volunteer and teacher-researcher conducted a pilot to help 11 children of migrant workers in a Benanipuram school – the majority of whom were Hindi speaking – learn Developed the project. Malayalam.
“The challenge is that teachers in schools are monolingual, and may not be able to communicate in the child’s language. This is still a problem, but volunteers are helping,” Jayshree said. We talk to the newborn baby through songs or lullabies. Similarly, when a child joins school, we cannot expect him to learn a language just by teaching him the alphabet. “This is unscientific.”
During the pilot program, Jayshree gradually developed the teaching unit and pedagogical methodology based on classroom interactions and teachers’ ideas each day. Jayashree (of Light) pedagogy was developed under the guidance of linguist KN Anandan, “There was already a program teaching Malayalam to primary school students in Kerala. I adapted the module to include graphic reading for migrant children. Was able to adapt.” ,
In this method, the teacher “code-switches” from the migrant language to Malayalam and writes sentences and uses graphic representations, pictures, songs, etc., so that children can recognize letters in sentences and develop proficiency.
According to Jashri, within three months, by December 2015, children had developed phonological awareness (the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in spoken words) for 16 of the 56 letters of Malayalam. This pilot became a light show.
In October 2017, former Ernakulam district collector Mohammed Safirullah was informed about the project. Four shortlisted schools including Bennanipuram School have been shortlisted for the first phase of illumination. With the launch of Roshni, language-based intervention came under the district administration and not the state education department.
“This is an additional package to enhance [children’s] performance, not a parallel educational process,” Safirullah told IndiaSpend. “The focus initially was on reaching as many students as possible.”
“Migrant care was a priority area,” Safir Allah said. “A large number of migrant workers had children who were out of school. Migrant workers often start their day early, and sometimes children do not get enough nutritious food. I wanted to make sure that a nutritional component was included in the project.
The project, which is expected to cost around Rs 1 lakh crore per annum, is financially supported by the District Education Fund and partly by the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund of Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL). The food component includes Rs 20 per child and cooking charges of Rs 100 per school per day. This also includes an average of Rs 20 per child for stationery and handicrafts.
“The meal component is considered an incentive for children to go to school in the morning as Roshni classes start 90 minutes before regular classes start at 10 am,” Jayshree said.
“We see Roshni as a pioneering project,” BPCL CSR director Annecy Johnson told IndiaSpend. “Often companies invest in capital expenditure, but here, even though there is nothing to show in terms of physical infrastructure, the impact is greater.”
The project expanded to 20 schools in the second phase in 2018–2019 and to 38 schools in the third phase in 2019–20.
Although the “intent is positive”, experts like Peter of CMID believe it is too early to assess the impact of Roshni, given that it is the longest-running program of Roshni and the government since 2008. Will measure.
Since both programs (started in 2008 with three volunteers and Roshni) have the same goal of helping migrant children, their convergence may be possible at a later stage to “ensure synchronization and avoid de-duplication”. Yes, S Suhas said. District Collector. Ernakulam.
Make language learning easier
“Malayalam is difficult to learn,” said Debnath, an education volunteer. “Yes, I mean, Nallu is four years old, and Nalli is yesterday. Similarly, Vallam is a boat and Vellam is water.” When she came here after her marriage to driver Mavikul, Mondal agreed with a smile, she knew Bengali, a little Hindi, but not Malayalam and said, “I locked myself in my house because of the language barrier. ”
