Guidelines for ‘Paray Shikshalay’ Scheme

West Bengal Board of Madrasah Education
‘Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Bhawan’
DD-45, Sector I, Salt Lake, Kolkata- 700 064
Website: www.wbbme.org Email: wbbme2011@gmail.com

Memo No. Pres/08/2022 Date: 25/01/2022

From: The President
West Bengal Board of Madrasah Education

To: The Superintendent/ TIC of recognized Senior Madrasahs of this State

Sub: Guidelines for ‘Paray Shikshalay’ Scheme.

Sir/ Madam,

The School Education Department, Government of West Bengal has undertaken an initiative to introduce teaching learning session at community habitation level for children of age group of 5-9 years i.e. from Pre-Primary to Class IV level in Covid times. The name of the Scheme is ‘Paray Shikshalay’.

In pursuance to No. 127-MD dated: 25.01.2022 of Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education Department, Government of west Bengal, you are requested to take necessary action so that the students of Pre-Primary to Class IV level of 102 numbers of Senior Madrasahs are benefitted by the aforesaid ‘Paray Shikshalay’ scheme.

You are also requested to monitor the whole Programme and implement the above mentioned ‘Paray Shikshalay’ scheme successfully. The following points may kindly be noted :

(1) To peruse and follow the guidelines issued by the School Education Department, Government of West Bengal, regarding ‘Paray Shikshalay’ scheme

(2) To make the teachers ready to execute the above scheme successfully.

(3) To make communication with the concerned DI /S(SE) & SIs on a regular basis

(4) To assist SIs/SEOs/AC (Edu) in mapping of habitation with Madrasahs for fixing the level wise target children, fixing habitation wise day wise session schedule.

(5) To help and coordinate with the local administrations as and when required by the authorities

(6) To obey ali instructions issued from State, District ,Sub-division, Block and Panchayat or Municipality administrationlevel in relation to ‘Paray Shikshalay’ scheme

The guideline of ‘Paray Shikshalay’ is attached herewith for read reference.

This is for information and taking necessary action.

Sd/- President
West Bengal Board of Madrasah Education

No. Pres-08 dated 25.01.2022, Source

Paray Shikshalay
(Guideline for Learning at Community level for Primary level students in Covid times)

Introduction:

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the human life confined within four walls for a prolonged period. The children are worst hit with their schools remained closed and as a consequence their learning process adversely affected. In such a situation, the government had made a sincere effort to reach a section of school children through online classes and other similar methods. However, such initiatives did not effectively percolate to the students of primary level. Such long absence from classroom environment shall definitely have some negative impact in the young minds in terms of social, cognitive and psychological behavior in the future, if not addressed to.

In the above context, the School Education Department intends to undertake an initiative to introduce teaching-learning session at community and habitation level for children of age group of 5-9 years i.e., from pre-primary to Class IV (up to class V in schools having such class) level. This endeavor is intended to provide these specific age group children a regular learning process and opportunities for interaction with peers and teachers in this interim period and a smooth transition back to when the schools reopen.

Objectives:

1. To provide support to children to cope with school closure due to Covid 19 pandemic.
2. To enable a joyful assembly somewhat similar to classroom structure free from fear focusing on play, activities and interactive communication.
3. To promote a child-friendly environment in the open assemblies, focusing on enabling children to bond with reading, writing, creativity and imagination skills.
4. Supporting children to develop logical reasoning, clarity in concepts of numeracy with a hands-on approach, and application of concepts in real-life contexts.

Salient features of the Scheme:

I. Such sessions shall be organized in the open space arranged by the Panchayats/ ULBs, Village/Ward Education Committees.

II. The community spaces selected should preferably have a shed above for summer months with safe drinking water and sanitation provisions.

III. Each session should contain the following components:-

i. Providing psychosocial support and socio-emotional learning (SEL) to children.

ii. Enhancement of health and hygiene, personal cleanliness.

iii. Enhancement of reading, writing and numeracy skills.

iv. Cultural activities (song, dance, recitation etc.) preferably with learning inputs.

v. Art and craft work.

vi. Outdoor and indoor play activities.

IV. The academic transaction in such sessions shall be steered by the Primary School teachers, Primary level Para Teachers and Sahayaks/ Sahayikas of SSKs.

V. Learners of Government/Government aided primary Schools and SSKs will be clubbed together for such sessions under this initiative

VI. Children of homogenous age group residing in a particular habitation shall be grouped together. Children of different levels may be grouped separately for classes at different times.

VII. Multi-grade setting comprising children of different levels may be organized if there is shortage of teachers.

VIII. Providing educational inputs through home visit by teachers may be considered as an alternative if such community based interactive sessions are not possible for any reasons.

IX. Since, after long absence from schools, the children of a particular level may be at different competency levels, for better outcome, one class may have multiple teachers for focusing on individual children.

X. External support to the above initiative may be provided from local educated youth volunteers, members of Self-Help groups or through volunteers of NGO/CBOs with experience of working in the sector and having local presence.

Duties and Responsibilities of Stakeholders:

At State Level:

• School Education Department

Framing Policy, Guidelines, programme management and State-level monitoring for effective implementation of the programme.

• Expert Committee

Developing guidelines for learning activities with a view to pedagogic intervention by 25th January, 2022.

• UNICEF

Suggesting policy framework for adoption, support in programme management, data management and analysis within 25th January, 2022.

• WBBPE

Shall issue suitable guidelines for the teachers of Primary Schools for organizing such sessions.

• UD & MA Department

Shall issue an advisory to the urban local bodies in the State for providing required assistance and support.

• P & RD Deptt

Shall issue an advisory to the rural local bodies in the State for providing required assistance and support.

At District Level:

DEOs, DIs, DNOs of SSK/MSK Cell

Organizing sensitization programme/ teachers’ workshop, implementing monitoring framework, data management by 27.01.22

At Block/CLRC Level:

SDO office/ Block Office/ Panchayats/ ULBs/ VEC

i) Guiding the planning process/ Monitoring and supervision

ii) Providing on-ground logistical support, cleaning and sanitizing community spaces having arrangements of shed and drinking water to be used as classrooms maintaining all COVID protocols by 05.02.2022.

SI of Schools/ Assistant Coordinator, Education/ Samiti Education Officers

iii) Mapping of habitation with schools (both Primary schools and SSKs) and fixing the level wise target of children within 02.02.2022 with the help of local administration and support from teachers of Primary Schools and SSKs.

iv) Finalizing habitation wise and day wise session schedule with support from teachers specifying the location and putting this for wide circulation for knowledge of all. (Session schedule to be prepared keeping in mind the school timings on normal school days specified by appropriate authority)

v) Holding initial meeting with the teachers, VEC members, SHG and CBO/ NGO to have local presence to discuss the initiative by 02.02.2022.

vi) Meetings with the guardians to be completed by 03/01/22

vii) Organizing orientation workshop for teachers at Circle level in on-line mode.

viii) Providing supportive supervision to the initiative and conducting regular monitoring.

Siksha Bandhus, Academic Supervisors of SSKs/MSKs

i) Assisting SIs/ SEOs/ AC (Edu) in mapping of habitation with schools (Primary schools and SSKs) for fixing the level wise target children, fixing habitation wise day wise session schedule.

ii) Arranging preparatory meetings with the teachers and other stakeholders and holding sensitization meeting with the parents / guardians.

iii) Making arrangements for and supervising regular cleaning and sanitizing of the selected locations with involvement of the VEC/ WEC and local civic authorities (GP/ Municipality/ MC)

iv) Regular visits to community level educational sessions and data collection.

At School Level:

Micro plan for habitation-wise sessions and allocation of teacher for each such session to be completed and submitted to concerned SIs within 4th February, 2022. Subsequently, next week’s programme is to be submitted by every Wednesday of the previous week with the concerned SI.

• Primary teachers

i) Transacting teaching-learning process in community level educational sessions using language and numeracy sessions worksheets, activity tasks, bridge course materials.

ii) Initial and periodic meeting with guardians, assessment and evaluation of children, TLM preparation. The first meeting with guardians before roll out of the programme is to be held within 03.02.22.

• Primary Para teachers/ teachers of SSKs

Supporting the teaching-learning process and maintaining COVID protocol, support in assessment and evaluation of children and TLM preparation

• Students – Pre-primary to Class 4 (class 5 where exists)

Attending classes regularly and sincerely Community Level

Community level initiative is to be initiated within 29.01.22 and to be completed by 03.02.2022.

• Parents/Guardians

Ensuring regular attendance of children, receiving feedback from teachers, support to children at home

• NGO/youth volunteers/SHGs

Sensitizing community, helping in organizing parents’/mothers’ meeting, mobilizing students facilitating learning at ground-level, preparation of simple TLMs and maintaining COVID protocol in open classrooms.

Timeline:

Monitoring

The district level monitoring team shall be formed under the overall statesmanship of the District Magistrate comprising the ADM, Education, DEO, SSM, DI of Schools, DNO, SSK/MSK Cell, representatives of NGOs having local presence and the DNO, MDM. The district shall develop their own monitoring framework under the broad perimeters of the State directives.

The monitoring framework shall include regular visit to the centres, input monitoring in the sessions, quality check of outcome, taking feedback from students and guardians to understand the impact, providing suggestions for improvement etc.

Monitoring by the DIs of Schools through the district network of Inspectors up to the SIs of Schools and the support team of Block and Clusters may be taken up at the following frequency: –

i) DI of Schools – visiting at least 10 (ten) centres per month

ii) SIs/Samiti Education Officers – At least 25 (twenty five) centres per month

iii) Shiksha Bandhus/Academic Supervisors-All centres associated with the Pr. School/SSK on a daily basis on working days@ not less than 2 (two) centre visits per day.

Visit report templates will be developed using Google Forms to collect near realtime data from field which shall be analyzed at State level for taking up appropriate measures. The reports based on this analysis will be shared with the districts on a regular basis.

A MIS dashboard will be developed for monitoring at the State level. The dashboard will be part of the Banglar Shiksha portal. Purpose of the initiative will be-

• To provide a bird’s eye view of the intervention
• To record the learning outcome wise learning levels
• To identify performance levels in various geographical pockets

Evaluation

A baseline assessment of the learning levels of students will be conducted before commencement of the programme. The purpose of this assessment will be twofold-

• To broadly understand the learning levels of the target children.
• Tailoring the inputs of the programme
• Collecting input for drawing comparison with end-line assessment

The tools for baseline assessment will be prepared by the Expert Committee on School Education and shall be very simple and easily applicable by the teachers in the initial 1-2 interactions in the open sessions.

To get regular progress updates, monthly assessments of students’ learning will be conducted. These routine assessments would target a subset of learning outcomes in tandem with the learning materials being shared during that time.

All the evaluations will be conducted in a standardized manner so that the assessments are conducted on the same day in all districts.

Care will be taken to keep these evaluations very low-stake and minimal so that the actual learning levels are recorded through a very simple manner and no undue pressure is put on the students who have already been suffering from the effects of the pandemic.

Documentation

Every district would put in place a system to meticulously document all the stages of the implementation and share with the State office of Samagra Siksha Mission as well as with the School Education Department. A publication compiling the best achievements will be made at State level after successful implementation of the initiative. Utmost care should be taken while documenting each step of implementation so that it becomes a valuable tool for emulation in future.

Funding Provision

A certain amount of fund will be sanctioned for the programme. The fund shall be spent for following components-

1. Preparation of low cost TLM
2. Sanitizing the areas in and around classroom
3. Procurement of mask and sanitizer for use in classrooms
4. Holding VEC and guardians’ meetings
5. Circulation of class schedule
6. Printing of visit reporting formats
7. Misc. expenditure

While fund for certain components will be utilized at district SSM office, expenses required for organizing the educational sessions may be borne out of the composite grant available and already released for the primary schools during this FY. Further fund in the form of composite grant to be allotted based on the progress made in this regard.