Dooars Jagron

Vision

• Educational Enhancement.
• Active participation of children in all-around development.
• To ensure children’s education.
• To ensure child safety

Mission

• All round development of children of tea gardens and villages.
• Ensure the quality education of the children in tea gardens and villages.
• Protection of children from social and economic exploitation.
• Developing consciousness on education.

Strategy 

• Engagement with schools for teacher orientation.
• Focussing on activity-based learning
• Teachers’ sensitization.
• Engagement with parents and community.
• Community engagement through home visits.

Location 

We work in four blocks of the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, namely Banarhat, Nagrakata, Dhupguri, and Maynaguri.

Project updates

• Interventions contribute towards strengthening government primary schools in the realm of quality classroom transactions. 
• Enhanced teachers’ skills and best practices under child-centric holistic quality education is envisaged.
• Enhanced learning outcomes among the students coming from multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-sectoral backgrounds is an important project goal.
• Increasing enrolment and retention amongst all the children, while especially focusing on the educationally weaker students of 6-10 years in age from classes 1 to 4 (primary section), is also a key objective. 
• The project covers 10 govt. primary schools under direct intervention, and 8 govt. primary schools under advocacy, spread across 11 tea gardens. 
• The approach involves engaging and advocating with the government for proper implementation of the RTE Act and norms in the schools.  
• It also aims to leverage the success stories for advocacy at the state and policy levels.

Target Group: Children of 6-10 years age group

Direct work with children: We work directly with Children- in 5 learning centers within and beyond the schools’ periphery. These learning centers are located at Diana Tea Garden, Debpara Tea Garden, Karbala Tea Garden, Katalguri Tea Garden, and Palashbari Tea Garden. To understand and strengthen the academic needs of children, especially those who were relatively weaker in academics, the re-enrolled dropouts, and those vulnerable to dropping out of school due to various factors. To develop their thinking, build their confidence level remove shyness, encourage them to participate in group activities, and show to the communities, parents, and teachers how joyful learning can make a difference. 

Advocacy at the community level: To develop and strengthen capacity, ownership of the school, participation in the schools and educational process, and Ensuring Children’s Right to Free, Compulsory, and Quality Education, thoughts and action among the different stakeholders within the community for strengthening and improving Public Education System as well as to generate awareness on COVID 19 we organized 25 meetings with various stakeholders discussing and focusing upon primary education and status of the schools under intervention. 

Advocacy at the systemic level: Advocacy with the School Education Department for the proper running of the primary and junior high schools and ensuring proper education and rights of children.

Challenges faced over the past year 

• Need-based assistance at the proper hour of need
• Availability of building to run learning centers
• Unavailability of refreshers course training in due time.
• Teaching training for English Language as parents request for English learning.

Plan for the next 3 years:

1. Six Capacity Building Workshops for the nature of Pedagogy related to the learning of the English language and initiating direct teaching-learning practices in the 6th year of project intervention as the base for the next 3 years of project partnership and effective intervention in schools. 
2. At least 6 Mentoring and Onsite support in the next 3 years of project intervention (years 2023 – 2026) for further developing the Core Team’s capacity for the development of strategy and effective engagement with different stakeholders for materializing the common goals and objectives. 
3. Intensive and increased engagement with children in the Activity Centers for creating a safe learning space for continuing their academic support beyond the school boundaries and hours, to, further improve upon their learning outcome on one hand and the other, develop Models of good practices, in the next 3 years of project intervention. Besides, organize events with children, their parents, and the larger community in these Activity Centers to enhance their participation and constructive engagements aiming at continuing children’s education. Besides, the Activity Centers will act as “Demonstration Models” for carrying out evidence-based advocacy at the community and governance level showcasing that given a conducive and safe space as well as equal opportunities for learning – “All Children are capable of Learning”.
4. Increased strategic engagement with 3 schools – Diana, Debpara and New Dooars; Working on maths and language learning; Learning with TLMs; Expansion of scope of learning; Creating an environment where the child is engaged in activity-based education; Learning becomes easier in these Primary Schools. 
5. Dooars Jagron and its Core Team will work with the ongoing 3 intervened schools covering Grades I and II in the next three years of project intervention.
6. In the next three years of the project period we focus on working more on the Orientation of parents on activity-based learning. As parents of the tea garden workers’ children are not acquainted with the activity-based learning we plan to engage them in the process of learning through our endeavour. This process will include: Creating small groups of parents; Training these groups on activity-based learning; Monthly meetings with the parents about the progress of their wards; Children, as a result, will get an atmosphere of activity-based learning in their homes too; Collection of community folk stories and sharing them with children to create awareness of different cultures.
7. The Core team will: Work with the community; Run learning centers; Work with the primary schools.
8. The Project Holder and Team Leaders will strategically conduct Need-based Advocacy Meetings with respective Government Officials/functionaries and the Department of Education based on evidence of good practices concerning ensuring Child Centric Quality Primary Education in Public Schools.