We believe EDUCATION is the key to unlocking socio-economic
development for society. Wherein child education and development
needs to be tackled with a holistic and multi-pronged approach to bring
out the desired constructive change in our society. With the same
thought SEDT with the support of YOJANA Project Help, Netherlands
since last 10 years has been implementing the project- ‘EDUCATION
KEY’ in 92 villages of Palam block of Parbhani district of Marathwada
region in Maharashtra state.

Need of the Project
Poverty and scarcity of resources has saturated the lives of people with
misery and depravities. In an effort to meet daily needs, education –
which is instrumental in the process of socio-economic development,
remains neglected in the rural region. Due to the broken educational
institutions and infrastructure, lack of community participation in child
education and development, high rate of literacy, socio-dynamics and
gender inequality resulted in the increase of school drop-outs and
disinterest among rural children and people towards education in
general.

About the Project
The urban and economic centres are equipped with plenty of innovative
and interactive education institutes and models for children. Whereas on
other hand, the schools in rural areas face problems like inadequate
basic resources including toilets, potable drinking water, classrooms,
libraries and scientific laboratories at school.
– Swami Vivekananda

The project was executed through various activities that supported the
above statement made by the great Swami Vivekananda. SEDT set up a
program with the support of YOJANA Project Help form Netherlands and
for the last 10 years has been implementing the “EDUCATION KEY” in
92 villages of the Palam block In Parbhani District of the great state of
Maharashtra.

Activities Like
1. Computer education for school dropouts with an emphasis
on girl children:
To build the necessary competencies among rural children and increase
participation of girl students, it is essential to introduce computer-based
education and make use of electronic equipment in formal education.
Through the concept of ‘Digital School’ and use of computer-aided
equipment like multimedia tools and digital library the school dropouts,
especially among girls, were addressed and the drop out girls were
connected to the mainstream.
2. Philosophy for children:
“Educationists should build the capacities of the spirit of inquiry,
creativity, entrepreneurial and moral leadership among students and< become their role model” .... APJ Abdul Kalam Curiosity is the mother of invention. The formal education system pays very little attention to the curiosity among children, predominantly in rural India. This eventually kills passion for generating enquiries and exploration among children. Education service providers and community stakeholders shall respect the ‘curiosity’ among children.
3. Reading to the smallest:
‘Reading to the Smallest’ is a simple yet effective activity started on pilot
basis in a village and today extended to 60 villages. The concept is
direct attention of parents towards children and their progress. This is
otherwise substantially lacking in rural families.
Hence, to develop interaction among parents and children and further
build a responsive environment at household level, the activity involved –
reading of stories and educational material for children (3-5 years) by
their parents at home. This simple activity proved a catalyst to bring
attention to the progress of the parents in the progress of their children.
Today more than 3000+ mothers are reading for their child. This indeed
has provoked and increased substantial sharing among children and
their parents. The involvement of female members in the development
process of children has gained momentum.
4. Teacher quality improvement training:
A Teacher – shall be a role model for students. It should reflect in his
behavior, attitude, character and life.
However, the ground reality observed was not as ideal as it needs to be.
It was observed that teachers play a crucial role in shaping the life of
children; many-a-times take the profession just as a source of
employment. Hence, SEDT decided to identify teachers who wish to be
the role models and partner SEDT in the change process. Teachers
were trained to develop their teaching and interactive communication
skills. Also the thrust was on behavioral and attitudinal science.
5. Teachers training on gender equality:
Additionally, the teachers were trained with an emphasis on Gender
Sensitivity and Equality. This aimed to help them understand the issue
holistically and respond to the problems of girl students. This resulted
into a better treatment for girl students in schools, increase in respect
among girls towards the teachers and emergence of a local support
system for girls to halve indifference at family level.

6. Training for women in politics (elected village panchayat
members):
With the 73rd amendment in Pachayati Raj and recent resolution passed
by the state to promote women participation in local decision making and
Panchayat bodies, the number of women in Panchayat and local
steering committees increased. However, despite of the quantitative
change her actual involvement and participation in the development
process remained limited.
We believe this inequality and manifestation of secondary status is
gender abuse.

Our Aim
The project broadly aims to:
● Improve the educational infrastructure at grass roots
● Bring positive attitudinal and behavioral change among social
stakeholders (including parents, teachers, youths, women and
decision-makers) for building a responsive and sensitive society
towards child education and development
● Bring education in the mainstream of the holistic development
process
● Ensure availability of gainful and value-based education with
gender equality
● Empower communities and service providers at grass roots to
bring sustainable development in quality of education

Our Approach

To deal with the socio-economic dynamics and bring overall
improvement in the quality of education for children, the project was
planned in 3 phases, with clear objectives and plan of action.

Phase I: (2002-2005) The work was mainly focused on infrastructural
development of schools, bringing school drop-outs back to school,
sensitization of community and Village Education Committees – (VECs),
increase people participation and generating a sense of ownership
towards educational infrastructure among the local people.

Phase II: (2006-2009) The work was focused on improving overall
quality of education, positive attitudinal and behavioural change among
the community stakeholders with a focus on teachers and parents and
create a caring and responsive society.
Phase III: (2009-ongoing) The activities are mainly focused on gender
equality, adolescent girls and personality development in children.

Our Intervention

We discovered that there is a lack of proper schooling and educational
infrastructure. These institutions and practices needed some positive
behavioural and attitude change from both teachers and parents alike.
Girls’ participation must also increase in pursuit of education and
community development. There needs to be an open and proper
communication channel between teachers, the school staff and the
students. We also need to decrease the school drop-out rate from
children and youth.