IN THIS ISSUE
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Donate to Asha for Education
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Get Involved
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Images of India 2011
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Campaign to Support Asha Deepa
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Education in India Class at Cal
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Teacher Absences in India
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SAVE THE DATE: Images of India 2011
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Mark your calendars for Asha Berkeley's 21st annual Images of India fund-raiser in support of our projects and education in India! Images of India features various performance groups from around the Bay Area, so it is sure to be a fun night of dance and music performances!
Images of India will be held Saturday, November 5th, 2011 from 7:00-9:00 PM at the Chevron Auditorium, UC Berkeley International House (2299 Piedmont Ave., Berkeley).
Keep an eye on your mailbox for more information regarding the event and how to purchase tickets. We are looking forward to seeing you all there!
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Campaign to Support School for the Blind
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By Abhinaya Narayanan
The average hourly wage in the United States is about twenty-two dollars. For the majority of us, it's a small sum of money. But that twenty-two dollars, which corresponds to roughly one thousand Indian rupees, could provide a child in India with nearly a month of meals, schoolbooks for a year, or a week of pay for the teacher that could provide his or her education.
The potential of one person's donation of an hour's worth of their salary was the inspiration behind Asha for Education's Work an Hour initiative. Work an Hour, or WAH, now in its fourteenth year, is a summer-long campaign that asks individuals to symbolically donate one hour or more of their time to bring education and development to India's underprivileged children. Local Asha chapters participate by nominating outstanding projects across India that are in great need of patrons' support to continue their noble work. This year, the Berkeley and Austin chapters joined forces to make Asha Deepa School a WAH 2011 project.
Over two million children in India are blind, but only five percent ever get a chance at an education. Asha Deepa School for the Blind, based in northern Karnataka, aims to change that by providing Braille and computer education, life skills, music classes, and vocational training in a safe and nurturing environment. This unique school gives blind children a second chance at a self-sufficient life. With forty-five students currently enrolled, Asha Deepa School is a model for other rural schools for the disabled. However, with plans to expand, and impact even more blind children in the community, Asha Deepa School needs the help of patrons like you. Currently, the school rents their building and finds it challenging to retain students due to stigmas. With your support, Asha Deepa can implement their plans to create their own permanent school for 100 children, invest in more high-quality teachers, and provide crucial emotional and financial training to families with blind children.
This year's theme for Work an Hour is “Empower Underprivileged India”. Through early intervention and action, Asha Deepa School has brought hope to blind children and empowered them to become happy and successful adults. Donating an hour or more of your day can make a huge difference in the life of these children and will help us reach our $14,500 goal for the project.
WAH continues through September 15, so please, head over to http://www.ashanet.org/workanhour/2011/projects/ashaDeepa.htmland help empower, by working an hour towards providing education for some of the most deserving children.
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New Class on Education in India on Berkeley Campus
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By Arpita Sharma
During the Fall 2010 semester, two Asha for Education members will facilitate a decal called “Education in India,” with the help of Professor Clare Talwalker.
The purpose of the DeCal is to introduce students to the issues of primary and middle school education in developing countries, specifically India. The course will address several topics, including the history of primary education in India, legislation promoting education after independence, theories of education in developing countries, case studies of educational development, and the role of non-governmental organizations.
One of the main issues that will be covered is the controversial role of governments, private schools, and non-profit institutions in developing India’s landscape. These different institutions often cater to widely different segments of India’s population, ranging from facilities and teachers of the highest qualities to open area schools with issues of teacher absenteeism.
Certain issues remain at the heart of the matter, such as the successes and failures of the Indian government in its promise to provide Free Universal Elementary Education, sixty years after this original goal was set. The Indian government has yet to fulfill this goal, but is making strides in certain areas.
The course will be made fun and exciting through guest speakers, discussions, and interactive activities that allow students to engage with material at a more in-depth level. Guest speakers include professors at UC Berkeley from several different disciplines, as well as members of different non-governmental organizations around the Bay Area that focus on providing quality education in India.
While many students on campus may be concerned about education in India, there is not much awareness of the difficulties and challenges faced. The DeCal aims to teach people about the intricacies of India’s progress and problems in education thus far and will allow students to explore and openly discuss these issues so they are empowered to deal with them.
For more information about the DeCal, visit http://www.decal.org/courses/1925 .
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Teacher Absences in the Indian Education System
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By Shilpa Mohan
Of the various problems faced by the Indian educational system, that of teacher absences is one of the most shocking and widespread. A 2005 study that evaluated over 3700 primary schools across India showed that at any given time, one fourth of teachers were absent and less than 50% of teachers were actively teaching at the time of inspection.
This problem is aggravated by the fact that in many rural areas in India, the local school consists of only one teacher teaching multiple grades in a one-room schoolhouse. In fact, in the study, 12% of schools visited were shut down because no teacher was present.
There are many factors for the high teacher absence rate, ranging from the lack of consequences for being absent, to corruption among school officers, to the centralization of the educational system. Surprisingly, it has been shown that there is little correlation between teacher salaries and absence rates. What appear to be far greater incentives for teachers to be present in the classroom are the quality of infrastructure, remoteness of a school, parent involvement, and general teaching conditions.
There is a fair amount of research being done on the best ways to improve teacher attendance. One interesting example of such research is an experiment completed by a non-governmental organization called Seva Mandir. Seva Mandir provided teachers with cameras equipped with tamper-proof date and time functions and used them to prove that the teachers were present in school at the beginning and end of the day. Teachers were then paid according to the number of full school days for which they were actually present. Results showed that teachers at these schools were present 1/3 more often than in the control group.
Hopefully, both public and private schools in India will work to improve
Hopefully, both public and private schools in India will work to improve teacher attendance by a combination of improving working conditions and finding new ways of monitoring attendance. Until then, high rates of teacher absence will remain an enormous obstacle to improving primary education in the country.
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Asha for Education  P.O. Box 4274 Berkeley, CA 94704
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