* Increase in enrolment and retention of children in primary schools; so much so that in many villages cent per cent enrolment has been achieved.
* Complementarity among pre-school, primary, NFE and adult learning being realised.
* Various strategies for community mobilisation and partnership have emerged.
* Inter-sectoral cooperation is being realised through the coordination committees at various levels.
* Tested in 1,756 villages, a model for participatory micro-planning has been developed which resulted into development of synthesised block plans.
* Community education and development centres in 1,756 villages have become the nucleus for promoting educational activities.
* Joyful learning has been introduced in Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli in order to achieve MLLs by children more effectively and expeditiously.
* The models of micro-planning, community mobilisation, etc., developed under the project, are being adopted by the states for DPEP and other programmes.
* Simple tools and strategies for monitoring of project's key indicators as well as checklist for supervision of activities have been developed and adopted by the states.
* One of the vital innovations of the project is that it functions within the existing state system.
During 1996-97, a meeting of the BDOs/ BEOs and orientation of staff of MPRCs was convened. A planning meeting of Project Co- ordinators and Heads of MPRCs was also organised. A document People on the Move has been published and widely disseminated. The exercise and experiences of the AIEP project, particularly micro-planning and programming, community participation, intersectoral coordination, tribal education and joyful learning, etc. are relevant to the DPEP and the EFA programmes.
In view of the UNICEF's phasing out of' assistance, the participating states were advised to consolidate the project activities and plan mainstreaming of these with their educational programmes. An appraisal of AIEP was undertaken to document its outcomes for wider dissemination in the context of' Universalisation of Primary Education. It was also envisaged to recommend measures for mainstreaming the AIEP with the education programmes of the central and the state governments. The appraisal report gave positive feedback on the project activities. It has been recommended that AIEP experience may be expanded into a full-fledged Community Convergent Action (CCA) approach under Support to Primary Education Renewal (SUPER) Programme in the selected tribal/north-eastern states/belts.
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Environmental Orientation of School Education The MHRD-sponsored scheme of Environmental Orientation to School Education envisages development of region-specific Environmental Education training materials in regional languages which could be used by the DIETs for the training of primary school teachers. Five resource groups, one each in RIEs at Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar and Mysore and one at the NIE, New Delhi, were constituted to carry out the project.
Environmental Education Training for Curriculum Developers As part of capacity-building among the educational functionaries, environmental education training for the curriculum developers has been an on-going exercise in the NCERT for the last three years. The target group identified for the training is the curriculum developers from Secondary/Senior Secondary School Education Boards of states and NGOs. It is being enlarged to cover SCERTs and other institutions. The training content aims at: (i) familiarising the participants with the recent developments in the area of Environmental Education, (ii) strategies for incorporation of environmental components in the curriculum, (iii) exposure to enlarged role and expectations of Environmental Education, and (iv) procedures and guidelines for curriculum development including evaluation with environmental dimensions.
Regional Level Inputs The RIE, Mysore developed a Source Book on Environmental Orientation of School Education. The Institute also took up identification of hard spots in Class III Environmental Studies with a view to enhancing the achievement levels of primary school children through developing training materials.
The RIE, Bhubaneswar organised a workshop for identification of key concepts/messages
National Resource Centre for Environment Education Environmental Education is an integral component of school curriculum. The environmental, social and economic concerns particularly related to development are getting increased focus in school level curricula and educational activities. With growing environmental problems and serious environment and development issues, large number of organisations, both government and non-governmental, are engaged in Environmental Education activities involving school system. There is a need to channelise these efforts for better interaction and exchange through networking. A National Resource Centre for Environment Education (NRCEE) was set up in the Department of Education in Science and Mathematics (DESM), National Institute of Education (NIE), NCERT during 1996-97 to promote more intense interaction among the school system, educational. planners, curriculum developers and teacher- trainers on the one hand and specialised institutions on the other. The Centre aims at collection of Environmental Education information and materials, process, classify and disseminate to various institutions involved in school education and specialised activities on environment. The Centre is also developing environmental Education Data Bank on various aspects of Environmental Education.
from existing textbooks of primary and upper primary stages of different states located in the eastern region/north-eastern region. Prototype training material in English (based on the key concepts) was developed. A regional workshop was conducted to scrutinise/review the draft training material. The reviewed material will be translated into the regional languages for use by the faculty of the DIETs in their in-service training programmes.
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