 PROPELLING CHANGE

The PROPEL constitutes the third phase of an action-research project for universalisation of primary education undertaken by the Indian Institute of Education, Pune, Maharshtra State, in 1979, the International Year of the Child.

The project perceives social and educational change as an integrated process in which the latent human energy necessary for propelling change and development is released through mutual understanding and collaboration between the government and the people. The project also affirms that, essentially, it is the people who are the makers of development while-the government and other agencies are stimulators and facilitators.

From this standpoint, the project emphasizes a threefold approach towards community mobilization: (a) increasing the community's access to necessary information, (b) building up its planning and action skills through participatory problem-solving, and (c) taking care to see that inhibitory paternalism, whether exercised by government or any other agency, does not interfere with community decisions. Within the framework of EFA, the project includes such mutually supportive programmes as early childhood care and education, women's empowerment, development orientation of youth, adult literacy, continuing education, and recreational activities.

The PROPEL project has been designed in the action-research mode, for trying out innovations leading to universal primary education in the rural setting. It is a comprehensive, multi-phase project, moving on step by step towards the strategy of community mobilization to achieve education for all in course of time, through the microplanning process.

The PROPEL project covers 137 contiguous villages under 85 Gram Panchayats (Village Councils), in three

Assumptions of PROPEL

THE EXISTING formal system of primary education, consisting exclusively of primary schools manned by full-time teachers and re- quiring whole time attendance by pupils is mostly availed of by those social groups which can afford to equip, clothe and feed their children and send them to school for five or six hours a day

WHAT THE situation needs is an alternative system of non-formal primary education which functions on a part-time basis so that they can be availed of by children from poor families and social segments suffering from cultural constraints.

THE PROGRAMMES of full-time formal schools and non-formal part-time centres schools will have to be carefully coordinated with each other.

A GOOD deal of academic preparation and innovative organization is essential before launching and conducting non-formal primary schools/centres if they are to become viable educational institutions which can hold their own vis-a-vis the formal schools.

THE ILLITERACY of adults and their lack of appreciation of education generally results in their indifference to the education of children.

IN THE final analysis, a community approach to educational development will have to be adopted and the local community will have to be made responsible for the proper education of all its members, that is children below age six (child-care and pre-school education); children between 6-14 (primary education); young individuals between the age group 15-35 (non-formal education of youth and adults), with stress on the development and empowerment of girls and women in every aspect of the programme. All these programmes will have to be integrated with those of rural development.

PROPEL

types of agro-climatic areas. The total population of this area is about 120,000, contained in about 18,000 households. For the purposes of microplanning, this area has been divided into three educational sub-areas or circles with a population of 30,000 to 45,000 and each sub-area is further divided into about 5 to 6 Panchayat Clusters per planning sub-area. This decentralization facilitates collective as well as villagewise action by communities.

The objective of finding out ways and means for ensuring full enrolment, maximum retention and good learning achievement dominates the interventions designed in the PROPEL project. Around this dominant theme, the project builds up support activities and evolves strategies to be tried out at the grass-roots level.

The comprehensive design of the project includes:

* Non-formal primary education centres;

* Non-formal elementary education centres;

* Child Recreation Centres (age 3 to 6);

* Adult literacy activities with groups and individuals;

* Organizational and pedagogical improvement of full-time formal schools;

* Jana Shikshan Nilayams (People's Education Houses) for continuing education and recreational activities;

* Women's Development Groups (attached to Child Recreation Centres);

* Village Education Committees which could plan, organise and monitor educational activities according to local needs and aspirations and

* Education Complexes.

The strategy designed for all these activities was area- based/participatory microplanning, with each village/habitant and Panchayat as a participate. Co-ordination was visualized at three levels: Panchayat Cluster (5 to 6 Panchayats), `planning sub-area' serving about 6,000 households (about 35,000 to 45,000 population), and the total project area (simulating a block).

The emergence of a people-oriented, decentralised system of `education for all' with qualitative safeguards through guidance by Education Complexes is becoming evident. The PROPEL project expects to enable the rural communities to build this system. When this proc- ess gets concretised, the various innovative aspects of PROPEL could be adapted elsewhere with sufficient promise of success. What PROPEL has demonstrated so far is that in the matter of education for all, breaking the barrier of education orthodoxy is a tough task, but it can be tackled successfully if the communities are mobilised and assisted to determine their own education and development destiny.

Selected as one of UNESCO'S `Showcase Projects', PROPEL's horizons are broadening. From facilitating NFE centres, to training primary school teachers in non-formalising the formal school is a giant leap from a small beginning.