The Challenge

Problems of Migrant Children

• Usual practice for the large number of migrant seasonal workers, is that the entire family lives in hutments/temporary sheds at the construction site and at brick kilns and all adult members are engaged as daily wage or contract labour. Accompanying children of school going age are deprived of normal schooling and just remain at worksites, notwithstanding the inherent dangers of accidents, run errands for all and sundry and slowly get prematurely inducted into workforce. For the girl child, going to school is not even thought of as an option; having to take care of the infants while parents are at work and assist the family in household chores.

• One of the recurring concerns for Apna Skool is the issue of continuity for the educational process of the children, when they return to their homes after the seasonal work comes to an end. Typically the brick kilns operate for six to eight months in a year and close operations once the monsoon sets in, after which, migrant workers get back to their village, perhaps attending to agriculture in their native villages.  Realizing that this would mean interruption of schooling for the children, who were attending Apna Skool, we try to convince the parents that the children be made to attend the village school and try to integrate with the regular schooling, as far as possible. But those who can not get admission in the middle of the year at their respective village schools often come back with their parents when they return for the next season’s work – quite a few return to the same workplace.  We find that a significant fraction of these children have slipped up so much that we are forced to begin afresh.

• It’s often found that the Village school does not accept students joining in the mid-year and there are administrative hurdles to be overcome; this despite the provisions of the RTE act (The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2009) which states clearly that every child between the ages of 6-14 is entitled for free and compulsory education. Even where the children get admission in the village school, they remain totally neglected as no teacher tries to assimilate them with the existing system. The children find themselves out of sync with the school either in terms of the level, or in terms of the methods of instruction. Apna Skools have adopted a flexible curriculum according to the level of each child. 

• Continuity is lost on account of the fact the migrant workers do not necessarily return to the same worksite. This situation can be addressed only by having a network of Apna Skools at many locations, not necessarily run by us, but by others who are like-minded. 

Impact of Apna Skools

• We run 25 centres at brick kilns and construction sites where we cater to children in classes 1 through 5.

• We arrange for end-of-year examinations to be administered by National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS), thus ensuring that these children get the accreditation as well as education.

•  Perhaps the best evidence of the success of these programs has been the fact that migrant labourers now choose brick kilns in which the owner allows the Apna Skools to run a centre.

• For older children who we judge to be sufficiently scholastically advanced, and for children graduating out of these centres , we have admitted them to regular schools. Apna Skool thus, has an ongoing policy of admitting as many children as possible into mainstream schools. We however continue to evaluate their progress (academic and otherwise), arrange for their transportation from their homes to school, and take care of their fees and other related expenditure. At present there are 53 students admitted to various mainstream schools in Kanpur.

• Every year since 2006, 50 students per year, have appeared for the NIOS examination and successfully passed. We are happy to say that our children absorb the content of a normal school year curriculum in the truncated (on account of migration) average six to eight month period.  They learn Reading, Writing and Arithmetics (traditional 3 R's) just as in regular schools and at the same time participate in many extra curricular activities, such as Songs and Dances, Artwork, Dramatics, Story telling and Poetry recitation, Sports and Games.

• They also regularly participate in local level competitions and win accolades.

• The months from May to September is usually the time when some of the current Apna Skool centres have depleted attendance as students go back to their respective villages in U.P and Bihar along with their parents. They come back and enroll in Apna Skool centres  again in October. During this period, in order to ensure continuity in their education we make special efforts to facilitate the process of admitting these students at their local village schools or start additional temporary Apna Skool centres and appoint a teacher for the same.

• Perhaps the best evidence of the success of these programs has been the fact that migrant labourers now choose brick kilns in which the owner allows the Apna Skools to run a centre.

• Our goal is to open as many Apna Skool centres as possible and ensure integration of these children to mainstream schools.