NGO Profile: Read Write Count

DOCTOR OF EDUCATION PROGRAM

Contemporary Approaches to Educational Problems Ed 855.716: Spring 2014

Name of Organization URL Project Lead Telephone E-mail Skype Location Focus Read Write Count http://www.readwritecount.net Philippe Donze, Founder +33 7 82 36 12 41 phil.donze@gmail.com iphilnice Project: Indonesia Me: France Access/Equity The readwritecount community is aware that education is one of the pillars of a successful life and we want to focus on this matter. Education is supposed to be a right for all, but actually it's still a privilege for a selected population. A lack of success in school will result in a lack of motivation and self confidence, and, in the poorest environments, will push the kids straight in the street. Once in the street, they will rarely come back to school. Their low conditions of living will push them to start to work too young for the hardest work (resale of waste, carrying too heavy loads, etc.), will be easy prey of drug dealers and traffickers (children sales, prostitution, etc.), or they will be involved in war as child soldiers. The readwritecount community has gained the experience that reinforcing a few school subjects for a child will give him more self confidence and therefore, it will help the kid to improve his school results in the other school subjects. By that way, the readwritecount community act to reduce the number of children who drop out of school. The readwritecount community open classes in underprivileged areas (slums, dumps, etc.), offering to kids for free, mathematics lessons and English lessons, 2 hours a week in each subjects;

Mission, Vision, History

The Challenge

We already acknowledge that poor conditions of living are the basic factor to make children fail at school and increase drop-out rate. We seek to engage with researchers to examine how our complementary classes and our inclusive learning environment (no assessment of the intellectual value of the children, in opposite to national competitive education system) lead to rebuild their self-confidence and increase their chance to stay longer at school, or change their approach to school and education, while it may be previously considered not that important for the future life (reproduction of the parents pattern). We want to look at factors worthy of examination to determine if and how our programs and strategies can break the vicious cycle of poverty (future) through complementary and adapted education. We would like to learn from global and regional research and determine how best practices in another country might be of value to Jakarta.

The Challenge (Longer Description)

How research can support progress toward your intended goal. What obstacles are you facing? Examples may include strategic design, resistance from above, policy constraints, resource constraints, integration of new knowledge on gender equality measures. The more focused the target (specific population and specific challenge), the more productive the results will be. Please keep in mind that we need to build a collaborative rapport, select the challenge, create a research design, write a paper, and create a slide presentation in 6 weeks Please review the Case Study documents in order to facilitate the creation of a profile in order to get started.

THE PROJECT: We are aware that poor conditions of living are an additional reason that prevents children from success at school. Those children are in a vicious circle where their poor conditions of living decrease their chance to succeed at school, that damage their self-confidence in their abilities to learn new knowledge, that decrease more again their chance to succeed, especially in a national education system that doesnt give any rooms for different children. Many of those children will follow the path of their parents, dropping out of school before the end of primary school, or in junior or senior high school, getting no diploma, and reproducing the frame of living of their parents. We are trying to rebuild self-confidence in their abilities to learn by providing knowledge taught in learning conditions that doesnt put into competition their smartness. I give them a place where they will feel comfortable to express their smartness without any assessment. Everybody has a capital to start and to succeed in life. Some have very few, no education background, no money, and no suitable environment. Also, for those underprivileged people, receiving a service makes them privileged, at least a little bit and rebalances a little bit their feeling of the unfairness of life. Teachers are volunteers, trained especially for this goal. One of the pillars of readwritecount community is to spread the philosophy that anybody can open his/her own class. The idea is to motivate anybody who would like to help their own community but doesnt feel confident enough to start any classes or education project. To anybody who wants to start his/her own class, we offer online a teacher training slideshow, lesson plans and an online community of teacher where are shared lesson plans, ideas, tips etc. If the location is reachable by our staff, we train the new teacher and support him during the first lessons.

Our implementation process is simple. We dont want any selection. Those children shouldnt have to be subjected to this. Our classes are open to all (regarding their school level). Therefore its important that our classes are opened straight in the poor area, to ensure the targeted population. It could be in a local facility (building) or in a covered terrace in front of a house. SURVEY: the survey consisted in an experience as educative social center director, designing a classes in village program in Banda Aceh, that taught me that in Indonesia, those classes are very successful. Then I decided to open my own project in Jakarta. Before starting my project, I did a survey by visiting a few local NGO, in Jakarta, and by involving myself as volunteer with them, for one month. Thus, I could analyze the way they operate on the field, their difficulties, the needs, relationship with the local communities, etc. Among those local organizations, some became closer and a kind of more tight relationship were establishing, sharing information, activities etc. One is a tourism NGO, "Real Jakarta. An Indonesian fellow takes tourists in slums, and give back to the underprivileged people half of his incomes. We usually share information, ideas, areas, visits, and mutual advises. Another one is a Taiwanese NGO, Buddha Tzu Chi. This organization needed English teachers in a school in a dump, and readwritecount taught there English for 3 classes (the local English teachers were often absent). I am also in touch with Komunitas Lebah, organization that open classes for underprivileged children too. I share also mutual advises and information with LP4Y, a French NGO that empowers poor young mothers from a slum. Each time I open a class in a neighborhood, I always visit first the local authority, to operate legally and to involve them in the project in term of building, facilities, etc. I am reading Education in Indonesia, Daniel Suryadarma, Gavin W Jones, (2013), providing me with very interesting information about national education school system, its main default, reasons, and running improvement, especially in the MDG#2 view. Nonetheless, no scientific survey (statistics, data, children psychological profile, etc.) was done to foster in a more rational way our education activities. Measurement and Evaluation: The assumption is that our classes would improve self-confidence of the kids, would transform their consideration of school into a more motivated and useful one, and help them to improve their academics at school. We will monitor the outcomes of this project by comparing the school reports of the kids of the 2 semesters prior they enter our classes, with the school reports after they follow our classes. Currently, we are on process to take the reports of the kids of last years. At the end of February, we will ask them their new school reports, and we will compare. No results are reported yet.

OBSTACLES: The kids may feel bored again if we reproduce a traditional way of teaching (lecturing), and some classes emptied because of a noncentered children teaching approach from the teachers, because they didnt prepare properly their lesson, by a lack of time, etc. (The teachers are mostly students and teach as volunteer) The absenteeism of our teacher for exams reason, that doesnt help to keep our children in our classes. No place is available to open the class in the right areas, therefore the neighborhood cannot benefits of our classes.

EXPENSES: readwritecount pay the salary of the manager, and buy whiteboards, erasers and markers, and textbooks for the volunteer teachers to help them to prepare their lessons (for one neighborhood: $67 for 2 levels=2 classes) The funding comes from my personal finances. One of my friends paid already $130 to sponsor 2 classes. NEEDS: Readwritecount would need an office in Jakarta for all administrative tasks and a meeting room for meeting, to train the teacher, invite partners, etc., NEXT STEPS: We want to do education advocacy in the neighborhood where parents are not motivated enough to send their children in our classes, through outdoor video screening (a short movie about education advocacy followed by a real movie, to attract the population). Later, we want to attract international volunteers to be English teacher assistant in our classes, in order to share their culture to the children and make our children feel global citizen. We will organize gender workshop to develop girls awareness about their right to access to equal opportunities. We will organize health workshop to develop children awareness about basic health issues.