Aug 8, 2005

Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana – ANEQIP

Press Release

Revolutionary Project in Education announced on Kranti Din in Andaman and Nicobar(INDIA)

By H.E Lt. Governor

Bharatiya Jain Saghatana (BJS), is a Pune based NGO of national repute that specializes in disaster management and education. BJS, in a much appreciated gesture relied on it‘s past experience and developed expertise in the educational field to conduct a needs assessment and has now accepted the challenge of improving the educational quality in all the 400 schools in A&N.

BJS, encouraged by the unique ‘public-private‘ partnership model will address this issue under the name “BJS-Andaman Nicobar Educational Quality Improvement Program (BJS-ANEQIP)“.

BJS-ANEQIP aims to deliver holistic education to the children of A&N schools, by implementing some highly researched programs without the need for changing the syllabus or the teachers or the existing system.

The deliverables through this project focus on 6 thrust areas namely:

1) Support decision makers to face the challenges in education.

2) Leading towards holistic development of the students.

3) Empowering teachers for better educational delivery.

4) Guidance for better utilization of resources.

5) Building bridges with technology.

6) To collectively contribute in Nation Building through Excellence in Education.

This model was showcased in A&N during the month of April, 2005 at Port Blair and was attended and evaluated by hundreds of education officers, school principals and teachers.

Further A&N administration appointed a 4 member expert committee, who participated and independently evaluated the need and quality of these showcased programs.

It is heartening to note that the expert group has strongly recommended implementation of these programs in all the schools in A&N from this academic year itself.

Accordingly the A&N administration concluded and signed an MOU with BJS on the 18th July, 2005, to allow BJS to implement the BJS-ANEQIP project in A&N for a period of three years.

The crucial component in the MOU being that BJS shall implement these programs totally FREE of COST to the A&N administration. BJS has been assured smooth implementation by constitution of a 5 member empowered Joint Committee ”Andaman Nicobar BJS ANEQIP Schools Improvement Committee (AN-BASIC).

The committee shall report to the Director (Education) and shall be chaired by Mr. P.K.Roy, A.D.E.(Admin, Directorate of Education) and other members include Shri Lucus Robert, D.E.O. South Andamans, Dr. R.P. Pandey, Principal DIET, Shri. Hemant Misra, BJS Director (A &N).

BJS has also come forward with great enthusiasm and took responsibility for the reconstruction of 20 fully damaged schools and all the 4 primary Health Centres and 30 Primary sub-centers. Some of these permanent structures are ready for inauguration. BJS is building them totally free of cost to the A&N administration.

This was announced during the Joint press Conference held on the 9th August, 2005 held by Hon. Lt. Governor, Prof. Ram Kapse and Shri. Shantilal Muttha ( National president of BJS), Mr. Prafulla Parakh ( National Secretary of BJS) and Shri Sunil Phadke (Executive Director of BJS).

Shri. Shantilal Muttha Founder and National President

Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana

Federation Of Jain Educational Institutes

For further information Contact:

Mr. Sunil Phadke, Executive Director, FJEI

Tel:+91–20-5605 0000, Fax: +91–20-5605 0011

Email: info@bjs-aneqip.org

Website: www.bjs-aneqip.org

Quality in Education-BJS Strategy

The advent of globalisation has created rapid changes in all spheres of life. These changes are driven mostly by technology. Technology itself is changing so rapidly that other developments are finding it difficult to keep pace with it.

Education has always been characterized as a slow mover. However in the current global scenario even education has changed in character and form. Developments in the last 500 years or so have been now been time framed in 10 to 12 years. Students are looking beyond the geographical boundaries.

Technology and easily available information is providing them with opportunities to seek global citizenship and they are quite aware that this will demand the best from them. They need to be equipped with best and international quality education to face these challenges.

Education is a key driver for socio-economic development of any country. The Human Resources form the very backbone for such Nation Building and India is blessed with a large population base, which can be transformed into a huge and effective intellectual capital. This is the basis for the debate on India becoming superpower. It is essential to map this intellectual capital to the needs of Human Resource development and Nation Building.

As a responsible NGO and working in the field of education, Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana (BJS) naturally has been studying the educational scenario in the country for the last few years.

While conducting the needs assessment, BJS has observed that the benefits of these changes are still restricted to bigger cities and not percolated to the rural areas. The situation is typical since the information is now reaching beyond the major cities but facilities for quality education are not being extended in these large areas.

BJS therefore has accepted this challenge and put together a team of 100 professionals to work out, research, design and develop these programs for effective and quality education. Care has been taken to ensure that these must be implemented within the existing parameters of syllabus and availability of existing teachers only.

Aiming at holistic development of children is the need of the hour. Hence a carefully crafted judicious mix of effective academics, exposure to co-curricular subjects and extra curricular activities is necessary. BJS attempts to precisely address these while developing the programs to bring about a paradigm shift in educational delivery concept and prepare the children to be “future ready“.

BJS has adopted this strategy and is now geared up with programs like Trustee and Management Training, Accreditation for schools, teacher empowerment through skills upgradation and many more. These programs have been developed and tested for its effectiveness.

With this background, BJS has now initiated a unique “private-public” partnership with the A&N administration and through BJS-ANEQIP project has taken up the challenging responsibility for updgrading the quality of education in all the 400 schools in A&N.

Highlights of MoU between Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana and

Department of Education, Andaman and Nicobar Administration

After 6 months of intensive interchange and interaction with the A&N administration, parents and teachers etc. BJS could empathise with the local needs and requirements and put together the BJS-ANEQIP proposal. This was carefully studied by the A&N administration and then translated into an MOU which was then signed on 18th July , 2005, detailing the operative part for it???s implementation.

The highlights of the MOU are:

1. BJS-ANEQIP to cover all 400 schools in A&N.

2. The programs have been researched, conceptualised, scoped, designed and developed by BJS.

3. The basket of programs includes :

• Management training
• Accreditation
• Teacher training
• Aptitude testing
• Moral & value education
• Awards
• School Administration Software
• Computer education
• Teaching with multimedia
• Yoga training
• Disaster management
• Environment education
• Child & youth development
• Creativity for teachers
• Creativity for students
• Creating awareness of ‘Role of education in Nation Building‘

4. The project implementation envisages that all these programs shall be implemented by BJS at it‘s own cost and hence no financial burden on the A&N administration.

5. The project to run for 3 years and then handed over to the A&N education department for continuation.

6. An empowered joint committee formed for smooth implementation

7. The strategy of which includes:

a. BJS puts together a team of more than 150 professionals involved in program design and implementation

b. BJS establishes a fully equipped and functional office at Port Blair

c. Formation of an empowered 5-member joint committee ‘Andaman Nicobar BJS ANEQIP Implementation Committee (AN-BASIC)‘ for ensuring smooth implementation of BJS-ANEQIP.

d. BJS and A&N administration to provide full support.

8. Implementation starts from the current academic year 2005–2006

9. Creates a “public-private” partnership model for implementation

Impact and Benefits of BJS- ANEQIP

Universalising and providing education cannot be seen only as a statistical goal. The real aim is to ensure that quality education leads to Human resources creation which could then be mapped for National Development.

People driven projects of such magnitude have a contribution and can be implemented successfully only with the involvement and participation of all concerned.

They are expected to shoulder the responsibility for getting actively involved by understanding the programs, guide and motivate the children to participate, co-operate with the teachers and the schools for better implementation of the BJS-ANEQIP programs.

Hence as parents, teachers, educators, administrators and concerned citizens, it is our duty to support this cause and secure the futures of the next generation.

BJS-ANEQIP: Benefits

The A&N Administration: Improvements and effectiveness by providing management training and system based administrative tools

School infrastructure: School administration can identify areas of improvement, plan better and take appropriate action to create better science labs, libraries, computer labs, etc.

School Management Board / committee: BJS-ANEQUIP project will benefit members of the School Management Board who are managing schools at Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

It will aim to successfully create awareness amongst the board members in terms of responsibilities towards and involvement in the school functioning and management. BJS-ANEQUIP project will empower all school management boards with new management practices and techniques for improving the efficacy of their schools.

Teachers : BJS-ANEQUIP project will be of immense benefit to the teachers, who are the key drivers for educational delivery. BJS-ANEQIP programs shall equip these teachers to be able to develop vision, mentor the students and highly motivated to provide better educational delivery aimed at academic excellence.

Parents : BJS-ANEQUIP project will help parents to be able to guide and mentor their children so as to equip them to face the future challenges and become successful citizens in the new economic order.

Students : All BJS-ANEQUIP project programmes have been developed with a ‘Students‘ first approach. The project will equip students to achieve academic excellence and be ‘future ready‘

Contact Details

Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana / Federation Of Jain Educational Institutes

Head Office:
Muttha Chambers II, 8th Floor,

106/1-A, Senapati Bapat Road,

Pune, India 411016

Tel: +91- 20- 5605 0000

Fax:+91- 20- 5605 0011

Contact email:

bprasad@fjei.org

pparekh@fjei.org

Websites:

http://www.bjs-aneqip.org/

http://www.bjsindia.org/

http://www.fjei.org/

Port Blair Island Arcade, 2nd Floor,

Jungli Ghat,

Port Blair 744103

(Andaman & Nicobar Islands)

Tel. No.: 03192–242531

Fax No.: 03192–241505

Print This Article »   Email This Article »