UNIT 9 COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION (PRACTICAL BASED) …

1 1 COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION (Practice BASED) Block 3 : Managing School COMMUNITY InterfaceNotesUNIT 9 COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION (PRACTICAL based ) Meaning and Why is COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION Important? COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION : Tasks COMMUNITY Mobilizer: Role and Studies: Primary Education Programs Involving COMMUNITY COMMUNITY Participation and MOBILIZATION Under COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION - A Vital Strategy of and COMMUNITY Us Sum to Check Your Readings & End INTRODUCTIONIt is rare that something that is dearly owned and held precious by all gets lostor failsSmriti1In previous units of block 1 and 2 you have learnt about the broad concept ofsociety and its linkages to school with the interface of COMMUNITY .

2 You have alsolearnt the importance of and policy provisions for COMMUNITY participation ineducation through school system. Recognizing COMMUNITY as a resource for schoolsystem, this unit highlights the importance of COMMUNITY participation and own-ership and proposes various strategies for COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION . The current1 Author works for capacity building at ASER Centre- Pratham and holds a PhD in Nutritionand a Bachelor s degree in Education. Email: 2 NotesCommunity MOBILIZATION (Practice BASED) Diploma in Elementary Education ( ) unit is a practice based unit . It gives various examples and suggests activities tobring about the existence and importance of various communities associatedwith the school system.

3 Examples/case studies given in the unit bring out thesecommunities as a potential resource for school system and suggest measures ofmobilization. Most importantly the unit highlights the need and importance of your a teacher s role as a facilitator for mobilizing communities and itspotential benefits in achievement of the schools primary goal- learning of unit is linked with an action research based project work that you need totake up in the school LEARNING OBJECTIVESA fter going through this unit , you should be able to: Understand the concept and importance of COMMUNITY ownership and par-ticipation in school system.

4 Recognize the several communities that potentially play a role in the schoolsystem. Give examples of COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION and utilization of mobilized com-munity resources for school system. Suggest some MOBILIZATION activities in the context of your school. Recognize the role of teacher (yourself) in MOBILIZATION of relevant commu-nities. Enlist the qualities and skills of a teacher as COMMUNITY mobilizer/ COMMUNITY Meaning and ImportanceLet us understand the concept and importance ofcommunity MOBILIZATION and ownership throughthe scenarios given below that describes the storyof two schools2 Scenario 1: Story of two schools I am a primary school teacher.

5 Today I have to goto join duty in a school where I have been posted2 All illustrations contributed by design team- Pratham Resource centre 3 COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION (Practice BASED) Block 3 : Managing School COMMUNITY InterfaceNotesby the directorate. I am new to the locale so I am trying to ask the people aroundfor directions to reach the 1: I ask about the primary school from the people I see sitting around. Theylook at me blankly. With a lot of effort, I finally reach the primary school that Iwas looking 2: I ask about the primary school from the people I see sitting around.

6 Oneof them calls on to the other person nearby and says Do you know where thatschool is where the daughter of your neighbor is enrolled? The other personreplies Yes I can take you there as I dropped the child to school yesterday whenher father could not do so . This person pointed me to the direction of the I approached the school, I kept enquiring about the location so as to makesure that I was going in the right direction. People residing in the houses thatwere very near the school, on being asked about the location of the school said Oh! Our school where our children study is down this road.

7 I thanked themand reached my the following points in the above scenario:In caes1:People had no knowledge of the school or they simply were not engaged enoughto know about the school and hence guide the one made an effort to ask other people to help the teacher OR may be peoplewere not concerned or engaged with each other to consult each other for thematter at case 2:People called the school their school . They also identified with the school astheir own children studied connected with each other to address the matter at hand (in this casegiving directions to the teacher).

8 There seemed to be a sense of help and coop-eration as the neighbours child was dropped at the school when there was on what you have read above answer the following scenario do you think portrays a COMMUNITY where people cooperatewith each other?.. 4 NotesCommunity MOBILIZATION (Practice BASED) Diploma in Elementary Education ( ) scenario do you think presents a COMMUNITY where people cometogether to show ownership of the resources and manage the same?..Note that the most valuable resource in the COMMUNITY is the people. Coopera-tion among COMMUNITY people is critical for development of self-sufficiency COMMUNITY has an important role to identify and use available resources andplan accordingly.

9 Where there is a mechanism of local self-government, impor-tant decisions are usually made at the local level by the local people is the best possible way for development of COMMUNITY . This is called com-munity MOBILIZATION where people plan and do things. They take charge oftransforming their COMMUNITY and their COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION is a capacity building process through which com-munity individuals, groups or organizations plan, carry out and evaluate activi-ties on a participatory and sustained basis for their development, either on theirown initiative or stimulated by WHY IS COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION IMPORTANT?

10 COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION is very important for the success of any intervention/programme as it helps in: Creating demand for interventions Increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions Contributing additional resources to the response Reaching the most vulnerable Addressing the underlying issues affecting education: gender disparities,lack of awareness Increasing COMMUNITY ownership and COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION : TASKS INVOLVEDNow that you have some idea of the concept, meaning and importance of com-munity MOBILIZATION , let us understand the tasks involved in MOBILIZATION pro-cess, Let us understand this with another scenario given 2: A concerned teacher In standard 5, a teacher gives a Math test tothe class.