Friday, May 31, 2013

DSS School-on-Wheels with REC Support - News in CityPlus

City Plus published news of School-on-Wheels by Door Step School with support from Regional Electrification Corporation.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

New School-on-Wheels Bus under CSR Initiatives of RECL

Door Step School, which provides education to underprivileged children at various locations in Mumbai and Pune and runs the School on Wheels program for the children of migrant and unsettled parents, has inaugurated a New School – on - Wheels bus on 17th of May 2013.  The bus has been donated to Door Step School by Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), Delhi under its CSR initiatives. Shri P.J. Thakkar, Director (Technical), REC, flagged off the School on Wheels, today in Mumbai, in the presence of senior functionaries of REC, Society for Door Step School and The National CSR Hub.

“The School on Wheels is a bus that is re-modeled and equipped with all classroom supplies including a computer, TV, DD player and educational audio visual learning material to serve as mobile classroom. The bus reaches out to children of certain locations or construction sites where even a temporary classroom cannot be built and therefore children have absolutely no access to education. The School on Wheels offers space for 20-25 children.




In a day, the School On Wheels visits 2 or 3 locations and 2 hour sessions are held in each location. It also doubles up as school transport whenever required.

The School on Wheels is also used as a mobile reading room for children from the neighbouring communities where they have access to a variety of books available in the bus. The bus is taken to certain communities in the evening for this purpose and parked in one place for two hours offering these services. This is very beneficial to the children who are capable of reading, but do not have access to books beyond school books”

The new School on Wheels Bus will assist in providing literacy to educationally deprived children at temporary road side dwellings and construction sites at Door Step School locations in Maharashtra.



About Rural Electrification Corporation

Rural Electrification Corporation(REC), Ltd.,  a Navaratna Central Public Sector Enterprise under the Ministry of Power ,was incorporated on July 25 1969, under the Companies Act 1956. Headquartered at New Delhi, its main objective is to finance power sector projects in the fields of generation, transmission, distribution and renewable energy all over India.REC has allocated budget @ 1% of Profit after Tax of previous year for FY 2013-14 for CSR activities, and is committed to undertaking sustainable projects under CSR initiatives. Focus areas for REC’s CSR Activities include Skill Development leading to creation of employment, Education, Promotional of Non-Conventional Energy sources, Healthcare, including projects for the elderly and persons with disability, etc.and its CSR activities are spread acroos the country.

About Door Step School

The Door Step School was established in Mumbai, India in 1988 and later expanded to Pune in 1992. Door Step School provides education and support to the often-forgotten children of pavement dwellers, slum dwellers, construction site families and many other underprivileged families. Many of these children are not enrolled in school and have limited access to books and a place to study. Annually, the Door Step School serves more than 50,000 children with literacy programs at over 140 locations in Pune and Mumbai.  Each year more than 1500 children who would have otherwise gone without a formal education are enrolled in municipal schools.

Monday, May 20, 2013

20th Anniversary of Door Step School (NGO)


Door Step School, the NGO working for education of underprivileged children in Pune, held their 20th anniversary function on 11th of May. Door Step School (DSS) teachers, staff members, volunteers, funders, and well-wishers attended the event in large numbers. Describing the journey of DSS over last 20 years, Founder-President Rajani Paranjpe said, “Education is the only solution to all problems like inequality, unemployment, poverty, and child labour etc. Hence, we started Door Step School 25 years ago in Mumbai and 20 years ago in Pune. Knowing that there is no alternate to elementary education in today’s times, DSS took up the challenge of taking underprivileged children to basic literacy level. Considering the migration issues of migrant workers’ children, DSS has been successfully taking the school itself, along with teachers and learning material, to their own doorsteps. DSS has been effectively reaching out to children through various projects like Reading Classes in Pune and PCMC schools, School-on-Wheels bus for street children, Study Centers for slum-dwelling children, School Transport for children living on construction sites, and Citizens’ Campaign to enroll out-of-school children in schools under Right To Education Act.” Mrs. Paranjpe also said that DSS got the strength of taking up all these challenges only through thousands of willing hands joining the literacy movement. However, mentioning that the goal is not yet achieved, she appealed that more organizations and individuals should join hands in taking benefits of education to every child in Pune. DSS teachers and coordinators presented annual reports of their projects in a different way. An exhibition of teaching aids prepared by DSS teachers was organized for the attendees of anniversary event.

‘डोअर स्टेप स्कूल’चा २०वा वर्धापनदिन


पुण्यातील वंचित मुलांच्या शिक्षणासाठी काम करणार्‍या ‘डोअर स्टेप स्कूल’ या सेवाभावी संस्थेचा २०वा वर्धापनदिन सोहळा ११ मे रोजी पार पडला. ‘निवारा’ वृद्धाश्रमाच्या सभागृहात आयोजित करण्यात आलेल्या कार्यक्रमास संस्थेच्या शिक्षिका, स्वयंसेवक, तसेच देणगीदार, व हितचिंतकांनी मोठ्या संख्येने हजेरी लावली. ‘डोअर स्टेप स्कूल’च्या पुण्यातील २० वर्षांच्या वाटचालीबद्दल बोलताना संस्थापिका रजनी परांजपे म्हणाल्या, “समाजातील असमानता, बेरोजगारी, गरीबी, अशा अनेक समस्यांवर शिक्षण हा एकमेव उपाय असल्याचे दिसून आल्याने २५ वर्षांपूर्वी मुंबईत व २० वर्षांपूर्वी पुण्यात ‘डोअर स्टेप स्कूल’चे काम सुरू केले. भविष्यातील कोणत्याही क्षेत्रासाठी मुलभूत शिक्षणाला पर्याय नसल्याने, वंचित गटातील मुलांना किमान साक्षरतेपर्यंत पोचविण्याचे उद्दिष्ट संस्थेने ठरविले. विस्थापित मजूरांच्या मुलांची स्थलांतराची समस्या लक्षात घेऊन, शिक्षक व शिक्षणसामग्रीसहित शाळाच त्यांच्या दारी नेण्याचा प्रयोग संस्थेने यशस्विरीत्या केला आहे. पुणे व पिंपरी-चिंचवड मनपाच्या शाळांमधून ‘वाचन वर्ग’, रस्त्यांवरील मुलांसाठी ‘फिरती शाळा’, वस्त्यांमधील मुलांसाठी ‘अभ्यासिका’, बांधकाम साईटवर राहणार्‍या मुलांसाठी शालेय वाहतुकीची सोय, तसेच शिक्षणहक्क कायद्यांतर्गत शालाबाह्य मुलांना शिक्षणाच्या मुख्य प्रवाहात आणण्यासाठी नागरिक अभियान, अशा विविध उपक्रमांद्वारे ‘डोअर स्टेप स्कूल’ शिक्षणप्रसाराचे कार्य करीत आहे.” संस्थेच्या २० वर्षांच्या वाटचालीत हजारो हातांची साथ लाभल्याने काम करण्याचे बळ मिळत गेले, पण अजूनही संस्थेने हाती घेतलेले काम पूर्ण झाले असे वाटत नाही; उलट, पुण्यातील सर्व मुलांना शिक्षणाचा लाभ मिळवून देण्यासाठी आणखी संस्था व व्यक्तिंनी पुढे यावे व हा जगन्नाथाचा रथ ओढण्यास मदत करावी, असे आवाहनही सौ. परांजपे यांनी केले. संस्थेच्या विविध उपक्रमांच्या गतवर्षातील कामांचा आढावा यावेळी घेण्यात आला. या उपक्रमांमध्ये काम करणार्‍या शिक्षिकांनी अनोख्या पद्धतीने वार्षिक अहवालाचे सादरीकरण केले. संस्थेच्या शिक्षिकांनी तयार केलेल्या शैक्षणिक साहित्याचे प्रदर्शन यावेळी लावण्यात आले होते.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Door Step School’s Parent’s Participation in Children’s Education team (PPCE) works with PMC schools to reach parents


Active involvement of parents in Children’s education implies 
  • School drop-out rate resulting from long absenteeism is near zero
  • Children do not remain out-of-school  or are never enrolled due to parents attitude being casual or disinterested towards education  
The parents of children who were Irregular/ Consistently Absent from schools were identified as the first target group for the Project.

In February, PPCE team worked with 15 PMC schools (in the areas of Kondhwa and Mohammedwadi) and identified the list of children enrolled during the academic year 2013-13 in Class I and II and their attendance status (Regular/Irregular/Consistently Absent). The team then tracked the children, identified reasons for their absence, worked out solutions and persuaded their parents to send the children back to school.  Overall 7% of the absentees (or 1% of enrolled students) came back to school.


The team’s experiences in working out solutions, persuading the parents of absentees and sending the children back to school will be shared in the next couple of blogs. 

Involved Parents