Practice Time : Schooling on the Streets

Read the extract, read the activity and do all the activities:

A1: Complete the statements choosing the appropriate words from the extract.
1. The Door Step school is established in Mumbai in……..
2. The Door Step school expanded to ……… in 1993.
3. The school has reached over …….. children.
4. In the school the language of instruction is………
Ans: 1. 1988 2. Pune 3. 50000 4. Marathi

Established in Mumbai in 1988 responding to a massive need for literacy in the slums, the Door Step School builds its program to address three major needs: school enrolment, education for those not in school and retention to help those in school thrive and stay in school. Expanding to Pune in 1993, the Door Step School has impacted over 50,000 children.
The Door Step School is truly a school at one’s doorstep. The organization sets up a classroom in a particular area and gathers children there for learning. The team goes there every day and conducts regular classes. This particularly helps those who can’t send their children to school due to distance and time issues. The programmes are tailor made for the groups that they serve. In Pune, the language of instruction is Marathi. When asked why English was not introduced to the children, Rajani replies thoughtfully, “We are not against any language. Our experience tells us that a child can pick up his mother tongue or the regional language quickly. One must understand that these are students with no educational background. They are what we can call first generation learners. Most of the municipal schools in the city are Marathi medium. So while enrolling them in the mainstream school, it’s essential that they know good Marathi. Also, when they come to us, they can hardly read and write in the language that they speak and hear, learning a foreign language is far more difficult. The other factor is the dropout rate. Keeping all this in mind, we think that children must read and write in their own language till the time they are with us.”
In Pune, the main focus of the Door Step School is educating on construction sites. “We conducted a survey and found that lots of young children move into the city with or without their families to work on construction sites. Earning the daily bread is a challenge and education thus remains a distant dream. We try and reach out to such children and as a result, today, we are operating on over distant dream. We try and reach out to such children and as a result, today, we are operating on over 100 construction sites in the city. However, there are several challenges. The opening as well as the closure of the sites is not in our hands. When the site is completed, the labour moves out and so does the child. This results in a high dropout rate.
A2: Give Reason : English was not introduced to the children.
A child can pick up his mother tongue quickly. The children were hardly able to read and write their mother tongue. Learning a foreign language like English is far more difficult for them. So English was not introduced to the children.
A3: Find out the challenges the Door Step School face in educating children.
The challenges the Door Step School face in educating children are as follows – The children are from not educational background. They do not stick to one place as they move when the construction site is completed.
A4: Give one word for the following expressions
a. Leave school before the course is finished - dropout
b. The action of keeping something rather than losing it -retention
c. Made for a particular person or purpose - tailor-made
d. To follow the progress and development of someone - track

A5: Education always opens doors for a brighter future. Give examples to support the statement.
Education enables us to live a better life. It helps us get skills required to lead life. Education opens many career options for us. Famous personalities like Dr A.P.J Kalam, Dr Ambedkar and Indira Gandhi reached to great height.
A6: Grammar:
1. It’s essential that they know good Marathi.(Choose and rewrite the Simple Sentence from the given alternatives)
a. It being essential they know good Marathi.
b. Knowing good Marathi is essential for them.
c. They know good Marathi and it is essential.
d. Essentially they know good Marathi.
2. The opening as well as the closure of the sites is not in our hands.(Rewrite using ‘neither…nor’)
Neither the opening nor the closure of the sites is in our hands.