DIVERSASIA - Best practices

UCEP has been working in the field of labor (working children) since 1972. The main innovative feature of the program is that it provides both general and technical education followed by employment support service to working children living in urban slums. UCEP offers a comprehensive solution to the needs of working children by opening an opportunity to attend schools in any convenient time of the day available to them without sacrificing their present income job.

The skill-training program in UCEP is dynamically responsive to the job market needs which facilitate the graduates to get gainful employment opportunity in the labor market.

Education in the UCEP School in Chittagong is from the preparatory to Class VIII level and education is provided in four and a half year. Each academic session is of 6 months duration. Skill training is provided to children after they complete four and a half years of schooling. The school policy is based on the principles of inclusive pratice and over the years the management has promoted planned inclusion in the school.

The school has currently 708 children on roll. They have been admitted based on a child survey conducted within two kilometer area of the school. It was seen that the discriminated groups of children with no access to education included working children, children with disabilities, orphans and those belonging to the "Bihari" community. Poverty, lack of proper water supply, and poor crowded housing conditions were common for all the families surveyed. The survey revealed a large number of children with disabilities probably because no other school in the vicinity was admitting them. 154 children with physical and intellectual disabilities were identified and admitted in the school.

Almost all children in the school are working children A talk with them reveals that boys are engaged as domestic helpers, porter in the market place, assistants to shop keepers and barbers. Since there was a shortage of water in the area, some boys were engaged in fetching water to make some small earnings. Girls are involved in paper packet making, stitching and embroidery. These children often have no holidays and work for at least 3 to 4 hours a day. Coming to school is an escape from the drudgery of hard work and most of the children come to school regularly.

The school has a child friendly construction and has taken special care to provide access to children with physical difficulties.These include construction of broad ramps at the entrance of the school and the classroom building block. The doors of the classroom have been broadened to accommodate wheelchair users. Some children using wheelchairs are found seated near the entrance door of classrooms while others are seen alienated and sitting in separate rows. Care needs to be taken to see that this seating arrangement does not make the child appear to be seated separately and away from the others.

The teachers in the school are well trained and seem to be motivated to work with the diverse school population. The female teachers have completed at least college education and the male teachers are graduates. In addition to their teaching work teachers work in the community and organize meetings at regular intervals. There are 15 teachers working in the school and draw a comparatively higher salary as compared to other NGO institutions. The teacher student ratio is 1:30. UCEP uses its own books and materials which are prepared with due attention to the background of the learners. In addition the teachers also use the NCTB books. The teaching methodology is based con the active involvement of the learners. The only teaching aids observed in the school were some charts(vowels, spellings, pictures with alphabets in English and common occupations).

The involvement and support of the community is maintained by the teachers and the School Management Committees (SMC) is formed annually.