Thanks once again to Abhi for introducing the charity to SM readers.

Dr. Shiban Ganju, the founder of Save A Mother has a post up about the organization on 3 Quarks Daily where he is a regular contributor. My comment below points out some of the recent advances of SAM.

http://ekalindia.org/ekal_new/index.php

They may have the qualifications they need to start formal schooling as a 4th or 5th grader but not the proper documentation. Then they are left with the decisions to either start over at grade 1 with small children or not continue shcool.

You’re absolutely right. Teacher quality is a big deal. One other consideration with informal school though is, say a student who is poor goes to an informal school for 3 or 4 years, but they didn’t get a certificate. They may have the qualifications they need to start formal schooling as a 4th or 5th grader.

That brings up another topic for people to consider– when sponsoring NGOs that work in education, there are two different main sections- formal schools and informal schools. Looks like Ekal has informal schools, as does Sr. Jessi’s schools in Bihar. Other programs, like Barakat run formal schools (I-India sends it’s children to formal school and also has vocational classes). Informal schools seemed more focused on the extreme basics- literacy, basic math etc. But of course the students do not benefit from having any official school certificates.

I think there can be some positive and negatives to this system. On one hand- informal schools are easier to create- no need for all the administrative tasks involved in certifying the schools. Additionally, since they are teaching basics, they do not need highly trained teachers, and can also pay the teachers less. Also, for example, Sr. Jessi explained to me that her students are almost always the first literate people in their family. She feels that education, even if informal plants the seed for the importance of education, and therefore the children who attend the informal schools will be more likely to view education positively and send their own children to school in the future.

But it also brings up the question of class. Do informal schools keep poor children poor, by not giving them formal recognition of their achievements and therefore unable to have the choices to continue education or gain many types of employment that children from higher up classes have? Do informal schools embrace the separate and unequal system of schooling in India? The same considerations can be thought about in terms of formal education versus vocational training as well. Of course, there is really no right answer, but it is important to consider all these factors too.