School Education Trust for the Disadvantaged
Introduction
The weaker sections of society who are at lowest ladder of education and so-cial development are the most vulnerable regarding their life, property and honour. The present disposition is non-patronizing rather it is hostile towards the disadvantaged espe-cially for Muslim community. It has left the commu-nity to fend for itself. Saharanpur, U.P.
Surveys conducted by both government and non-government agencies have shown that the school education programmes, particularly in schools of disadvantaged communities in the country, are suf-fering mainly because of lack of qualified and committed teachers. Qualified science teachers (who have passed XII grade with mathematics and science) are almost non-existent in rural India. No nation can afford to have a sizeable chunk of
its population illiterate, particularly in Sciences,
and no community should hope for a respecta-
ble place in the national stream without a
School Education Trust for the Disadvantaged (SETD) is a registered non-
profit non-government welfare trust run from monetary contributions by
present and former teachers and alumni of Aligarh Muslim University and
other supporters of the cause. Its focus is to strengthen teaching of contem-
porary school subjects in institutions of disadvantaged communities located
in villages, towns and cities.
SETD Centre, Aligarh, U.P.
Ghaziabad, U.P.
SETD Centre, Aligarh U.P.
Our Programmes
SETD has instituted programs which strengthen knowledge and skills among teachers of such schools for teaching Mathematics, Science, Social Science and elementary English. Sequential Foundation Course Syllabus: Mathematics, Science, Elementary English and Social Studies up to Class VIII ac-cording to NCERT syllabus. The participants are exposed to experiments and activity-based learning. They are also trained in effective teaching methods.
Duration: The Course is based on FIVE (5) Sequential Sessions of EIGHT (8) days each. The sessions are held at an interval of about one month. Our other programmes are Subject Work-shops, Courses for Science Practicals for Teachers and students of local schools. Serv-ing and retired faculty members of AMU are also engaged as honorary Resource Persons in our programmes. The courses are taught in Hindi & Urdu.
Travel cost of participants (to & fro bus or 2nd class train fare) from their in-stitutions to Aligarh (amounting up to Rs. 1,500 per person per session), ex-
penses towards their board and lodging at Aligarh, course text books, station-ery etc. are met from donations to SETD.
Wipro
Project The Trust completed a Project from July 2018 to Nov 2021 for Strengthening Teaching of Mathematics and English in Primary Grades of Identified Schools in Aligarh. The Project was aided by Wipro Foundation. Under the Project two teacher educators trained over 30 teachers of 12 Project Schools in effective teaching methods. SETD receives regular support from Azim Premji Founda- tion for its Project. Field Centres To monitor and support implementation of concepts and methods taught in our programmes our resource persons regularly visit cluster centres in the field. We have designated three Madaris located in a) Yamuna Nagar in Har- yana, b) Haridwar in Uttarakhand and c) Aligrarh as Field Centres. Our Pro- ject Fellows regularly monitor and strengthen these Centres. We have now added a new Field Centre in Lucknow region as well.
Future Plans
1. The Project Area presently covers parts of western Uttar Pradesh and ad-joining areas of Uttarakhand , Haryana and Delhi. The Trust is going to ex- pand the Project to other parts of Uttar Pradesh and its nearby areas.
2. Owing to the high demand we will launch SFC+NIOS integrated course in 2024025 in which a teacher will be educated in maths, science, English, so-cial studies and computers from primary to class X level in a one-year pro-gram.
