Block Activity And Resource Center Case Study

TITLE of the PROJECT: A study on “how to make Block activity and resource center (BARC) an effective and vibrant place for learning in a Baytu block of district Barmer in Rajasthan”.

This research study is about the development of Block activity and resource center in Barmer. These centers are set-up by the Azim Premji foundation in across the field institutes as part of a teacher’s professional development. These centers are known as a medium of learning and teaching, where a variety of academic and non-academic activities (ex- workshops, book reading, Baal -Mela, book fair, discussion of social issues) are organized and resources pooled (ex- books, TLM’s, sports kit, science and math’s kit, newspaper, magazines) for its stakeholders. Accesses
As National Curriculum Framework, 2005 (NCF) reads, “No system of education can rise above the quality of its teachers”, it is critical to focus on teachers’ long-term and sustained professional development to ensure quality education in any region. The challenge of providing sustainable support to teachers, in general, had been identified by various government and private reports. But when we discuss the solution of this challenge no doubt PLC or BARC has been mirrored as an effective weapon. Because it’s a tool designed for the continuous academic development of teachers by themselves. In India, the idea of these centers was first discussed in National commission on teachers (1983-84), which speak about the development of teacher’s center that could serve as meeting places, where talent could be pooled and teaching experiences
Since it’s a new place and any activity of this kind never happened here before, so opening BARC was a mixed experience for team. But one of the challenge which commenced up very early and compel us to rethink the whole concept again was associated with the effective management of this center wherein vibrancy of the center was a big concern. As the efforts behind opening these centers will be assumed successful only when there is a continuous and consistent participation from teachers or some kind of learning is happening. But without knowing the actual reasons behind teacher’s participation it had become very difficult to maintain the same number for further. These centers were aimed to bring the quality in the education system of block so vibrancy of the center also implies all academic activities and tasks wherein the support of teachers is needed consistently. As the idea of this center is not only associated with the academic development of teachers, but also with the time and money involved in it, so it is essential that all the points which allied with the success of this center should be studied carefully. As it’s in the newly stage so we focused this study around two main question on which we would like to develop our understanding. These