Teachers Review Meeting at Kudlagi – 28 Feb 2012

Meeting of State Advisory Committee on HRE at Bangalore – 16 Feb 2012

Orientation Programme for Human Rights Education Teachers at Sira- 13&14 Feb 2012

Review Meeting for Teachers – Sira

Review Meeting for phase II school teachers was conducted on 18th November at Girls Junior College, Sira. 67 teachers participated in the meeting. The organisers were able to collect 60 impact stories on HRE from teachers.  

General Orientation for HRE teachers

General Orientation programme was conducted for HRE Teachers  at United Mission School from 23rd to 25th November 2011. 35 teachers from Bangalore urban, Bangalore rural and from Kolar district participated. Resource Persons were Mr. Mathews Philip, Executive Director, SICHREM, Adv. Manohar, Legal Advisor, SICHREM, Ms. Margaret, State Coordinator, IHRE and Ms. Rashmi from CRT.

Head Masters Orientation Program

SICHREM, IHRE and Department of Public Instruction – Government of Karnataka jointly organised an orientation program for the Head Masters of Human Right s Education schools in Bangalore on 17^th Sept at United Mission School. 35 Head Masters from 35 different schools in Bangalore participated in this program.

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Human Rights Education: syllabus training for teachers

On the 20th and 21st July Sichrem were involved in a syllabus training programme for human rights education teachers. The training was specific to the 3rd module of our human rights eucation programme. The programme was at Shikshakara Sadana, Bangalore.

The event also saw the release of a newsletter Spandana, by Mr.Narayanaswamy, General Secretary, Teacher’s Association and Mr.Mathews Philip, Executive Director, SICHREM during the Inaugural function. Through this newsletter we hope to share the activities that are going on with our human rights education.

Mr.Mathews Philip, Executive Director, SICHREM (left) and Mr.Narayanaswamy, General Secretary, Teacher's Association release the newletter

Margaret Sampath Human Rights Edcation coordinator, SICHREM

Nepali Supreme Court directs government to include human rights in school and college syllabi

SICHREM welcomes the decision by the Nepalese Supreme Court in directing Government to include human rights in the national syllabus. The reason behind the decison was ” to combat violence and discrimination against women,” a division bench of justices Bala Ram KC and Bharat Raj Upreti said in a verdict.

This reasoning is further vindication of SICHREM’s human rights education programmes in schools across Karnatka and Kerela.  These programmes hope  that education will lead to a better understanding of the pernicious nature of human rights violations. This awareness will then manifest itself into greater respect and acknowledgement of groups who have been historically persecuted.  

Educating children should also ensure that prejudices do not become hereditary and the chain of discriminatory attitudes being passed down is broken.

Aflatoun project in Karnataka

SICHREM are hosting the Aflatoun project in Karnataka state. This project is in partnership Meljol a Mumbai based organisation. The programme in Karnataka is funded by the Deshpande foundation through Meljol (to learn more about Meljol http://www.meljol.net). SICHREM has identified 100 government schools in the Gadag district of Karntaka in which the Aflatoun programme can be initiated.

The programme trains teachers to teach about savings, the environment and resources. It also seeks to integrate an understanding of child rights. Once children know what their rights are, they will be aware of when they are being violated. In particular teachers are analysing the Child Rights Convention with the children.

SICHREM has already held three teacher training camps. The programme is currently operating in 61 of the 100 schools identified. To ensure that the programme is having the desired impact we have school level camps in which independent observers check to see that the children understand the lesson that Aflatoun seeks to impart.

The impact of the programme has seen children  start their own Aflatoun clubs, which are similar to the child rights clubs of the past. Having been inspired by the environmental message of the programme they have also been planting trees in their schools.

The Aflatoun project compliments SICHREM’s human rights education programmes as it seeks to educate children in matters not covered by the conventional syllabus. While there is a focus on the rights of the child this programme also seeks to teach financial responsibility and environmental awareness to the pupils. We hope that Aflatoun and human rights education can work in conjunction with each other and produce citizens who are more considerate of both the environment and other human beings.

Images from our successful summer camp

Our human rights edcuation summer camp, which was held over five days in May, was a great success. Both the children and teachers enjoyed their time while gaining a greater understanding about human rights. Please see below for some images taken over the five day course: