Dear ASHA Core, Below is the much awaited awaited visit-report for the Singhbhum Legal Aid and Development Society (SLADS) which is located in southern Bihar. The proposal is on the projects information web page. It is basically for funding teachers salaries for a remote high schools being run by SLADS. I encourage you to go over the proposal and visit-report carefully. The impression we have of this project is good and it is likely to be funded. We will consider this project for funding approval at the next projects meeting on Tuesday, September 30. Please express your opinions and further questions by showing up at this meeting. If you can't show up and have any serious points to raise, send them to either Aparnaor me . -Sri ------- Forwarded Message Singhbhumm Legal Aid & Development Society Visit Report by P.P. Krishnan Date: September 18 About P.P.K.: P.P.Krishnan - he's called PPK - is an IIT Kanpur alumnus (1988 batch), worked in SAIL for six yrs, joined IIM Cal. '94-96 and works for a software co. called Techna in the area of Production Technology & Scheduling software development. How to reach him: He's based in Calcutta and his office ph. no. is (91)-(33)-357-6208/9, 357-4550/1. If you want to, you can call him between 9 am - 1 pm or 2 pm - 6 pm IST. Best would be between 9-10 am IST. If you want, you can make a call from my home. His mailing address is : P. P. Krishnan TECHNA 5th Floor, SDF Building Salt Lake Electronics Complex Calcutta - 700 091 INDIA Introduction The Jamini Mahato Secondary school provides instructions in Class VI to X. This is the only secondary school in this area, which has a number of primary and middle schools, set up by the Government of Bihar. This school was set up in 1984; initially providing instructions at the middle school level (Class VI and VII) and later, from 1987 onwards, at the secondary level. After the school certificate exams (ie after the Class X board exams), there is no assured admission to any other higher secondary schools. The onus of continuing education is on the students and their family. The area in which this school is located is dominated by Santhali tribals, whose sole source of income is agriculture or working as labourers in fields. As such the income levels are quite low and most of the families find it impossible to meet the high costs of education. Further, the villages are connected by mud roads and are very poorly linked with the main towns/ cities of Ghatsila and Jamshedpur (where most of the schools are located). The school is open to all students irrespective of caste, creed and gender. The school charges an almost non existant fee of Rs 10 per month. The medium of instruction is either Bengali or Hindi. The classes are held from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm on weekdays (Monday to Friday) and from 6:30 am to 10:30 am on Saturdays. Aid for the tribal students comes from the Welfare department of the Government @ Rs 432 per year. This amount is distributed once a year. The monetary aid for the construction of the school building was extended by the Bihar Government in 1988. The school is served by the similar mud approach roads, without any mode of conveyance, thereby making it very difficult to attend the school during the monsoons. The school is not electrified and chances of electrification in the near future are remote - attempts are however on to expedite the process. The need for a high school in this area was felt because of the high dropout rate, specially among the girl students after the completion of the primary level of education. The Salboni area comprises of 53 villages with approximately 25,000 people (in 5 Panchayats). There are 10 Primary schools (Class I to III) and 5 Middle schools (Class I to VII) in this area, run by the Govt. The Jamini Kanto Mahato school is the only secondary school in this area. School Details : Number of floors : 2 ( Ground and First Floor ) Number of Rooms : Ground floor : 3 Classrooms, I staff room, ( Operational ) and 1 Head Master Room ( non Operational ) Frist Floor : 1 Classroom cum Hall, ( non Operational ), Balcony Electrification status : Not available, request has already been made to electricity board ( Bihar ) Seating arrangements : Ground Floor 20, 20, 40 students with chairs and tables, first floor has a capacity 60 chairs and tables which are yet to be procured Teaching aids : Black boards in operational classrooms Number of Teachers : 3 teachers ( on our visit ) Administrative staff : 1 Accountant cum administrator Recognition status : Recognised by Bihar board Approach roads : mud roads The performance of the school can at best be described as moderate - last year about 40% of the students of this school passed the secondary exams. But then, performance is the least important metric in this case. One point to be borne in mind is that these are the first generation students from these villages and this effort is to make them appreciate the importance of education. As time passes and education gets more deeply ingrained in the minds of the people, the performance will improve. What is very heartening to note is that quite a few students secured Ist Division marks (more than 60%) in their secondary exams and some of them also went on to obtain graduation degrees, in the past. List of Advisory members on the SLADS board : Dr G N Reddy, Indian Rural Reconstruction Movement, Puricherla - 5171 Andhra Pradesh, India Ph: (085) 85 4913 Mrs Dilit Caseltina, Tata Tribal and Horizon Welfare Centre, TISCO Jamshedpur - 1 Bihar India Ms Rahi Bhattacharya, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar Orissa India Mr Ram Chandra Prasad, Block Development Officer, Mosabani, Singbhum (East), Bihar, India Dr L Pandey, Kadma, Jamshedpur Bihar India Mr R T Rakesh, Engineer - Minor Irrigations Department) Ghatsila Bihar India Mr R K Kanniya Block Development Officer, Ghatsila, Bihar, India Dr Ranjan Kumar Sinha, Medical Officer, Ghatsila Government Hospital, Ghatsila Bihar, India Mr Jamini Kanta Mahato, Lawyer Ghatsila, Bihar, India List of the Governing Body members : Mr Motilal Mahato President Gurmi PO Hirachuni Mr Bishwajit Mahato Treasurer Village : Chottakhurshi PO Borakhurshi Mr Subodh Singh Member Village : Gurajhore PO Keshavpur Mr Jamini Kanti Mahato Secretary Mr Sanatan Singh Member Village : Gurajhore PO Keshavpur Mr Jagdish Singh Member Village : Gurajhore PO Keshavpur Mr Basanta Roy Member Village : Pairaguri PO Borakhurshi Mr Bijoy Mahato Member Village : Gurma PO Hirachuni Mr Bijoy Kalindi Member Village : Pairaguri PO Borakhurshi Mr Subhash Mahato Member Village : Madnabera PO Hirachuni Mr Bamkim Bishayee Member Village : Bandhdih PO Borakhurshi List of Donors : India Development Services (IDS) Chicago : IL 60615 United States of America Amount : Rs 25,000/- Through Church Auxillary for Social Action (CASA) 5, Russel Street Calcutta India Amount : Rs 21,700/- from USA Through Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar Bhubaneshwar Orissa India Amount : Rs 2,26,137 from USA Through South Asia Partnership India Trust C 6, 1st floor Commercial Complex Safdarjung Development Area New Delhi 110 016 India Amount : Rs 2,03,800/- from Germany Through Action Aid India Rest House Road Bangalore 560 001 India Amount : Rs 1,53,250/- from United Kingdom All expenses based on these foreign contributions are audited by R K Sakhuja & Co Chartered Accountants Janpet Teachers Profile : Name Qualification Subject Shasti Charan Paira B Sc (Pass), B Ed Mathematics Debashis Kumar BA Economics Mridula Herenj BA (Hons), B Ed Hindi & Sanskrit Radheshyam Acharya MA Bengali Kiran Sribastab BA, B Ed Goegraphy Manohar Mahato B Sc (Hons) Biology Premnath Mishra BA, BT History Angad P Mishra B Sc, B Ed Physics Binod Kaibarta BA, B Ed English The quality of teachers leaves a lot to be desired. However the following points should be kept in mind before drawing any conclusions from this statement : ? The teachers are paid a pittance ? The school is located in a remote area, very poorly connected with the town ? The medium of instruction has to be in Hindi/ Bengali (in the dialect understood by the students) ? The dialect of Hindi/ Bengali, used in this part is very different from the commonly spoken dialect (In fact we were finding it very difficult to follow the instructions, when we attended one of the classes, despite the fact that both of us are quite proficient in both Hindi and Bengali) With increased wages to the teachers and perhaps the facility to provide them with conveyance, retired teachers from nearby areas could be located to impart education of higher quality. Further, SLADS has plans to send these teachers to more professional schools for training on the mode of teaching. The school also tries to impart non academic education which is a very important in the development of a boy or girl into responsible youths. Care for nature and the environment is imparted by means of tree plantation programmes. Each plant is allocated to a student who is responsible for its well being. It is envisioned that the fruits produced by these trees will bring in a substantial amount of revenue in the future. It is planned to hand over the school to the Givernment after 3 years. The criteria for Government takeover of the school are the following : ? Land & Building should be present ? Trained staff must be available ? Students must be enrolled Opinion regarding Mr Mahato Mr Mahato originally hails from one of the villages in this area. He seems to be a well to do lawyer and is well respected in the villages in the Salboni area. He has taken up cudgels on behalf on the tribals, with respect to their legal rights, and helped them out on several occasions. He has also ensured that his son and daughter persue their education in this school - Jamini Kanta Mahato school - till their secondary level. This is done, despite the fact that he could easily afford a more expensive town based school, primarily to earn the trust of the villagers. Hence there can be no doubts about his commitments to this school. The school is open to all students, irrespective of their caste, creed and sex and there is no trace of any political or religious affiliations. The SLADS is also focussing on a variety of activities, which include : Creation of mahila committees (womens committees in villages) to tackle the problems in the villages, provide easy loans to the villages through the chit funds etc. The idea is to involve woman more in the development work. Excellent work done in the area of agriculture and farming. Trying to increase the farm outputs, more than one crop per year, providing irrigation facilities to enable farming even in case of dry spells etc. This had led to increased earnings from the land for the villagers and also increased their level of participation in these programmes. Loans are also provided to the villagers on easy terms to enable them to start other small ventures like poultry etc. Provide free legal aid to the tribals and villagers, who are basically ignorant about the law and have no money to employ lawyers to defend them. The cases involved are usually trivial like illegal chopping of forest woods (on a very small scale) etc. Promoting social activities encompassing a number of villages in this area to promote harmony in the region. Health related issues. Trying to set up hospital in this area to provide at least basic medical and nursing facilities. The land for setting up the hospital has been provided free by the villagers. A doctor was sent by Action Health (a UK based Voluntary Organisation) to make a feasibility study and his report was very favourable. Villagers reaction The villagers are full of praise for the SLADS initiatives in all areas including the school. Many of the students and parents we talked to, professed the need for such a school in the area and said that in the absence of such an institution, their children will not be able to persue studies beyond the middle school level. Conclusions : After the visit we feel that the school deserves the aid that ASHA MIT plans to extend to them. There might be many issues that might crop up like quality of education, number of students, how many pass the secondary exams, how many pursue higher studies, how many find employment outside the village etc. It is very important to remember that this is almost the first generation of students. The idea is to create an awareness towards education and learning rather than create a pool of potential doctors and engineers. The students will be useful in the other ventures of the organisation like the medical services - high school female students could be given nurses training and would serve as nurses in the hospitals and medical units in this area. Other forms of vocational training in the fields of agriculture, animal husbandary, poultry farming etc. could be imparted to diversify the activities of the villages and ensure increasing self sufficiency. Students from these schools will be best suited for this purpose and will also serve the area with dedication. We recommend strongly that the project should receive immediate help from Asha-MIT. PS: We have asked Mr Mahato to sublit a phase wise plan of expenditures based on the resource required at different points in time. As soon as we receive it, we will send it across to you. ------- End of Forwarded Message