Project Pearl – Site Report
Date: 24th July, 2013 (Wednesday)
Bhaskar Venkateswaran and EzhilKumaran Kesavaraj started from Chennai for the site visits to the Balwadis, Libraries and Schools supported by the Project Pearl initiative. We were joined by John Baul, the Asha teacher at Kayathar. We then hired a share auto-rickshaw and started our visit by reaching Nagalapuram.
Community Library in Nagalapuram
The community library was managed by the local Asha librarian – Pechiammal. The library was open between 6 pm to 7:30 pm on weekdays and between 4 pm to 6 pm on weekends. Pechiammal showed us the book catalogue and the library lending register. The overall book count in the library is 413; including large story cards in Tamil (Tamil - Kadhai Aruvi). The books were loaned to the students who used them for completing the school homework assignments and as a general learning guide away from school. The community library was a big hit among the local population and we heard encouraging news about primary and middle school students (from Kayathar middle school) visiting and reading the books often. The book lending register had numerous books checked out by the students in the vicinity. Pechiammal highlighted that the parents of the surrounding section often told her that their children insisted on visiting the library even when they could not visit the school for any reason. She also noted that many adults frequented the library to read the local newspaper and weekly magazines, particularly Puthiya Tamizagam. Among other things, she felt that youths in the vicinity wanted books for preparing for the Indian Armed forces, teaching and other government exams such as TNPSC.
We noted that the addition of tenth grade Tamil grammar books, government exam-preparatory books and story cards (Kadhai Aruvi) will spruce up the already elegant library and increase patronage even further. We also noted the dearth of mats in the library and that the existing molded chairs were broken. Pechiammal noted that the electricity was not available during lean times (~ September – January) and that without sufficient light within the library, the time spent reading the books within the library reduced. A case could be made for the allocation of solar powered lanterns and such a thought could be explored further when the annual budget proposal is drawn.
The community library hall was rented by the local Panchayat (local self-government at villages) and the electricity was too drawn locally. Pechiammal noted that the rent of the library may be hiked from the present rate of Rs 350 to Rs 400 (which included the electricity charges).
Government Balwadi in Nagalapuram
Our next visit was to the Government Balwadi in Kayathar, not far away from the community library. The Balwadi had around 25 children in the age group of 4 – 5 years. The ICDS appointed teacher for this Balwadi does not come here regularly since she spends most of her time in another Balwadi at Panickar Kulam. Consequently, Pechiammal also manages this Nagalapuram Balwadi along with the library. She had one more female person (Tamil – Ayaah) to help her in the Balwadi. The Government had provided toys and bright laminated charts with learning content for the young tots to grasp succinctly. The children were taught Tamil rhymes and basic words to start with. Most of the children were nervous but a few were confident. The children recited the rhymes collectively and we felt that they had a memorized the content quite well. We surveyed the toys and felt a few other toys such as Towers of Hanoi or Peg would be a great addition to the existing ones.
The Balwadi was not attached the Government school but was managed from the Government ration store room (a separate room). We noticed the absence of the fan inside the Balwadi and enquired the plight of the children during hot summer days. Pechiammal noted that the children were brought to the large veranda of the ration store room when it got really hot inside the room. A case could be made for the allocation of a fan for the Balwadi and should be taken up while drawing the annual budget proposal.
Panchayat Union Middle school in Nagalapuram
We then quickly moved on to the middle school in Nagalapuram. Asha Chennai has been associated with the school for long and it really showed in the interest and the welcome we received. The school headmaster acknowledged the contributions of Asha Chennai Chapter and of its volunteers/teachers in the past. The headmaster really wanted to uplift the standards of the children in the school and uplift the entire community as such with the contributions from its school children. The school had an overall strength of ~140 students. The primary school (Grade one through Grade five) had 82 students and the middle school (Grade six through eight) had 55 students.
Recently, the State Government introduced an experimental scheme wherein grade one and grade six was mandated to have separate section of students learning the same syllabus in two different language medium – English & Tamil. All other sections and class grade were required to continue with Tamil as the medium of education. Activity Based Learning (ABL) was also practiced in the school. The headmaster noted that there was no teacher for Social science and Computers in the school and that they wanted teachers for these two subjects the most.
After completing the discussion with the headmaster, we proceeded to visit the class room. Class One (English/Tamil medium), Two, Three and Four were seated a single hall. Most of the time, the children recited something that the teacher taught them on the black board and then the children would go about doing their work in groups or individually. We felt that setting up a temporary partition between the different section students might help in removing the visual distraction of having other classes within the same hall. Bhaskar then stepped in to interact with the children in a group and the children listened and participated with him enthusiastically. Bhaskar read out few sentences in the book and asked the students for the meaning of common words. He also provided them the meaning of the words and asked them to note it down. EzhilKumaran stepped in and asked the students to refer to their pocket dictionary (with English to Tamil translation) every time they encountered an unknown English word. Asha Chennai chapter had provided pocket dictionaries to the school students (class four and five) earlier. However, only a couple of students in the current batch had pocket dictionary to readily refer to when required. A case could be made for allocating some funds for procuring and distributing pocket dictionaries for students.
We also visited the mid-day meals preparation room and the staffs were very thankful to Asha chapter for sponsoring the bore pump. It helped them to get clean water for preparing the mid-day meals within the school. We also took note of the inventories donated by Asha chapter earlier, including the large stainless steel drums for storing drinking water for the school children.
We also received an application for the teacher post from Sudha, a local candidate in Nagalapuram. Her application was received for further evaluation.
Community Library in Suryaminikkan
We moved on from Kayathar to Suryaminikkan and were pleasantly greeted by the Kuttralam saaral (drizzle from the Kuttralam falls/precipitation from the mountain ranges) on our way. We reached Suryaminikkan around 1 pm and met the librarian – Kuzandhai Velu. Kuzandhai Velu instantly recognized Bhaskar and greeted us in. The local Panchayat president allocated a new room for the community library. Although the room was a bit untidy due to the materials stored earlier, it was much bigger than the one wherein the books were stored earlier. The Panchayat President promised to white wash the room and to rectify the damaged flooring inside the room.
Kuzandhai Velu showed us the library catalogue and register. Unlike the community library in Kayathar, books were loaned only for adults but not to children. Local newspaper, particularly Puthiya Tamizagam was a huge draw among local audience in Suryaminikkan.
The number of books here was comparatively very small to those in Kayathar. There is a pressing need for more books, including (Kadhai Aruvi) Tamil story cards. Also on the list of must haves are mats and a large book shelf.
High school in Vadaku Ezlandhai Kullam
Quickly moving on, we visited the school at Vadaku Ezlandhai Kullam. The headmaster - Julius and other teachers (particularly Sundaram) spoke highly of the previous Asha teachers – particulary Saravana Subramaniam and Anitha. Since the Asha teachers moving out, they were desperately looking for someone to fill in his large shoes. The school had a large number of students, numbering 191 students overall. Also the school had recently got approval for the setting up the higher sections (9th and 10th grade). Consequently, the school was divided into primary with classes from first through fifth and high school with classes sixth through tenth. The overall number of teachers allocated for the school was nine; however one post was vacant still. The headmaster and all other teachers accounted for the remaining eight teachers allocated by the Government.
The headmaster lamented the absence of teachers owning to maternity (three female teachers) and medical leave (one male teacher). The headmaster requested us to provide him with at least one teacher to manage the workload of the existing teacher. We felt that the school had the necessary infrastructure however it was just that there were absence of teachers owning to various reasons. Also we thought appointing an Asha sponsored teacher for the remainder of the year will not be feasible.
Balwadi & Panchayat Union Middle school in Vaaghai Thaavoor
We visited the Balwadi and the Panchayat Union Middle School in Vaaghai Thaavoor around 2 pm. Iyyammal, the school headmistress was very enthusiastic about the school and highly motivated. There were 10 children in the Balwadi, 20 students in the Primary and 38 students in the Middle sections (Grade six through eight). Originally, two teachers were allocated for the primary school however one teacher went for the B.Ed training leaving just one teacher to manage the entire 20 students in the primary school. The headmistress was the other teacher managing the middle school, comprising 38 students. The headmistress took extra care to ensure that she motivated the other teacher. She feverishly canvased among the local villages to enroll their children in her school. She noted that due to the diligent efforts, there were around nine new enrollments in her school.
We went inside the class rooms of Grade 7th and 8th and interacted with the students. Bhaskar started an interactive game with the students of 8th grade and the students participated enthusiastically. Overall we felt that this school had the potential to scale up many times over given the motivation & ownership of the headmistress.
Community Library in Velayudhapuram (near Melamanthai)
We could not cover the community library in Velayudhapuram since it would not be possible to catch the train back home on the same day. However John Baul would conduct the site visit to this community library and share his views on the report.
We concluded our site visit with a sumptuous meal. We also visited the Nellaiappar temple and sought the divine blessings of Swami Nellaiappar and Sri Kanthimathai Ambal. We tried our hand at the musical pillars too and John Baul stood out with his ability to draw out music from the magical pillars inside the Nellaiappar temple. J