1. PROJNAME : Swanirvar
2. AMT REQD : Rs.5,27,800.- $ 10,995
3. LOCATION : North 24 Parganas
4. IN STATE : West Bengal
5. CHAPTER : Stanford
6. CONTACT : Ashish Chadha
7. CHILDREN : 489
8. WEBSITE : Yes
9. SITE VISIT: Yes
10. PHOTOS : Yes
11. FCRA: Yes
12. REC. COSTS: No
WAH 2002
PROJECT TEMPLATE
1. Name of the organization:
SWANIRVAR
2. Date of
Establishment:
26
February, 1990
3. Please give the following
if available:
a. Registration Number
(Public Trust Act):
S/64352
of Registration of Societies West Bengal Act XXVI of 1961
b. Tax Exemption Certificate
Number:
Do
not have 80 G
c. Exemption Valid Dates:
d. FCRA Number:
147110269
of 5 April, 1991
4. How the organization was
created and what are the type of activites it provides:
Organisation
was created in 1989 by the coming together of 15 local youths ( already
sensitised by another NGO ) and two outsiders namely Sujit Sinha and Tirthankar
Mukherjee.
The
broad heads of activities are :
*
Education
*
Agriculture
*
Heahlth
*
Income Generation
*
Savings & Credit
*
Panchayat Planning
*
Flood relief and planning
*
Networking
5. Names and Backgrounds of the
directors of the organization:
Niranjan
Paik Secretary Microfinance Supervisor
Sandhya
Mondol President
Nutrition Garden Supervisor
Swapan
Bhattacharya Treasurer Govt. Primary School Teacher
Tirthankar
Mukherjee Member Ex- Journalist/Editor
Sujit
Sinha Do Coordinator
Prosanto
Mondol Do Primary School Supervisor
Samir
Biswas Do Youth Programme Supervisor
Ziaul
Haque Do Agriculture Supervisor
Abdul
Hannan Do Health Supervisor
Nonigopal
Mondol Do Agri Trainer
6. Name, Address, Phone
& email of the contact person in USA:
Ashish
Chadha
email
: avikunthak@yahoo.com
7. Name, Address, Phone
& email of the contact person in India:
Sujit
Sinha
5 G
, Ananda , 116 Southern Avenue , Kolkata 700029, Ph (033) 466 4733
emial
: sujit 568@cal3.vsnl.net in
8. Number of administrative and field
staff:
Administrative
Staff : 5
Field
Staff : 94
9. A brief description of
the long term objectives of the organization:
#
Integrated rural development - social, economic, political, technological and
psychological
#
Organise villagers - specially women and poorer sections
#
Create innovative development workers and leadership
#
Seek, experiment and build models in alternative agriculture, health,
education, energy, housing, income generation, banking, organisation,
democracy, technology etc.
10. Details of the
organizations annual budget (include an annual report if possible):
EXPENDITURE SUMMARY FOR 2000
-2001
CAPITAL Rs.
Building 11,36,571.81
Furniture 39,012.00
Equipment 17,804.05
Cycle
3,548.00
Motorcycle 25,165.00
Sub-Total 12,22,090.86
PROGRAMME
Primary
Education 4,78,497.20
Pre-Primary
Education 4,80,580.90
Youth
& Culture
3,08,333.55
Health
2,11,954.50
Agriculture 3,35,324.35
Pisciculture 30,227.00
Village
Organisation 31,188.90
Relief
( Floods,2000) 1,35,218.60
Roads
1,11,175.00
Travel
1,08,901.92
Printing,
Stationery 48,149.80
Meetings,
Training 1,00,901.05
Coordinating
Salaries 92,400.00
Sub
- Total 24,72,852.50
ADMINISTRATIVE
Bank
Charges
698.00
Fees 19,825.00
Repairs
25,325.45
Documentation 19,872.40
Postage
& Telephone
21,709.90
Electricity 12,375.00
Sub
-Total 99,805.75
GRAND TOTAL
37,94,749.11
11. Previous Funding Sources, if any:
INDIA
i)
Govt. of India, Handicrafts Board, Ministry of Textiles
ii)
P.D.Agarwal Foundation
iii)
CRY
iv)
Govt. of India , MHRD ( via Vikramshila )
v) CARE
vi)
Oxfam
vii)
Save The Children Fund
viii)
West Bengal Govt., Social welfare Board
ix
) Health Dept, N.24 Pgns. district, West Bengal Govt.
x)
Indo Canadian Environment Facilty ( via AIIHPH ).
USA
i)
University of Calcutta Medical Alumnii Association of Americas
ii)
ASHA - LA ( with ASHA - MIT )
iii)
ASHA - Madison
iv)
Share & Care Foundation
v)
AID, Maryland
vi)
SRAI
UK
i)
Christian Aid ( via DRCSC, Kolkata )
ii)
Friends of Swanirvar ( FoS)
iii)
Cambridge Friends of India
iv)
National Lotteries Charities Board ( via FoS)
OTHERS
i)
VFKE - Germany
ii)
Pulheim Church - Germany
iii)
Caritas Milano - Italy
iv)
DIB - Denmark
12. Brief Description of any previous
projects the organization has undertaken:
Pre-primary : In 15 pp centres in 15
different villages 1150 children of 3-5
age group recieve modified Montessori education. The teachers have recieved
their training from Vikramshila Education Resource Society of Kolkata and this
programme is funded by CRY and partially by ASHA.
Primary : In 3 primary schools in 3
different villages, 474 children are
enrolled. Experiments with the TL process include using work cards, lots of
group work, hands on activities, studying the local environment, attempts to
make new kind of exams, lots of cultural inputs, sahitya sabha etc.
Youth & Culture : Started in 1997, currently
about 250 youths of 10-16 age group in their off time do a lot of village
surveys and measurements ; make charts ,maps, graphs ; do many hands on village
development activities ; learn and perform many cultural activities . Attempts
are being made to do interventions in high schools so that all the work can
become part of the syllabus.Partially funded by NLCB of England ,partly by
CRYand partly by ASHA.
This
work in its early phases was filmed and shown in the Doordarshan UGC programme.
Coaching Centre : For 1st generation school
goers. This was done from 1990 till 1994 and was then given up as being only
marginally effecvtive.
Adult Education : 8 centres were run for women as per their demand from 1997 till
1999. Academic support had come from a Calcutta based organisation AICMED. For
various reasons it has been discontinued. In 2000 there were some abortive discussions
with Action Aid on using the REFLECT method. In some places there is a fresh
demand.
Agriculture : Currently work is going on
in 18 villages. The aim is to move towards sustainable agriculture which is
ecologically sound, does not degrade the environment, brings social equity and
is economically efficient. The various heads of activities are cropping
systems; bio-nutrients; soil & water conservation ; seeds and plant
propagation ; trials with various cereals, legumes, oilseeds and vegetables; integrated
pest management; intensive home nutrition garden ; popularising herbal
remedies. This work has gone through many ups and downs. It is guided and
funded by Development Research Communications and Services Centre(Service
Centre ).
Health : This work is done in 8
villages. The broad heads are Mother
& Child Care ; Sanitation ; Basic Treatment ; Special Camps .This has been
supported initially by CRY and lately by AID.
The
very low cost toilet effort ws filmed and shown in the Doordarshan UGC programme.
Swanirvar
has got the award for organising the highest number of voluntary blood donors
for any social organisation in West Bengal for four years running.
Arsenic : Mitigation of arsenic in
drinking water project guided by All India Institute of Hygiene & Public
Health ( AIIHPH) , Govt. of India and
funded by Indo Canadian Environment Facility ( ICEF ) is being done in 10
villages .
Income Generation : There have been mostly
failures in trying to set up new activities. Leather hand gloves; upgrading
local terracotta and mat products ; setting up bee keepers; honey processing
and bottling unit have all been failures for various reasons . The only one
functioning is the spices unit . But
even here the income generated and numbers benefitting is miniscule.
Savings & Credit /
Microfinance : From 1990 to 1997 a savings and credit was operated with individual
members. It was useful to some villagers but had many problems and was rather
limited in scope. From 1997 with NLCB funds of England a microfinance programme
with Grameen model was set up. This has now been converted to SHG model with
backup provided by CARE from end 2000. Currently this programme is spread to 30
villages with about 400 women's groups and total membership of 6000 ( Feb,
2002).
Panchayat Planning : Swanirvar took a conscious decision to try and help
some local gram panchayats to become model local governments. From 1999 some
progress has been made with one GP. The state govt. is aware of Swanirvar's
work as very few NGOs have put this in their agenda ( most places the relation
is antagonistic ). Very soon this may become a big programme for Swanirvar as
out of 40 blocks selected by the state to experiment with panchayat planning
with the people , Swanirvar's block Baduria is one of them.
Flood : October 2000 was the first
time when villagers faced devastating floods. Swanirvar had to get involved in
relief and some rehailitation work in which it was supported with money and
materials by CARE, OXFAM, Save The Children Fund, and DRCSC.
Networking : Swanirvar is part of various
networks
*
Agriculture through DRCSC with organisations from 10 districts of West Bengal
called SAN - Sustainable Agriculture Network
*
Education through CRY with organisations form 6 districts - a network called
WBEN ( West Bengal Education Netwrok ) and also the national network called
NAFRE ( National Alliance for Fundamental Right to education ).
*
Microhinance thorugh CARE with
organisations all over the state called WBMPF - West Bengal Micrfinance Promotional
Forum.
* A
district level network called North 24
Parganaes NGOs FOrum.
13. Describe location, current
conditions (number of schools, population):
State : West Bengal
District
: North 24
Parganas east of Kolkata bordering Bangladesh
Project
Location :
60 km east of Kolkata in 43 villages spread in the four blocks of
Baduria (34 villages in 8 Gram Panchayats and
1 municipality) ,
Deganga
( 7 villages in 2 Gram Panchayats )
Swarupnagar
( 1 village in 1 GP )
Basirhat
I ( 1 village in 1 GP )
Demography : One of the highest
density of rural population in India . Almost equal Hindu and Muslim population
Govt.
Infrastructure : of health and education is fairly good compared to many other
districts of the state. There are functional health centres, primary and high
schools although the total facilities are quite inadequate relative to demand.
Agro-Climatic
condition :
Fertle soil, high rainfall, plenty of ground water, very intensive chemical
agriculture throughout the year.
Swanirvar Primary Schools : 3 schools in the villages Magurkhali, Fatullapur ( in Baduria
block) and Chandalati (in Deganga
block) with 460 children (Classes I to IV) , 12 teachers and one supervisor.
14. What is the goal of the
WAH project (describe background of the children, what changes this project
aims to bring about in the current conditions):
The main goal of this
project:
A.
CREATION OF NEW/EFFECTIVE CURRICULUM,
TEXT BOOKS, TEACHING METHODS , CLASS MANAGEMENT, EVALUATION SYSTEMS FOR RURAL
WEST BENGAL THROUGH EXPERIMENTS IN THREE PRIMARY SCHOOLS RUN BY SWANIRVAR
Background
:
So far Swanirvar has tried to teach the govt.
text books in an " interesting way" . This has involved use of work
cards; lots of group work ; action learning like role plays, debates, experiments,
chart making, cross checking by children , framing questions etc. But Swanirvar
is convinced by comparing with Eklavya, Digantar and other books in India and
abroad that the syllabus as well as text books of the West Bengal govt. are
some of the most outdated and directly contradict the oft stated aimsof
education.( This is putting things very mildly). But most teachers who have not
seen anything different have no sense of what is wrong or why or how different
things can be.
Swanirvar
has lately done some experiments with using the village social life and
physical environment for education. It has just started designing exams which
evaluate skills and concepts and not just the memory. Its report cards are yet
to reflect the wider aims ( see also Item 27 ). Swanirvar has a lot of work to
do. But it does not have to start from scratch as the pioneering work of
Eklavya, Digantar and members of South India Education Network will come in
handy to be used creatively.
Two other related goals
which Swanirvar's education project will try to achieve and for which funding
will be sought elsewhere :
B.
INFLUENCING THE GOVT. SCHOOL SYSTEM AND TEACHERS
C.
DEVELOPING THE CAPACITY OF GUARDIANS, COMMUNITY AND LOCAL GOVT. TO OWN / MANAGE
/ INFLUENCE THE SCHOOL SYSTEM.
Background
Till
1997 , no NGO in West Bengal was allowed to intervene in the "formal"
govt. school system. But in the last few years the situation has changed. NGOs
have intervened although very few so far. But these have been restricted to showing
the teachers how to make the govt. syllabus and text books " interesting
". Even this has been possible because of UNICEF intervention through
" joyful learning" and DPEP's quality inmprovement interventions. One
has to evolve the right strategy of doing more meaningful interventions without
provoking disabling opposition.( See Item 28 , point 2 ) The latest govt.
policy document appears to be in favour of such NGO interventions , but they
just might be empty words.
In
the last one year, Village Education
Committees ( VECs) have been formed all over the state by a govt. order. Many
nominated members do not even know that they are members; villagers do not know
the existence of this committee; no one knows what there role and jurisdiction
is ; the headmasters dominate the rare meetings which are held ; there is no
mechanism through which gram panchayats
can play a meaningful role. So these VECs are already non starters. Here
Swanirvar's experience and efforts will have to be used to create models. But
it is going to be quite hard work which would require some kind of "
official " approval.
15. Beneficiaries of the
project (how many children, number of males/females, age and other
demographics, and other relevant details):
The
breakup of children in 2000-2001 was as follows:
Class
I : 117
Class
II : 111
Class
III : 126
Class
IV : 120
------------------
Total : 474 Boys : 232
Girls : 242
So
every year about 120 children are going to pass out of Swanirvar's primary schools
and go to govt. high schools.
16. Details of the funding requirements:
a. Amount of money required:
Rs.572,800 for year
April,2002 - March,2003.
( $ 12,730 at
Rs.45/$ )
b. Duration for which funds
are requested:
Funds
are being requested for 3 years. The exact figures for 2nd and 3rd year will be
decided towards the beginning of each financial year.
But
the total is going to be about the same ie.
~ $ 12,700 / year .
17. Detailed breakup of the costs
involved along with details of money received from other sources, if any:
*
The schools were started with CRY funding.
*
The infrastructure costs were paid by the Trust --- Friends of Swanirvar ( FoS
), England
*
From 1995 to Jan,2001 funds for running the schools came from Ministry of Human
Resources Development of Govt. of India via Vikramshila Education Resource
Society of Kolkata under a special scheme called " Innovative Elementary
Education -- NFE 2000 ". This
particular scheme has been stopped now.
*
During these years the govt. funds were inadequate and the balance was funded
by ASHA LA ( and ASHA MIT )
*
Funds from Feb,2001 to March, 2002 came from FoS , England.The key person of
this Trust has recently expired (in Dec, 2001) and the Trust is possibly going to dissolve.
18. How long will the benefit last? Please give an approximate US
$/child/year estimate in the project:
The
running expenditure of the 3 schools
= Rs.527,800.
Total
number of students
= 480
Cost /child/year =
Rs.1100 ~ $ 25
19. Other sources of funding
(confirmed and anticipated), if any:
*
In the last couple of weeks Swanirvar is exploring various possibilities of
funding. But no other agency has asked for specific application yet ( as of 5th
March 2002 ).
*
There are some leftover funds from
Friends of Swanirvar for intervention in the govt. schools ; mobilising the community ; and publishing
new texts.
*
Once the funds for the 3 experimental primary schools is assured, it might be
easier to get funds for the other two major components from different funding
sources.
20. Proposed means of
continuing the project after current funding:
Since
a full fledged rural primary school for poor children can never be financially
self sustaining , funds would always be required from govt. or non-govt.
sources.
With
the rapidly changing scenario for social sector funding by govt.; the new bill
for fundamental right to education; various kinds of bilateral funding ; untied
funds coming to the gram panchayats etc.,
it is very difficult to predict the various sources of funds and
arrangements/partnerships which would be available three years from now.
21.To what purpose would the requested
funds be directed? An itemized split up of costs: blackboards, chalks, tables,
chairs, toilets, buildings, teachers' salaries etc.
SWANIRVAR PRIMARY
SCHOOLS BUDGET
YEAR : 2002 - 2003
3
SCHOOLS, 480 CHILDREN, 12 TEACHERS , 1
SUPERVISOR
1.
TL MATERIALS ( Books, khata etc ) Rs.100
X 480 48,000
2.
TEACHER'S MATERIALS Rs.2000/school X
3
6,000
3.
EVALUATION COSTS
Rs.7000/school X 3 21,000
4.
FIELD TRIPS Rs.2000 X 3 6,000
5.
SAHITYA SABHAS Rs.2000 X 3 6,000
6.
UNIFORMS Rs.200 X 480 96,000
7.
ANNUAL SPORTS
24,000
8.
TEACHER'S SALARY Rs.1600 X 12 X
12
2,30,400
9.
SUPERVISOR SALARY Rs.2600 X 12 31,200
10.
MUSIC TEACHER SALARY Rs.1600 X
12
19,200
11.
MONTHLY REVIEWS, INTERNAL WORKSHOPS,
CROSS VISITS Rs.750 X 20 15,000
12. TRAININGS
20 P X Rs.50 X 10 days = 10,000
Resource
Person Fess Rs.500 X 10 days =
5,000 15,000
13.
MONITORING & INPUTS BY RESOUCE
PERSONS
Rs.500 X 60 days 30,000
14.
OVERHEADS accts.,stationery, photocopy,
postage, telephone,
electricity, travel, coordination
etc.
25,000
TOTAL
5,72,800
(
Regular school expenditure = Total - Items 12,13 = Rs.5,27,800 )
22. Duration of the Project:
Three
years . April 2002 - March 2005.
23. Itemized description of the
various phases in the project with their associated timelines.
The various activities
related to the main aim of doing experiments in Swanirvar's 3 primary schools(
see Item 14 A ) for the year 2002-2003 will be as follows :
#
Regular classes for about 240 days in a year - April to March.
#
One set uniform made for each student and distributed in the first quarter
#
Between Dec- March , annual sports and sahitya sabha will be organised
#
Children will be taken out for at least
one organised field visit
#
Two formal exams will be held at mid and end term
#
Children's library will be gradually built up in each school
#
12 monthly review, planning, aids making meetings of teachers will be held
# 2
exchange-evaluation visits by teachers
to each school.
#
Two workshops for the teachers by external resource persons - one in summer and
second during puja break.
#
Quareterly guardians meeting organised in each school
#
New books published on History and EVS with the help of resource persons.
#
External Resource persons giving inputs by class observations ; conducting
smaller workshops on class management ; demonstrating how to use the new text books ; helping with new
activites/projects within the school and in the village ; helping with new
exams and report card.
#
District and state authourities to be brought to see the schools.
#
Documenting the whole process.
For the intervention in the
govt. system ( see Item 14 B ) some of the
steps in the three years 2002 - 2005 will be as follows:
*
List enthusiastic, competent, innovative teachers, serving and retired , as
prospective "trainers" and "writers".Possibly do a
"felicitation" workshop as done by Prof. Anil Gupta of IIM, Ahmedabad.
*
Workshop of listed teachers to document innovations and do a subjectwise
teacher listing
* A
general conference of all teachers of the circle
*
All this to be done in collaboration of
District Primary School Council, DI,
ADI, AI, S.I, ZP, PS, GPs,
Banipur Teachers Training College, Teacher's Associations, DM, BDO etc.
*
Prepare basic information sheets regarding official edu policies and programmes
to be given to all teachers and other actors.
*
Facilitate the publication of " Status Report " on the primary
education of the circle and circulate as widely as possible to all actors.
*
Form several subcommittees from among the teachers.
*
Organise a "sharing" workshop for TL methods and materials for
Classes I and II between govt. and
Swanirvar teachers.
*
Hold a series of workshops with the "resource" teachers with the help
of ERC leading to locally relevant curriculum design.
*
Exposure trips for the "resource" teachers.
*
Subsequent workshops to write "books" - (alternate, supplementary)
*
Training of user teachers on how to use the new materials through local
trainers.
*
Start a teacher's magazine.
For the third aim of Local
"ownership" and management of schools ( Item 14 C ) the three main
objectives to be fulfilled will be ( the activities are not spelt out here ) :
#
To form effective committees ensuring systematic participation of community at
school, ward/booth, and gram panchayat level.
#
To establish proper communication-discussions systems between all levels -
community - gram panchayat - circle -
block ensuring cooperative action
#
To sensitise and build the capacity of community, gram panchayats , teachers,
officials, committees to think, plan, implement ideas on improvement of content
and methods of education.
24. Number of project personnel
involved in the implementation of the project and their duties:
1.
12 class teachers : Duties include teaching and related TL activities;
attending review and planning meetings,
workshops etc; making home visits and organising parents meetings ; involved
with all efforts to influence the govt. primary school system.
2.
One music teacher : to conduct music classes in all the 3 schools by turn ;
prepare the children for cultural performances.
3.
One supervisor : Duty includes visiting all the schools regularly to give
academic support to the teachers ; conduct reviews, workshops ; liason with the
govt. primary schools, the SIs, the Gram Panchayats and other Block and
District level education and administrative authourities ; prepare internal
reports as well as for funding agencies; establish contacts and get inputs from
external resource persons and instituions ; manage the expenditure as per
budget.
4.
Other support staff : 1 Coordinator, 1 Asst.Coordinator will provide the necessary support to the
supervisor as per need. Swanirvar's accountant will be responsible for keeping
the accounts and giving regular reports to the supervisor.
25. References of the lead people
supervising the project, if any:
i)
Sujit Sinha , age 46 , is overall Coordinator of Swanirvar. He has a Ph.D. in
Chemistry from Princeton University and has been a full time rural development
activist since 1987. He was also a school tecaher for a year in 1979-80. He has
established links with various innovative education programmes and
educationists in West Bengal and in other parts of India.
ii)
Prosanto Mondol , age 40 , is the current Primary Education supervisor at
Swanirvar. He has an M.Com degree. He has been the supervisor of Swanirvar's
Pre-primary programme from 1991 and
took over his present assignment from its inception in 1995. He has undergone
various trainings by Vikramshila. He is currently also the member of the
Community Mobilisation State Resource Group of DPEP in West Bengal and has
visited other districts for evaluation on behalf of DPEP.
26. Number of people reached by the
program so far and how many have completed the literacy program (number of boys
and girls):
The
number of beneficiaries of the various educaton projects of Swanirvar have been
as follows :
Pre-Primary : Finished 1350 ; Currently enrolled 1150
Primary : Finished 130 ; Currently enrolled 474
Youth : Finished 100 ; Currently enrolled 250
Coaching : Finished 250
Adult
Women : Finished 110
27. Standard Proficiency of the
participants at the end of the project:
Students
The proficiency which people are talking
about is "Good Learning Achievements" . Unfortunately what is being
measured and reported are only the 3 Rs ie. reading , writing and arithmatic.
On
the other hand the written documents are always talking about fulfilment of
broader aims such as
*
learning to think and solve problems
*
becoming sensitive about environmental issues
*
becoming aware about economic and social injustices
*
learning to work together
*
learning to accept and appreciate diversity
*
learning to use their imagination and be creative
*
learning to question and challenge.
But
these are hardly ever incorporated efffectively in the total design --
curriculum, text books, teaching principles , classroom transactions,
evaluation systems etc.
This
is going to be one of the biggest challenges of this project.
Teachers
The
teachers of Swanirvar and the govt. primary schools are not supposed to be only
"implementors".
There
will be "teacher leaders" who will
think deeply about the aims of education, be able to analyse any syllabus and text book , and eventually
create new TL materials.
There
will be subject specialists who will be able to innovate on teaching methods.
And
finally there will be the "user" teachers who will be trained to
properly implement the relevant curriculum.
28. Is there any governmental
involvement in the project? If yes, how?
The whole idea is to try and bring desirable changes in the govt. school system
which caters to 90 % of school going children in rural areas and not just run a
few excellent -innovative schools.
The
following describe the situation and what we have tried so far.
Written
on 12th March, 2001
But
intervening in the govt. school system in West Bengal is not going to be easy -
although it is much easier today than it was even two years back. So we have
been trying to get local teachers and govt. officials interested. Many informal
talks with teachers, with politically affiliated teachers associations and
school inspectors eventually resulted in a meeting with about 35 govt. primary
school teachers on 3rd Feb,2001 - actually we were quite surprised to see so
many and discussing many things animatedly. These teachers asked us to organize
a bigger meeting for all the teachers of their "circle" which in our
area means approximately 60-70 schools and about 200 teachers.We agreed , but
it meant a lot of legwork for key Swanirvar staff. Even framing invitation letters
( who will sign ? Both Political associations ? officially ? What will be the
exact tone ?) ; printing a short writeup about Swanirvar and its school
experiments; deciding the agenda of the meeting,; getting all the other people;
translating appropriate govt. circulars for the teachers which they have never
seen and printing them etc etc. Finally we had the meeting yesterday ie. 11th
March, 2001.( Shanmuga of ASHA-Princeton
was present ) Teachers came a little late but finally there were 150 people
and the High school hall where this was being held was completely filled and
most stayed back till 4:30 ( apparently in such meetings more than half leave
after lunch ). There were talks , lots of questions and discussions, some
voting on specific issues etc. Overall OK. But we would like to think of ways
to make even large meetings like this more participatory. Sometimes the nature
of the space itself is a constraint and then one has to have very good
moderators. And of course self important political leaders and govt. officials
can be quite a pain and so one has to learn to tackle them also.But we think
this meeting was quite important if we are to do anything big with the govt.
system and our eventual aim is to select 30-40 sharp, motivated "teacher
leaders" from a group of 500-600 and work intensively with them.
We
held another very interesting meeting with about 25 high school teachers at
Swanirvar on 4th Feb. This was also a first for Swanirvar. Here the fact that
Sujit Sinha was from IIT and Princeton
helped. We had day long discussions on activity based teaching, alternate
curriculum. We showed them stuff from Eklavya ( by far the most important
school curriculum experiment in post independent India). We also showed them
the stuff we had already done with "Youth Groups". They seemed
interested. But the opinion among Swanirvar staff is that high school teachers
have such enormous incomes because of private tuition and they have got so used
to not doing any serious teaching in schools - that driving them to do
something innovative in schools is going to be very tough. But a bunch of them
have agreed to undergo a training on Physics teaching with Samar Bagchi ,
a well known science teaching expert
and former director of Science & Technology Museum This will be in Middle
of June. But getting 10-15 really interested teachers to actually do the work
after the three day workshop will be the challenge.
Interventions
made with Primary Schools till Feb, 2002
*
From 1998 : Govt. teachers invited to annual day functions of Swanirvar primary
and preprimary schools in various villages to see the TL materials made and
being used.
*
In 1999 and 2000 , Rakhi was celebrated by Swanirvar school children jointly
with the govt. primary schools in certain areas with the active participation
of the govt. teachers and panchayat members.
*
In Feb, 2001 a whole day meeting held involving 35 teacher leaders of the two
Teacher's Associations and Swanirvar to discuss 83rd amendment and possible
collaborations between Swanirvar and the govt. schools. The associations asked
for a full workshop for all the teachers of Katiahat circle.( Described above )
*
In March, 2001 - a full day workshop held with 120 teachers , two local SIs and
Swanirvar jointly discuss 83rd amendment and possible role of VECs . (
Described above )
*
June-July, 2001 - Swanirvar staff helping SI to form VECs at meetings in
several Gram Panchayats.
* In Aug, 2001, the Independence day and
Rakhi was celebrated through a joint programme of a Gram panchayat ( Bajitpur
) and Swanirvar involving all the pri
schools of the GP after several joint meetings and planning.
*
Sep-Oct , 2001 ; Swanirvar staff holding intense discussions with teachers and
VEC members and finally conducting several half day orientations for several
VECs.
Some
recent developments :
1.
In Sep,2001 Sujit Sinha - coordinator of Swanirvar was invited to become member
of the DPEP State Resource Group on " gender " . In December the two
education supervisors of Swanirvar - Prosanto Mondol and Salauddin Sardar were
made members of the DPEP State Resource Group on " community
mobilisation". Soon all primary education is going to come under "
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan " which is going to be run by DPEP in West Bengal.
This gives Swanirvar some leverage to make its attempts to affect the govt.
system " official" without which there will be very little scope for
bringing about meaningful changes.
2.
In Feb,2002 the possibility of collaboration with UNICEF was being discussed .
UNICEF ruled out the possibility of curricular interventions by NGOs in West
Bengal. But here is what the latest Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan document says " Efforts to decentralise the whole
process of curriculum development to the district level will be made. Based on
a broad curricular framework, districts would be free to define their content
areas in their local contexts. State and National level institutions will
facilitate this process of decentralised arrangements for development of
curriculum. SSA deems it necessary that resource groups and responsibility
centres from national to subdistrict levels be identified whose major role
would be to advise and assist at various levels in curriculum development ,
pedagogical improvement, teacher education/training and activities related to classroom
transaction " ( p.67,68,73 - Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Framework for
Implementation, MHRD, Department of Elementary Education & Literacy )
Therefore
a major focus will be to try and link with the govt. system starting from Gram
Panchayat ( 10 -15 primary schools ) to
Circle ( 3-5 Gram Panchayats )
to Block ( 3 circles ) to district officers and boards and finally state level
structures.
29.Specify nature of requested funds.
Is this a one-time contribution or an recurring request?
Swanirvar
would like to get funding for three year as stated in Item 16 before.