Progress Report.
Natpurwa Project
March. 2004.
(translated by Himanshu Shah)
Respected Mellididi, Harishbhai, Anuragbhai, Nilanjanbhai,
Respectful greetings. We hope that all of you are doing well. I received your letter outlining your complete thoughts on the budget for the project. I respect the reasoning behind it but feel that a motorcycle is absolutely essential, given the rate at which work is progressing here. I appreciate your increasing the honorarium for teachers to Rs.1000/-. It will result in teachers being more motivated to work and will help the teachers live a normal life. I received your letter quite late as a result of which the there is a delay in my responding to you. I am sorry for the same. I got the letter in mid-January. Going forward, please send me letter at my address directly so that we get the information on time and tasks can be communicated/completed on time.
There are 85 children who are getting education in Natpurwa village. All children are from Natpurwa. Mamta, Chandralekha, Neelkamal, Srinivas & Hansraj Singh work as teachers in this center. Children of Grade V need to join a government school for examinations. Grade I has 20 children who can write over Hindi & English alphabets & numbers written on a slate. They also can speak and try to identify these alphabets & numbers. Those children in Grade I who can write and recognize Hindi & English alphabets and numbers from 1 – 1000 are taught spelling words and reading Hindi books. They are also taught multiplication tables upto to twelve. When a child starts reading, writing & constructing sentences, he/she is sent to Grade II.
In Grade II, children are taught to read, write and speak in Hindi & English. They are also taught math, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fraction & decimals as well as work on problems related to hour, minute, ml., gram and other units of measure as is in the curriculum right now. In addition, they are also taught about science, social studies, social science, arts and moral science.
Children progress to the next grade only after mostly completing entire course. In Grades III to V, children start understanding, speaking & writing Hindi & English fluently and are taught based on the curriculum. They are also given comprehensive education in science, social studies, art & moral science.
Along with studies, once every week, children are taken on a tour to a place where they can play. And discuss about interaction between humans & environment. They are taught about relationships humans have with plants and animals and how they help/harm us.
In addition, students are taught tasks related to agriculture and observe things like making ropes & cane sheets, sewing, embroidery, animal rearing & pottery. Where appropriate, children are taught some of these skills.
In addition to education, we make an effort to teach children about good character. Every three months, children are evaluated on presence of qualities like compassion, forgiveness, enthusiasm & self-confidence. In addition, they are evaluated for their attitudes towards parents, elders & teachers.
Work on education is progressing in eight villages viz. Natpurwa, Meerakheda, Madarpur, Lalpur, Mavai, Ghatamapur and Muraukheda. The approach to education is similar in all centers and work is progressing on a regular basis. Neelkamal coordinates these centers as well as does periodic inspections of these centers. Every month, a meeting of teachers is held to discuss problems and find a solution to them so that teaching work is not affected.
It is critical for children to have good & proper education so that they have a bright future and the community progresses in the right direction. At the same time, I believe that we shall be able to attain our objective only if we also involve ourselves in meeting with people, meetings & other programs to increase awareness amongst people. I feel that children do not get an opportunity to develop socially & mentally with education only upto Grade V. So I would suggest that the centers gradually start teaching up to Grade XII to help with holistic development of children.
As of January 28, we have one more individual by the name of Hansraj Singh who has joined the program for social service. Our experience with him has been quite good. He is an able person who has been a teacher for last 8 years in Lucknow & Kanpur. He was selected for government job twice but failed in the interview process. Then he read about me in the newspapers and decided to work on social service in the rural areas. In addition to teaching, he knows about typing (Hindi & English) and book-keeping related tasks. He is very sincere, honest & ascetic (?) individual who tries to complete any task given to him with joy. Hence, I am planning to open a typing institute for the youth of Natpurwa village. I believe that youth of the village should know about typing, computers and book-keeping related tasks.
When you need to contact me, you can reach me at 05854-270815. This is my uncle’s number. Notify me one day in advance at this number and I shall be available at that number. I just had an accident which resulted in a lot of expenses but am ok now
Regards,
Mellididi, Harishbhai, Anuragbhai, Nilanjanbhai
Your younger brother
Neelkamal
Address:
Neel Kamal
Village: Barahi (Natpurwa)
PO: Sikrori
Dist: Hardoi,
UP, India