Project Sangamam-Poondi
Modified July 20th 2013
Background:
Asha Chennai has been working
with seven government primary schools in the Thiruvallur
district under Project Sangamam-Poondi.
Thiruvallur is one of the poorer
districts of Tamilnadu. It has always been a water
scarce region. Proximity to Chennai has its positives as well as negatives.
While a lot of people find employment in Chennai and auxiliary industries for
Chennai (like brick kilns and sand quarrying), the local resources are taken
away from the region including water in the form of Poondi
reservoir, river sand, human workforce etc. All this has left the mainstay of
this region agriculture in a bad situation.
The scenario as regards education in this district
is similar to the rest of Tamilnadu. Government
schools exist but with serious deficiencies. Private (read English medium)
schools are coming up and eating into the student force of the government
schools. But the private schools are often worse in terms of the quality of the
teaching. Asha Chennai believes the revival and
strengthening of the government schooling system is essential to the
implementation of any mass education initiative in India.
Government has been progressively giving more funds
to the education sector. This has also had a beneficial effect on these schools
in our project. ABL has been implemented in all the schools. Infrastructure at
all these schools has been improved. Recently laptops have been given to middle
schools. However like in other measures by government these also end up as
half-measures. Buildings are not made fully functional with required things
like weathering course, electrical wiring and fittings, plumbing and water
arrangement etc. Appropriate training and staff level to effectively use ABL
and also materials like trays etc. are not provided. Training is not provided
to the teachers to use the computers effectively at the schools. We are looking
at plugging these holes.
Here is a brief timeline of the things that have
been taking place at this project.
2004-05 |
Asha Chennai started the
project with Panchayat Union Primary schools at Kuppammal Chathiram, Kanakavalli Puram and Pattarai Perambudur |
2005-06 |
We also started supporting the school at Kunnavalam and the Balwadis at Kunnavalam and Kuppammal Chathiram. |
2006-07 |
We extended our support to the schools at Placepalayam, Nemiliagaram and Pudhur and also the Balwadis at
Nemiliagaram. |
2007-08 |
We added support for the school at SSA-Korattur. We also added libraries in all these schools.
These are still functioning well. |
2009-10 |
We discontinued the support for Kanagavalli puram, Kunnavalam and Pudhur and in its
place added support for T.B. Puram and Yelappanaidu Pettai. We stopped
support at Kanagavalli puram,
Kunnavalam and Pudhur
because of several factors like lack of adequate support and since the number
of government teacher were sufficient for the strength of the school. We
provided computer labs at all the schools with computers that were donated
for us by the company Inautix. |
2011-12 |
We discontinued support for Nemiliagaram
because the government started one more primary school in that area and each
school was so small that one teacher could manage the number of students
(less than 30 each). We also discontinued support at SSA Korattur
since the government itself appointed a third teacher (for 80 students) and
our teacher also stopped working because of marriage. |
2012-13 |
We added support for the school at Allikuzhi and Thomur. |
We are currently supporting Kuppammal
Chathiram, Pattarai Perambudur, Placepalayam, T.B. Puram, Yelappanaidu Pettai, Thomur and Allikuzhi.
Locally the activities of the project
has been coordinated by the project coordinator Srinivasan.
We have further provided teachers to these schools. We have been continuing to
improve the infrastructure at these schools. We also sponsored the annual day
functions at all these schools.
In doing all these activities we have been happy to
find a supportive and energetic set of teachers at these schools. The district
and panchayat officials have also been very
supportive.
Schools/Balwadis to
be covered:
Kuppammal Chathiram
School (from August 2004)
The primary school in Kuppammal
Chathiram has 85 students and 3 government teachers.
The school has adequate building space to comfortably seat the children. Asha is providing one teacher Deivanayagi
to this school. The number of children at this school has been reducing over
the years because of the presence of a English medium
school right adjacent to this school. In the last two years the trend has
started reversing.
Pattarai Perambuthur
School (from Dec 2004)
This has 105 students and 4 teachers. This school
has also seen a big drop in the number of children because of various factors
including drop in the population of children in this area, joining convents in Thiruvallur and the closure of two brick kilns in the area
which meant the children coming from there are no longer coming to the school.
This trend has started reversing in the last two years.
Asha has been providing one
teacher, Santha Sophya, to
this school. The school was first chosen as one of the model schools for
Activities Based Learning. This has now been adopted at all the schools we are
supporting.
Placepalayam School (from Dec 2006)
The
Panchayat Union Middle School at Placepalayam
has been in existence since 1948. In 2012-13 thanks to the improvements we have
done to the school, this has been converted into a high school. The high school
(classes 6 to 10) and the primary school (classes 1 to 5) will function
independently. The high school has 122 children and 6 teachers. The primary
school has 65 children and two teachers of which one of the teacher
is not effective because of health problems. We are proud to report that the
students out teachers trained for a number of years have now performed very
well in the 10th std
board exams.
Asha is
providing one teacher for the primary school. They would need one more teacher
at this school. The primary school operated from a one new building which Asha helped in constructing and a couple of old buildings
which we expect to be rebuilt by the government.
TB Puram School
The panchayat union middle
school at T.B. Puram was one of the schools in the
district with the highest student-teacher ratio. T.B.Puram
is a remote area within the district. This is therefore one of the schools with
persistent, teacher shortage. It is a middle school with about 230 students. It
has a tamil medium middle
school (200 children and 9 teachers) and a telugu
medium primary school (30 children and 3 teachers). Asha
has been providing one teacher for the school. However given the increase in
the number of government teachers, we plan to withdraw support for the school.
Yelappa Naidu Pettai
The school has 61 children. It has three government teacher. We have provided one Asha
teacher. We plan to withdraw support for the school since they have sufficient
number of government teachers.
Thomur
This school has also been upgraded to become a high
school last year. Once again the primary school and high school will function
independently. The high school will have 120 children and 5 teachers. The
primary school will have 55 children and 2 teachers. We will continue our
involvement with the primary school. Our teacher was helping them with their
computers. We will continue teaching computers to the high school children as
well.
Allikuzhi
This is also a remote school in the same vicinity as
Placepalayam and TB Puram.
Being a remote school getting government teachers who would stay is a problem.
The school has 70 children and three government teachers of which two are very
new. Asha has been providing one teacher for the school
who also helps with teaching computers at that school as well as T.B. Puram and Placepalayam.
Gandhigramam
The schools is situated in
a tribal area. The primary school there has 44 children and 2 government
teachers. The area is a very poor area and is badly in need of our support. The
Balwadi in the village attached to the school has not
been functioning. We hope to add support for this school and Balwadi. One teacher we provide would be able to manage
both these roles. Our teacher from Yelappanaidu Pettai, Sathyavani will be able
to go to this school.
Kachur
The school has 90 children and 3 teachers. They are
in need of an additional teacher. Our teacher from T.B. Puram,
Janova, would be able to work from Kachur.
Balwadis at Kuppammal
Chathiram, Gandhigram, Allikuzhi and Thomur
These Balwadi are the
feeder Balwadis for the respective schools. There are
25 students at each Balwadi with one teacher and two
Ayahs. We provided some mats and play materials in 2006-07. We provided some
sports materials, painted the Black boards and provided plates and tumblers to
all the Balwadis. We need to provide some more
materials to these Balwadis. All of them require
electric connection/fittings and some sprucing up of the insides.
Other General Inputs From Asha
Asha Chennai has undertaken
several projects with government schools. As part of these projects Asha Chennai provides several standard inputs including,
Further this project being in a remote area would
require a local coordinator and cannot be executed directly by the volunteers
in Chennai. Srinivasan would perform the role of
coordinator for the project would require a salary.
The following table identifies the allocated and
actual expenses under various heads for the project in the year 2009-10.
SNo
|
Work Item (and what was executed)
|
Amount Budgeted
|
Amount Spent
(approx)
|
1 |
Teachers’ salaries – We hired two teachers less than budgeted
and since the teachers were hired during the course of the year, the entire
money was not required. |
Rs
5,22,300 |
Rs
356000 |
2 |
Coordinator’s salary |
Rs
1,11,000 |
Rs
1,10,500 |
3 |
Infrastructure Repairs at the Sangamam Poondi schools and Balwadis – Scribble
areas were repainted in the schools. Table/chairs at Allikuzhi,
Thomur and Placepalayam. Water
tank repair was carried out at TB Puram. |
Rs.
77,500 |
Rs
61,000 |
4 |
Educational, reading and sports
materials for the schools and Balwadis. Sports and learning/teaching materials
were provided. |
Rs.
1,14,000 |
Rs
82,000 |
6 |
School bags for Children from all
schools. Tumblers and Plates for children. Mats for children to sit on. Other
material for the schools. Of
these we provided mats, tumblers and plates. We did not provide school bags
for children because of lack of funds. |
Rs.
262,500 |
Rs
29,000 |
7 |
Admin Expenses Office room rent/maintenance and
materials – This exceeded the
budget as we moved to a new office room which had to be renovated. We do not
need to pay rent for the next year. Miscellaneous Emergencies/Services Documentation/Conveyance – Includes travel to Chennai by coordinator
and teachers (for meetings and interviews) Coordinator Vehicle Maintenance |
Rs
27,500 Rs
10,000 Rs
15,000 Rs 5,000 |
Rs
37,000 Rs
8,500 Rs
5,000 |
8 |
Evaluation and training Volunteer/Intern travel No
amount was spent in these categories. |
Rs
25,000 Rs
10,000 |
|
9 |
School day functions at all the Sangamam Poondi schools. |
Rs
60,000 |
Rs
45,000 |
|
Total Expense |
Rs
12.38 Lakhs |
Rs
7.34 Lakhs |
SNo
|
Work Description
|
Cost Details
|
Total Cost for Asha
|
Common Items |
|||
1 |
Additional teachers (Incl travel) Kuppammal
Chathiram – Deivanayagi
-- Rs 3200 Pattarai
Perambudur – Santhasophya
-- Rs 4400 Placepalayam
-- Anita + 1 -- Rs 2775. Thomur
- Gayathri -- Rs 3850 Allikuzhi
– Sandhya -- Rs
3775 Gandhigramam
– Sathyavani -- Rs 4075 Kachur
– Janova – 4400 |
Approx
8 * 3500 * 12 + 10 * 3000 (one month bonus) |
Rs
366,000 |
2 |
Sailaja
will be used as a general resource at all schools for computer training since
she has PGDCA. Salary -- 4000, Conveyance -- 500 |
Approx
4500 * 12 + 3000 |
Rs
57,000 |
3 |
Tumblers and Plates (newly required at
Gandhigram and Kachur).
Some replacements, say a total of 150 would be required at other schools. |
300 * Rs.
80 |
Rs
24,000 |
4 |
School bags for all children (Will be
taken up upon funding availability). |
900 * Rs
250 |
Rs
225,000 |
5 |
Educational materials Geom. Instruments Slates Teachers kits Trays Colours
Atlases |
|
Rs
80,000 |
6 |
Sports Materials Plastic balls for younger children,
Footballs for older children, Tennicoit rings,
Skipping ropes, Snakes & Ladders, Ludo etc. board
games |
|
Rs
30,000 |
7 |
Evaluation and other training costs |
|
Rs
25,000 |
8 |
Black board and scribble area
repainting |
25 * Rs 500 10 * Rs
1000 |
Rs
22,500 |
8 |
Volunteers/interns from Asha Chennai would need to make one trip a month for two
days to the villages to monitor the work, retrain the teachers and report
back to Asha. |
Each trip would require the
following, Bus Fare + Local auto etc. –
500 Food – Rs
150. Honorarium – Rs 600 We are assuming two people travel
together for the above. There would be 8 trips during the project duration. |
Rs
10,000 |
9 |
Coordinator Salary |
Rs
9500 * 12 + 3000 |
Rs
117,000 |
10 |
Coordinator Vehicle Maintenance |
Rs
5000 |
Rs
5000 |
11 |
Furniture for the office (note we are
not paying rent this year) |
|
Rs
20,000 |
13 |
Miscellaneous (emergencies, services,
etc.) |
Rs
10,000 |
Rs
10,000 |
14 |
School day and other school functions |
|
Rs
60,000 |
15 |
Other Admin expenses (conveyance,
documentation etc.) |
|
Rs
15,000 |
Gandhigram and Kachur |
|||
22 |
Mats for children to sit on for all
at these school and replacements at other schools. |
150 * Rs
120 |
Rs
12,000 |
23 |
One bureau, two fans One Water drum
and one stereo system for children use at each of these schools. |
For each school (Rs
6000, Rs 4000, Rs 1000
and Rs 2500) |
Rs
27,000 |
Balwadis |
|||
24 |
Play/Learning materials for the Balwadi. |
For each Balwadi Open shelves – Rs 2500 Other materials – Rs 7500 |
Rs
40,000 |
25 |
Painting of scribble area and one
black board |
4 * 1500 |
Rs
6,000 |
Fund Requirement/Schedule Summary
Total Project Funding Requirement Rs 11.56 Lakhs.