Project Thirvallur Govt School Improvements
Improvements to Primary Schools near Kaivandur
Asha Chennai Proposal – Year 2004-05
18th September 2004

Background:

Asha Chennai has been involved in Project Build in the Thiruvallur district. An opportunity presented itself to Asha Chennai to make contributions to the government schools in the Poondi block of the same district. The person would would coordinate 
this project is one Srinivasan who is already known to Asha Chennai through Project Build.

Thiruvallur is one of the poorest districts of Tamilnadu. It has always been a water scarce region with the recent droughts making the situation worse. Proximity to Chennai has its positives as well as negatives. While lot of people find employment in Chennai and auxiliary industries for Chennai (like brick kilns and sand quarying), 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. 

Srinivasan comes from Ambedkar Colony from Kaivandur sitruraatchi. He identified some schools near Kaivandur that require help and which have an energetic head-master and set of teachers. Several Asha Chennai volunteers also visited the schools including Viswanathan, Rajaraman, Lakshmi and Sundaram. The following proposal is an Asha Chennai proposal from all these volunteers based on inputs from Srinivasan and the schools. Srinivasan also proposed two additional schools which are in Ramancheri which is some 10-15 Kms from Kaivandur. We initially propose to take up the schools in Kaivandur and then consider the other schools for the upcoming years.


Schools to be covered:

Kuppammal Chathiram
The primary school in Kuppammal Chathiram has 108 students and 3 teachers. The school has adequate building space to comfortably seat the children. The three government teachers working there put Rs. 100 each out of their own pocket to fund one Ms. Sumathy who has finished 12th standard to assist them with the children. Another Mr. Kumar who has finished secondary grade teachers’ training and is awaiting placement is volunteering there temporarily. He is expected to leave in less than a month. Asha would need to continue supporting Sumathy as well as hire a new teacher for the school. 

One of the three buildings at the school requires the roof to be repaired. Further  they require new black boards for the classrooms and desk/chair for the teachers.

Kanakavalli Puram
This is a small school. It has only one multi-age class for all the children (in classes 1 to 5). There are 50 children. There is one building that is adequate for the children. However there is no closed area for cooking. If asbestos sheet is provided extending from one of the sides of the building, that would meet the need. Currently the school only has one head-mistress. Another teacher to help would be necessary. The schools further needs black boards, a desk and chair.

Pattarai Perambuthur
This is a bigger school than the other two. This has 219 students and 4 teachers. The building space is inadequate but the panchayat has allocated them space for an additional building. It is hoped that the funds for the building would be sanctioned 
shortly. The number of teachers is also inadequate. They would require two additional teachers. The existing buildings are in good shape but would require some desks and chairs.


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,

1. One set of Uniforms for the students. The one set that the government gives is grossly inadequate for wearing every day for a year.

2. Notebooks/Slate for the children. 

3. Other education material as appropriate for the class. This would range from crayons to atlases and geometry boxes.

4. Bring the teachers from these projects to Chennai for training. This would be covered under the budget for Project Rightstart.

5. Trips by educationists from Chennai to these projects to monitor, provide onsite training and other inputs for the teachers in these schools.

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.


Project Goals:

The project would impact about 400 children at three Primary schools. 

In these institutions the boy : girl ratio is approximately 1:1. We hope to see the following qualitative improvements due to this project,

1. An acceptable educational environment that is conducive to and promotes learning.

2. A motivated and trained group of teachers that cater to these children.

3. Children who perform at or above the level expected for their age.

As the project progresses we hope to develop better metrics to measure the progress of the children and the success of the project like monitoring levels of numberacy and literacy skills of the children.

Project Details and Estimates for Year Oct 2004 to May 2005

Note that the project term would coincide with the academic year (June to May). Therefore the term for this year would only include 8 months.

SNo

Work Description

Cost Details

Total Cost for Asha

Kuppammal Chathiram Primary School

1

Two additional teachers

2 * 1200 * 8

Rs 19,200

2

Roof Repair (replace the broken tiles and labour for removing and replacing them)

 

Rs  1,000

3

3 new Black boards and repainting existing two boards

3*500 + 500

Rs  2,000

4

Black painting for Scribble area for 1st std classroom

 

Rs 1,000

5

3 sets of tables/chairs

3 * (500 + 475)

Rs 2,925

6

3sets of 4 metres wooden partitions

3 * 2500

Rs 7,500

Kanakavalli Puram Primary School

7

One additional teachers

1200 * 8

Rs 9,600

8

Asbestos sheet for cooking area (four pillars, an angle bracket, two asbestos sheets etc.)

 

Rs 5,000

9

2 new Black boards

2*500

Rs  1,000

10

Black painting for Scribble area

 

Rs 1,000

11

1 set of table/chair

500 + 475

Rs 975

12

1 set of 4 metres wooden partitions for separating room into two areas

 

Rs 2,500

Pattarai Perambudur Primary School

13

Two additional teachers

2* 1200 * 8

Rs 19,200

14

Repair/Replace all black boards

 

Rs  2,000

15

Black painting for Scribble area

 

Rs 1,000

16

One table with drawers, two wooden tables and 5 chair

2500 + 2*500 + 5*475

Rs 5,375

Common Items

17

Uniforms for Children

Uniform costs approx Rs 150 per child. 350 children are expected this year.

Rs 52,500

18

Educational materials

 

Geom. Instruments

Slates

Teachers kits

Trays

Colours

Atlases

 

 

1500

1000

1000

2000

5000

1000

Rs 11,500

19

Three tape recorders, one for each school

3*3000

Rs 9,000

20

Sports Materials

 

Plastic balls for younger children – 4 + 2 + 6 – 12

Footballs for older children – 2 + 1 + 2 – 5

Tennicoit rings – 4 + 2 + 6 – 12

Skipping ropes – 8 + 4 + 12 – 24

Snakes & Ladders, Ludo etc. board games – 6 + 4 + 10 – 20

 

 

12 * 15 = 180

5 * 150 = 750

12 * 30 = 360

24 * 25 = 600

20 * 25 = 500

Rs 2,360

21

Educational Games

3000 + 2000 + 5000

Rs 10,000

22

Reading materials

1500 + 1000 + 2500

Rs 5,000

23

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 200.

Honorarium – Rs 600

 

We are assuming two people travel together for the above. There would be 8 trips during the project duration.

Rs 10,400

24

Coordinator Salary

Rs 3000 * 8

Rs 24,000

25

Room for Materials, records etc. and desk/chair

Rs 500 * 8 + 2500 + 500 + 1000 (refundable advance)

Rs 8,000

26

Miscellaneous (emergencies, services, etc.)

Rs 10,000

Rs 10,000

TOTAL

Rs 2,24,035

Fund Requirement/Schedule Summary

 Total Project Funding Requirement            Rs 2.24 Lakhs = Approx US $5000.

   We intend to start two of the schools (Kuppammal Chathiram and Kanakavalli puram) by October. The works at Pattarai Perambudur would start by November or as soon as we feel comfortable about the funding situation for the project. Some of the items for the projects would be taken up as funding frees up.