Report of Site Visit at Digantar Campus

On May 28th I visited the Digantar campus, which is located around 10 miles outside of Jaipur. Situated on the campus are 3 schools, Digantar office, a small library, and a hostel for teachers undergoing training. I met the project coordinator, Mr. Rohit Dhankar who lives on the campus. Digantar has been working in the area since 1978. Digantar is currently involved in a number of projects, the most prominent of which is the Elementary Education Program (EEP). Other projects include curriculum and textbook development, training of teachers and publishing a journal on new ideas in education. The attached documents, provided by the project coordinator, describe these projects in more detail.

The current need for additional funds in Digantar is for the EEP. Digantar runs three primary-level schools for around 500 children under the EEP. The schools are located on the Digantar campus in a rural area outside Jaipur. Most of the children come from low-income families engaged in agricultural activities in the nearby villages. A high percentage of the children are from the minority community and scheduled castes and tribes. About 40 percent of them are girls. A majority of the children go on to attend the government-run middle and high schools located some distance away near Jaipur. According to the project coordinator, the number of girls attending the school has risen considerably and people have now recognized the importance of educating their girl children. At the time of my visit the schools were closed for annual summer vacation, so I did not get a chance to observe any class in progress. However, I did visit the classrooms of one of the schools on the campus. The school consists of about 10 classrooms, a playroom for the children and a library for both the children and the teachers undergoing training at Digantar campus. The construction of the school buildings is cost effective, confirmed by the fact that 14 classrooms were built out of a sum of Rs. 86,000. The system of education followed at Digantar is very flexible and a lot of emphasis is given on the all around development of the children. Digantar is also involved in curriculum development and teacher-training programs based on the experience gained in the EEP.

The funding requested by Digantar is for the EEP project. The Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India, provides the funding for the EEP program. The current funding sanction is upto the year 2002. However, the coordinator explained that the salaries in other projects of Digantar have been increased by about 30%. Thus, they need funds for the increased salaries and provident funds for teachers in the EEP program. The other problem faced by Digantar is that the funds from the Govt. are usually delayed 3-4 months that makes timely payment of salaries very difficult. They need a sum of around Rs. 1,200,000 as a revolving fund to tide over these periods.

Overall, my perception is that the EEP project is doing a great job educating children who would otherwise most likely remain deprived of any education. In association with its other projects, Digantar is making significant contribution towards promoting the cause of elementary education in rural areas. However, there I have some reservations about supporting the project. Almost all the funds sought by Digantar are for providing for the salary increase and Provident Fund of the teachers and other functionaries by about 30% over the 1996-97 salary level. This means that an increasingly large proportion of the Digantar budget will be spent on the salary of the staff without increasing the number of benefited children.