Gyan Shala

 Project Update (August '2001)

Quarterly Report (June-August, 2001)

Introduction

Gyan Shala team had started preparation to start Gyan hala classes in Surendra Nagar district well in advance of the actual starting of the session on 15^th June. Although the formal agreement with VIDE was signed much later, the first batch of supervisors was trained towards the end of April. Three of them were recruited and placed in the field from 1st May onwards. It gave a time of barely one month to visit and survey many villages before finalizing the choice of villages where the planned number of 30 classes could be started. We had earlier visualized the possibility of starting both grade I and II classes so the required 30 odd classes could be covered in around 15-20 villages. On visiting villages, we found that the children who had completed first year of education in village schools could not be taken in Gyan Shala 2^nd grade due to very poor levels of their educational attainment. We eventually had to choose 24 villages, 17 in Dhragandhra and 7 in Patdi taluka, to start the planned 30 classes, all of grade-I.

Initial preparation

The biggest challenge for Gyan Shala team was to establish credibility of its education program in an area where it had no earlier presence. There was a large influx of visitors in the region in the wake of earthquake which made it difficult for the local people to differentiate between committed professionals and well intentioned visitors. Education is an area where no parent would be willing to let a child join without institutional credentials and where an organization could not be trusted to sustain for long. The fact that Gyan Shala does not follow government text books and does not have formal institutional recognition, made it all the more difficult to win the credibility. Typically, the preparatory work for starting a program in a new area involves multiple rounds of discussions with selected opinion leaders, many community meetings, and repeated follow up for the selection of classroom, potential teachers and children to be enrolled. The team had very limited time to complete all these tasks, effectively just one day per village, which was not suited to build a relationship of trust. The team was further handicapped by its inability to show/ demonstrate the past work at Ahmedabad where the classes were closed during the summer break.

In spite of all this, the Gyan Shala team did manage to get the agreement of local community to arrange the class rooms, identify and select potential teachers and obtain a tentative list of children to start the planned number of classes before the end of May, in all 24 villages. Actually the teacher training of 45 potential teacher candidate was started on May 27^th. Simultaneously the actions were initiated to get all the material ready that included getting the books printed, furniture manufactured, and purchasing a host of items, some from other cities. In most cases, the chosen classroom also required some minor repairs and a coat of wall-paint. All the required material was eventually delivered to the selected villages before June 13^th, and the trained teachers were posted on duty by 14^th June. The list of villages where classes were started and the material that was sent to each class are given in table 1 & 2.

Performance over the first quarter

The initial list of children who were tentatively identified during initial community contact had upwards of 1000 children but only around 960 children eventually registered for Gyan Shala classes.

The project had three major tasks in its initial phase. First, the teachers had to be made comfortable in handling Gyan Shala methodology and in dealing with a group of 30 odd children in the setting of the classroom. It is important to recognize that these teachers have had no experience of ever working in an organized setting, in the past, and they had undergone only two week training exposure. Second, the Gyan Shala supervisors had to be inducted in our work culture and in doing their task, which became more difficult due to inadequate preparation made prior to starting the classes. The supervisors too had had no organizational experience and came from moffusil town background where they were never exposed to the working norms or style of a professional organization. These supervisors had also not worked in the villages in the past. Third, the children had to be introduced to the concept to regularity (of attendance), besides of course, the class-work.

The first quarter of the project coincided with the onset of monsoon, which overlaps with a series of village festivals. This year, monsoon has been good after a draught of last three years, so the festivals were celebrated with elan, making the task of attending classes that much less attractive for children and local teachers.

During the quarter, all elements of Gyan Shala system have been put in place. Our August-end monthly review revealed that around 25 teachers have become well- versed in Gyan Shala approach and are able to handle the classes well. But more effort is required both by the teachers and field supervisors for bringing the remaining teachers to a similar level. 

Our initial plan was to recruit a total of three supervisors to handle all 30 classes. We had then planned to start two classes, grade I & II, in most villages so these would have been located in around fifteen villages. Eventually, we had to cover 24 villages. The requirement of weekly supervisory visit to each class meant that a supervisor could cover only five villages in a week. The project, therefore, had to raise the number of supervisors to five, who are currently in place. Three of these are women. In our assessment, three of the five supervisors have by now adapted to the task requirements of the project, while two others need some more time to be comfortable with their work. 

The lack of transport arrangement for the supervisors has been a bit of problem, but it is being attended to. Our earlier plan was to buy moped for supervisors but the terrain and windy condition during most months makes the driving of moped in the project area difficult. We are now planning to purchase old scooters so as to keep within the budget limit on this count.

The month end review meeting and training of teachers is being held regularly. Weekly supervisory visit to each class is also now institutionalized. The second volume of worksheets were readied and delivered to all classes in the last week of August.

The August end review meeting revealed that at present around 700 children have become regular in attending the classes.  Another around 200 are irregular while around 60 have almost dropped out. The team has initiated corrective steps to again bring back all the registered children to the school and ensure their regular attendance.  

Current Self-Assessment

Given that the project was started with inadequate preparatory work and that our staff in the field is essentially inexperienced, the overall performance is very satisfactory. In fact, the performance level in our Ahmedabad unit was not much better at a comparable stage. Still, Ahmedabad unit could very good performance by the end of the year, and the same is expected for the VIDE unit. .

We believe that it would take another 2 months before all the teachers and supervisors attain the minimum required level of facility in our system. It might take roughly that long for the local community and children also to get used to Gyan Shala approach. Till then, Gyan Shala core team will continue to give more than earlier planned attention to this unit. Our target would be to stabilize the class attendance at around 80% of registration and have the total registration at around 950.

Gyan Shala team could not manage the social dynamics at one of the villages where the location of classroom in lower caste quarters and disagreement with some local influential people came in our way. One class was closed down at …….and its replacement was started at another location, Vakhar, close to village Kuda. There is also a possibility that one of the two classes at village Satapar too will become unsustainable and we might have to open its replacement at another place, Nimak Nagar, from where we have obtained request for the same.  

Financial Status

Table 3 gives the statement of expenditure under various expenditure categories. Till the end of August, the project has spent Rs. 3,82,256.90 on recurring expenditure items while Rs. 3,70680 have been spent on capital items. Among the recurring expenses, the teacher training and class material have are large only in the beginning and would decline sharply in later quarters.

Among the capital expenses, we have purchased two desk-top computer units, though we have VIDE approval for the purchase of one unit only. This was necessitated by the large work-load and we hope VIDE would be able approve this purchase, after some VIDE volunteer has had a chance to visit our project sometime this winter. We have yet to purchase the vehicles for the supervisors and one more black-board and one side-rack each has to be supplied to all the classes. In case of replacement of Satapar class at another village, we would have to supply one more set of furniture.

Though the project has recruited five supervisors, instead of planned number of three, and there has been larger expenses on the travel of core team, who is spending more team on this project than visualized earlier, we shall be well within the budget. 

Course Outline

A short description of course outline for grade-I is attached as file Coursedesign

Table 1

Items Supplied to each class in VIDE-Gyan Shala Unit

Table 2

Original Registration of Children in VIDE- Gyan Shala Unit

Dhragandhara Unit

Name of the          No. of Enrolled
Village                  children

1  Rajgadh                   25
2  Vavdi                       34
3  Isadra                       35
4  Chully                      30
5   Bavdi –1                 30
6. Bavdi-2                    25
7  Haripar                    27
8  Khambhada             30
9  Jegadva                   34
10 Navalgadh/ Vakhar     34/ 17
11 Vrajpar                  28
12  Satapar-1              29
13. Sataper-2              20
14  Rajpar                   36
15  New kuda             35
16  Old kuda              35
17  Narali                   35
18 Virendragadh-1     35
19 Virendragadh-2     35
20  Baisabgadh          18

                                  620/603

Patadi Unit

1. Odu                       36
2. Savlas-1                34
3. Savlas-2                20
4  Savada-1               30
5  Savda-2                25
6  Nagwada               36
7  Chikasar               30
8. Ambala-1             36
9. Ambala –2           32
10  Jainabad-1         36
11. Jainabad-2         36

                                351

Table 3

Summary of Expenses for Gyan Shala-VIDE Unit

April 1 to August 31, 2001

___________________________________________________________________

S.N.     Item                                                     Amount

                                                                        (in Rs.)

__________________________________________________________________

One time Expenses on capital items
1. GI storage trunks for classrooms                   16535
2. Ceiling Fans                                      53064
3. Classroom furniture                         241375
4. Desktop Computer and printer                      34081
5. Second Desk-top computer                          25625
                                                                    _________

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