Asha Austin Meeting Minutes (June 14, 2009)

Attendees: Rahul, Ambica, Apurva, Murali, Ganesh, Gaurav, Ranga, Sree

1. Prasanna Jyothi Site Visit - Rahul and Ambica

• Rahul and Ambica visited on 18th May, 2009
• It was not a surprise visit
• There are 22 kids in the school
• The detailed site visit report has been uploaded to the project website.
• Water flooding has been a problem in the past, because of the open lake
• Catering service is doing okay - there is scope to improve. Currently cater to 1 company on the old airport road
• One of the kids left about a month ago, but PJ has not been able to maintain much contact with the father.
• Artwork of the children was pretty good. They showed some of the art-work to
• Music classes seemed to be the only extra-curricular activity. Looking into the option of dance classes
• Only one computer among all the children, and there is no internet connection
• Planning a field trip to Mysore
• Q. What is the construction for?
• Q. What about the playing area for kids? What about the garden?
• Q. Why are the fees different for different kids?
• Q. Is tuition mandatory for all the kids?

2. Gramin Shiksha Kendra - Murali

• Murali gave an overview of the project
• It is a Hindi medium school. Ideally what the medium they want to teach in is in the Rajasthani dialect. They have begun a move in this direction
• They have created a cooperative environment at school - with children learning a lot from one another.
• The teacher child relationship is almost inverted. Teachers are answerable to the children to some extent.
• Maneesh, the project coordinator, worked with Bodh and Digantar
• Agriculture and animal husbandry have been the main livelihoods till now
• NREGA has been one of the bigger employers in the recent years
• Three children wrote the class 8 exam - the children did very well in the exams
• Murali showed some pictures from the school
• They typically pair up a new teacher with a more experienced teacher to learn the methodology
• Electricity connection has been added for the Jaganpura school and water pump has been installed
• They plan to have fans in the classrooms.
• Computers in schools is something they are considering.
• In Bodal school - GSK has signed a MOU with a building (hunting lodge) nearby for three years
• GSK is working with UNICEF - to introduce activity-based-learning in 60 government schools. GSK is asking for better student teacher ratios, if such a plan is to be implemented.
• Teacher training workshop has started. It is for 45 days from 8 am to 11 pm. They start with the philosophy of education - why are we teaching math, science etc?
• 30 teachers are attending the workshop - 18 from GSK and the rest from neighboring schools.
• Chapter does not understand the rationale behind the lower budget. Will keep the same budget for WAH.
• Q. Can we have computers in such heat?
• Q. How do they use 2% of the WAH budget for publicity? Where do chapters raise that money from?
• Q. What is the rationale behind a lower budget?

3. Vasundhara - Sree

• Sree gave an overview of the Science of Wheels program
• Budget for Vasundhara is about Rs 350,000.
• Sree to set up a vote online for the budget for the year 2009-10

4. Samaritan - Sree

• Sree went through the project budget quickly
• Sree to set up a vote online for the budget for the year 2009-10