Minutes of meeting held on Sunday 11th May, 2008. Attendees : Sharad, Sanjeev, Anand Rao and Santhosh. Chaitanya ( http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=657 ) * Discussion on Bany's report: - Bany is an intern through AfE - There was some misunderstanding on information required and that was actually reported - The report primarily addressed comparisions between centers - Some smaller details that concerned us were given - closing of centers etc. - The report concluded that 5 centers were running ok and 2 were going on well outof the 13 centers. - Anand mentioned that the report was based on a 2 week stay. * Discussion with Anand: (Most questions were answered by Anand. There was some discussion amongst all with certain aspects) - What was Chaitanya's initital goal? To have a remedial center apart from the standard school structure. To have a place to study, play etc. - NIAS evaluation was done to measure the success. Bany felt it was too early to make such an evaluation - How is remedial center different from any government school? The government school in the area is worse than anywhere else. There is no parental involvement, high teacher absenteeism etc. - How is Chaitanya making things different? Chaitanya has made parents the stake holders. More care is given to kids. The parents are seeing benefits in the kids going to the centers. - The parents are currently not paying anything, Any reasons? Parents feel they should not pay. If they pay, the general impression or mentality is that the org. is making money (there is some history about orgs doing that). They feel they have a right to get things free. - A large chunk of what Chaitanya does is 'for profit' where people put in money. What about that? Micro finance can work. For profit initiatives reach to the richer sections of the village.The poor are not touched and would expect things for free. Sharad felt that business can show immediate returns or short term gains. - What are Chaitanya's long term plans? Will we make the government school function or create a parallel system? The intent is definitely to work with government schools and make the necessity for the tuition centers go away. At this point Chaitanya doesn't see it happening in the near future and don't have concrete plans as of yet. Parallel system of schooling is definitely not something that will be approached. - Discussion on NIAS evaluation. Is it objective? It need not necessarily measure Chaitanya's impact. The metrics were also debated. - Why did we scale to more centers? There was a discussion within Chaitanya on whether they were doing well in the two centers before expanding to more.They did feel they were doing well and hence decided to expand. - What do you mean by a center running well? The administrative mechanism - Teachers attending regularly, meetings held on a regular basis. A system exists where kids are given hands-on activities to do. Every month one of the teachers creates a question paper that all kids answer. There is some enthusiasm to try out teaching methods. Resource persons attend meetings as well. - Why should principals of the same govmt. schools that don't function well train teachers at the center? What is the intent - a strategic move to gain confidence of the principals or otherwise? It is not done with the view that they can add value. It is seen as them being a part of the system. It is more of a strategic move. In the future more knowledgeable people can also be brought. - Parental involvement and role of teachers in the center It has improved and the space is also being provided by them for holding classes. The teachers mainly help with homework etc. - According to Anand, Chaitanya is an organization that does not intend to revolutionize things. It can help in improving the administration. Is this something that Asha can accept and work with. Education is only one of the activities of Chaitanya and they are limited by resources. The organization is trying to run a business and live in the community by creating income for many members. Education is something that they want to give back to the community in this process. - 2 centers closed and 2 centers opened elsewhere. Anand could not answer these questions and felt we should get feedback from Chaitanya. - The Remedial centers work with the schools to re-integrate the children who dropped out. - Chaitanya has not seriously thought about long term plans - to make sure all children are mainstreamed and about the lifetime of the centers itself. We have to discuss this with Chaitanya. - The no. of centers will definitely not expand before they figure out long term plans for the thirteen centers. Anand is confident that he can make folks discuss and understand the need for focus on the existing thirteen centers, long term plans etc. - Asha is currently considering renewal of salaries - we are committed up to July. - Anand feels that Asha should take its time, while he gets more clarity from Chaitanya. All issues need to be put forth and discussed with Chaitanya. - Next 2 months Anand will take up these concerns with Chaitanya. Before june we will have a couple of conference calls to understand and decide on continuation of support. Thanks, Santhosh.