Dear Volunteer

Thanks for conducting this site visit.

The following set of questions is only a suggested guideline. Some of the following questions may not be relevant or applicable to the particular project you are visiting, but please do try to answer as many of them as possible. Please note that Part sB & C necessitate that the information be gathered through conversations with the children and their parents, and not simply the group's teachers and staff.

Please feel free to attach any documents/photos you feel are pertinent to the project.

Thanks.

- Asha for Education

 
------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mar. 6, 05

Name of the Project: NICE

Name of the Organisation Running the Project (if different):

 

Was your site visit announced?      Yes, it was planned

PART A: Particulars about the organization and its environment

1. What are the different focus areas of the organization? (give a rough estimate of the % of their total effort/funding) Community development    %         Education 100%            Health    % Other t%  (please specify) Vocational Training is to start from the academic year 2006-07

2. What is the administrative structure of the group (e.g. Board of Directors/Grassroots-based)?    NICE is represented by its executive members, who have domain expertise in Education, Medicine, Marketing, Operations and Finance. Purna Chandra Rao (Secretary) A person from a backward rural area he worked in one of the best corporate pharma/bulk drug companies in Hyderabad and now a full time serving member of NICE. VB Chary   A teacher from Bollapalli Village, he has helped hundreds of students realize their dreams. Dr. K Srimannarayana A distinguished FRCS post graduate of medicine, he served in UK and recently migrated back to Hyderabad. He brings his valuable knowledge of Health management to NICE. G Anjaneyulu An agriculturist with solid educational background. Avinash Chimote    An ex-CRY executive, he brings his insight on the working of NGOs in India. P Murali Srinivas    He brings his management experience. K Balasundaram    A very senior ranking official from the Government service, he brings his wisdom and knowledge.

3. Are there any other organizations working in the area providing any one or all of the services provided by the visited organization? (Briefly mention their names and their objectives)

 

 

PART B: The organization and the community it serves

(Information to be gathered from parents and children)

 

1. Approximately how many families live in the area? 500 voters

2. What do the parents do for a living? (Agricultural worker, Daily wage laborer etc.) Daily wage labourers

3. At the time of enrolment, does the school ask for the names of both parents? Yes

4. How often do the teachers meet the parents? Monthly once.

5. How do the parents participate in the organization's activities? (e.g. by contributing their time, money or labor in the school’s activities etc.) The parents do not participate in the organisation's activities.

6. Are there any Government Schools in the area?                  Yes

7. If yes, how far are the Government Schools from the community? The Government schools are primary schools which offer education only till 5th Std whereas  NICE offers education from 6th Std. onwards.

8. Why did the parents choose this school over the Government School? As the Govt. schools in the vicinity are primary schools offering education till 5th Std only.

9. When you visited, how many children were present in the class? 39 What is the regular class strength? 39 Comments: Initially the kids are admitted into the 5th Std and are lead through a bridge course for one year and are trained to reach the level of a 6th Std. student.

10. Do the children seem to enjoy coming to school? Yes, very much. We can easily make out from their faces :-)

PART C: Project particulars

(Information to be gathered from students and staff)

 

1. What is the mode of teaching in the school? (Check the appropriate choices) A. Formal (State Board, Central Board etc.)  Yes          till what class? 12 B. Non-Formal Education (NFE)    No                       do the students also attend formal school? C. Vocational Yes D. Other  . Please specify

2. If A (Formal), up to what grade(LKG, 5th, 7th etc.) does the school conduct classes? One year of bridge course and then 6th Std to 12th Std

3. If B (Non-Formal Education) how many of the children also attend formal schools in the area?       If none do, does the project plan this for the future? No, vocational training for these kids is on the cards from 8th Std. onwards.

4. If Non-Formal Education, does the organization create its own study material (books, games)?

5. If C (Vocational), what do the children do after they finish training? The school has not yet started vocational training as it is just two years old due to which, no kids have entered into 8th Std. yet and as per the school's program vocational training is given from 8 Std. onwards..

6. How many staff or volunteers are recruited from the community? None as 97% of the villagers are illiterate (according to the UNICEF report) How many of the staff are women?  One.

7. How many teachers have left the school in the past one year, and why? Two left as the management could not afford to meet their salary expectations.

8. How many new teachers have joined in the past year? Four (All new)

9. Does the organization train the teachers?  No If yes, how do they provide the training?

10. How much is the staff paid? 2 - 3500, 1 - 3000, 1 - 1500, You can see that the figures in the project proposal and the ones provided here donot match, reason being, the management is finding it difficult to retain teachers of CBSE level at such low salaries. Few teachers quit their jobs during the academic year due to lack of adaptability or any other personal reason and the management is left in a difficult situation to get a teacher for a pay according to the available financial resources. This ground reality is the primary reason for the non-matching of salary figures in reports prepared at different times of the year. Is it on par with the salary paid to the staff in the Government schools?   No

 

PART D: Financial resources of the organization

(Feedback from the person conducting the site visit)

 

1. Do you think the proposed amounts in the budget are reasonable?             Yes

2. Are all items covered in the budget?            Yes Comments:

3. Is there anything you think should be added or removed from the budget? No If you recommend any changes to the budget, please explain your reasons for this.

4. Did you discuss the proposed changes with the project? If so, please describe their response.

PART E: Comments

(Feel free to attach documents if necessary)

   As explained above in the reply to Question No. 10, all the core volunteers at Asha Hyderabad are aware of the ground reality that the teachers move in and out of the job due to variuos reasons such as:

1. The school is in a rural environment and certain people might not feel comfortable after being there for a couple of months.

2. Certain exams like DSC (District Selection Committee) fall during the academic year and a few quit after appearing for such exams.

3. The school management has to take care of immediate recruitments in such circumstances and thus the salaries vary accordingly and hence the non-matching of salary figures in the reports generated or proposals submitted at different times of the same year.

The genuinity of such issues can be checked as the pay slips are all being well maintained.

Personal Note on the site visit.

March 6^th Early Morning - 0445 HRS

Called Dr. Prem and Deep Karan and made them realise that this was the day we planned to visit the school, for which i have been prodding them to accompany me. They were eager to do that but were a little hesitant due to various reasons like laziness ;-), apprehensive about moving out of home on a Sunday :-p etc. But somehow they pulled themselves out of their beds and we all gathered at the railway station and as soon as we boarded the train, the train started moving. We were just lucky to be there right on time.

It was more or less a standing journey for three hours.

Reached Chilakaluripeta and we hesitated to board the link bus to narsaraopet due to the jam packed bus. Thought that we would be able to catch another bus but we had to walk for about 2 km to reach to a place where we boarded a private mini-bus which loaded about 40 people with a seating capacity of 20. We didn’t realise that it would take 1 hr. to reach Narsaraopet. All the way long, we had to bear two women ranting (at the top of their voice) at each other due to lack of capability on both their parts in adjusting with the available limited space and amidst all this noise, I and Dr. Prem were surprised to see Deep Karan dozing off for over half the journey time. Once we reached Narsaraopet, we took a local bus and got down at Kanaparthi Baavi, from where NICE is at a 300m offset. All the way from the railway station (chilakaluripeta) to Kanaparthi Baavi, we could see scores of Churches enroute. We were told that there were active efforts to convert the religion of these poor people to Christianity although it cant be taken as a genuine/official statement as it could be a mere personal opinion. But we could add some dimension (may be misinterpreted) to such a statement after seeing so many churches enroute to the school.

While walking towards the school, it was really good to be in an open rural area with a wonderful breeze inspite of the noon-sun. It is a really really calm place with absolutely no noise and pollution of the typical city life. While we were walking towards the school, we were surprised to see the car of Mr. Ghazal Srinivas (the gentleman who performed in the concert to raise funds for NICE) stop and Mr. Srinivas walking towards us to greet and move on. We reached the school in a couple of minutes appreciating the breeze and no-noise-&-pollution,etc. We met a few people who were there to attend the inaugural ceremony of the new rooms constructed with the help of the funds raised from the concert. Lunch was being served to the ceremony attendees at that time. We met Mr. Anjaneyulu, who visits the school every alternate day to check with the functioning of the school and Mr. Chary who is the principal and stays in the same village.

We tried interacting with a few kids but they were not mingling very well and we knew that it would take an hour or so to ease the who-is-this-stranger feeling. We wanted to have lunch along with the kids and so waited till their regular lunch time. It was around 1330 HRS and we entered the dining hall, which is a hut with a thatched roof and the floor (clay surface with no tiles ofcourse, it was really neat and seems to have been applied with water-cow-dung-mix which is traditionally known to be a good mix that helps put the flies and germs at bay). The kids washed their own plates and glasses before entering the dining hall  We had lunch with the kids, which was rice, brinjal curry, sambar, butter milk and payasam. We had multiple cups of payasam which was really good. Although it was really hot and I was sweating like hell, the butter milk cooled me off  :-). After lunch each of them wash their plates and glasses and put them back in the kitchen. We could see that the kitchen (which is a RCC room, adjacent to the dining hall) was really well maintained.

Afterwards we were a little tired and rested for an hour in the newly built class rooms. It was around 1630 that we  went into the open, chatted with the kids at length (they took some time to get acquainted since the time we arrived), I played volleyball with them and Dr. Prem and Deep Karan played cricket with others. We all had great fun among ourselves. Before  we started playing a few kids watered the plants within the premises. We all had bath after playing and believe me it was so good to be out there enjoying the evening weather in the rural backdrop. wowww that was really very soothing. After interacting with the kids for a long time, we felt that we developed a special bonding with them. Dr. Prem planned to organise a dental camp at the school in the very near future. Deep Karan donated 1k from his first pay of first job in his life. Although each of us knew about NICE and have been moving around with Mr. Purnachandra Raofor the past one year, we didn’t have that practical dimension of being at the school or knowing the kids in greater detail.

Around 1930 HRS we were on our way back home and reached our places in Hyd around 0100 HRS on Monday. Although it was a working day for both Dr. Prem and Deep Karan, they had no issues with that as it was a memorable trip to cherish for a long time..

It’s a really nice place to visit and i feel that every volunteer of Asha Hyd or any Asha volunteer who visites Hyd should check out the sincere and dedicated efforts of the school management and OFCOURSE the kids who are benefiitted out of their efforts.