Site visit to Vasundhara

1. Vinod Sharma left Mumbai for Sindhdurg on the 30 Jul 99 and returned on the 3rd August. The aim of this visit was to make an initial assessment of the 'Rural Reconstruction and Education Project ' with special reference to its sub program 'Wheels on Science'. Rohini had, earlier, provided comprehensive and very useful inputs compiled from the reports submitted by other volunteers.

2. Any program of this nature has to be perceived in the context of its concept, scope, organizational capacity, impact and sustainability in existing rural environments and state machinery in India. There is, thus, a requirement for constant review of t he objectives for prospective course of action.

3. Activities during the visit:

a. Visited Secondary Schools in Kudal, Vengrula and Sawant wadi.
b. Visited a educational & community cum cultural center in Dhurivada, Malvan.
c. Interacted with the principals and students of these institutions.
d. Met delegation from 'Marathi Vigyan Parishad'. They are based in Mumbai at Vigyan Bhavan, VN purav marg, Sion-Chuna Bhatti, Mumbai Tele 5524714. The team included Dr CM Pandit (Gentleman, mentioned as the 'family friend' by Amitabh Khare).
e. Visited Kudal High School and Junior College, seemingly the best equipped institution in that area.
f. Accompanied the Van on its visit to a school.
g. Met Local Village Administration.
h. Visited Ingesh rural 30 bedded Hospital. Mr. CB Naik is on the board of trustees.
i. Discussions with Mr. CB Naik at the site.

4. To maintain continuity, extracts from earlier inputs have been incorporated In the present report. This will help in linking up my comments and observation with available inputs.

5. Vasundhara was founded as public charitable trust on 26.05.1995 with 7 trustees & 11 advisory committee members. However Mr. CB Naik, as Managing Trustee & Secretary, is predominantly responsible for the operations on ground. For the time being, the activities are managed from his residence cum office at PO Nerupar, Taluka Kudal, District Sindhudurg, Maharashtra (India) 416525.

6. Mr. Rajiv Vartak, based in Mumbai mainly provides technical support. Mr. Vartak is B.Sc. and is engaged in educational activities of similar nature under the aegis of his 'Institute for School Science education.'

Comments. The project envisages range of educational activities such as regular visits to distant schools, exhibitions, Science workshops, Discovery workshops, Perpetual workshops, feed backs, training of own staff, computer Training, teachers training. In the context of long term planning, consolidation of existing operations and back up, they will have to rethink on prospective organizational structure and formulate solid growth plan. I discussed this with Mr. Vartak & Mr. Naik.

Existing Staff: The present staffing employed for 'Science on Wheels' consists of:

A. Program Coordinators (Two): Two Program coordinators, recruited locally, at site are Shilpa Dandekar (B.Sc. maths) and Tanuja Sawkekar (B.Sc. chemistry). They have been trained for demonstrations / experiments by Mr., Rajiv Vartak.
B. One full time driver.
C. One Assistant is being recruited. Mr. Naik has short-listed 4 candidates.
D.According to Mr. Naik, Technical assistance is also taken from Marathi Vigyan Parishad & Other volunteers for training of the School teachers (enhancing their skills) and training of students aspiring for National Science Talent Examination.

Comments. Mr. Vartak also plans to conduct teacher's workshops with a view to improve their methodology. He hopes to build up a nucleus of trained staff of 40-50 in three year's time. As brought out earlier, I had conveyed to Mr. Naik that back up teachi ng support (volunteers or paid whatever they want) is a must. It may not be possible for Mr. Vartak to do justice to whole range of activities through periodical visits. He must start training more staff at a level that they can deliver the goods commensu rate with the program philosophy. After all this is not a plain 'class room teaching'.

The van used for 'science on wheels' is a 13 seater "tempo traveler" minibus. The Bank of India denoted the Van. The writings on the white van ' science on wheels" 'donated by Bank Of India' & ' Vasundhara ' gives ample publicity to the project and attracts attention. The vehicle has been modified as follows:

- Few Seats in the van have been removed to make the space for four box type wooden cabinets fixed on floor. These wooden boxes provide storage space. A cushion covers the entire length on top of this cabinet (on one side of the van). In emergency this can be used to carry lying patients. Six seats have been left intact for the carriage of personnel (Sending photographs).

Comments. The van is not a mobile laboratory and is NOT designed to facilitate conduct of chemistry/physics/other experiments inside the body as perceived in your earlier feed back. Basically it is used to, safely, transport material and staff to the schools and maintain the flexibility to reach larger target groups. I have several ideas (discussed with Mr. Vartak) on modifications and additional utility, which may not be in scope of my present reporting. As for query on ' program budget', Since the Van will be also used for other educational activities of the Vasundhara (women program, environment related, Health programs and like) it may not be practicable to segregate separate heads in program budget and Asha will have to absorb the reflected Fuel expense in totality.

8. Area of Operation: Rural areas of Sindhudurg dist in Konkan region comprising of following Talukas:

Kudal Taluka: Presently the HQ of 'Vasundhara rural reconstruction and education program ', Talukas of Sawantwadi (31 Km ex Kudal astride Mumbai-Goa highway), Vengurla (35 KM) Kankvli (38 Km), Malvan (31 KM ex Kudal) and Devgad (70 Km), Vaibhav vadi (100KM).

9. Kudal is situated 2-3 Km in Konkan belt, off the Mumbai- Goa Highway. Train (overnight journey) also connects the taluka. The district has a semi hilly terrain.

Comments. Distances, time and space are important factors in this type of program. The turn about time for the van, proceeding to other talukas, could be as much as 3-5 hours. This may put strain on logistical support, economy and area coverage on wheels. I have conveyed that deliberate and innovative planning is required for the optimum, versatile and economical utilization of the van. A back up plan is a must should the Van be not available for some days.

10. Only other transport available in these areas are three wheelers and local state buses (some private cars/taxis are expensive). State buses have a limited frequency (4-5 times a day in some regions). Children use own cycles, walk or travel by state buses.

11.

Total Population	8,32,300
Male	3,89,300
Female	4,43,000
Urban	63,000
Rural	7,69,000

12. The population of scheduled caste is 42,000 (i.e. 5% of the population). We visited one of the villages where so called scheduled caste reside.

Comments. There seems to be no discrimination in the schools and all students seemingly share common aspirations. As for target audience, my concern is that why are we restricting the 'experiment' to 8th, 9th or 10th Grade and within the precincts of school. After the entire Curriculum is designed to invoke a scientific temper and generate thinking process to break away from mechanical actions. If that were so, I would have take my Van at the door steps and build up larger audience in the society. I feel that learning will be fun in such settings. Mr. Vartak, too, had such concept and will try to work out on this approach in their next phase.

13. Literacy: The inputs provided earlier indicate literacy level as 'almost 100%.' These figures can be misleading in that for the local administration 'literacy' may imply merely writing ones name and putting signatures instead of 'usual' thumb impressions.

14. The primary source of income is fishing & agriculture (rice, mangoes, cashew nuts & flowers). This may be one of the factors, which deter families from encouraging some students to pursue college education elsewhere. However a principal told me that 100% students in last batch went for higher degree course.

Comments: Statistics provided to you earlier and ' a visit report' is not enough to assess retentively or receptivity factors. We need to build up a reliable database for any such analysis and effectiveness of the program. They have a feed back system in place that needs to be systematically fed and collated.

There are 1462 primary schools & 38 private schools owned by the Zilha Parishad. The statistics regarding Secondary school, managed by various trusts, are as follows:

Total Secondary Schools	183
No. Of Students	66,000
No. Of Teachers	2,088
Students per Teacher	31
Science Lab equipment in good condition	111
Ratio of Boys to Girls	1:1

16. Example School Profile

Arsur Pal High School.
Established 1986,,BR> Taluka Vangrula

Principal: MJ Matodkar, BA.BD

Staff strength: 5

Rooms: 6 with capacity 30-40 depending on how cramped one can sit.

Facilities: Make shift play ground and event stage.

Toilets: make shift arrangement

Laboratory: equipment available but space not there.

Electricity: is available in schools except Monday when there is a power cut.

Telephones: available with principal.

Water source: open well.

No provision for meals or light snacks. Children wear uniforms (white shirt and blue shorts). Transport used by students is state bus (rickety, frequency uncertain, Some student walk upto 4 Km). Surroundings clean and green environments.

Strength	Total	Girls	Boys
8th grade	46	28	18
9th grade	47	25	22
10th grade	37	20	17

Each member of staff teaches more than two subjects. Highest marks obtained by student each year: 68% to 86%.

Comments. the project continues to target 60 schools, assessed to be without laboratory facilities. That means targeting appox. 8000 students out of assessed strength of 66000 secondary school students and approx. 650 Teachers out of 2088. Periodic brain storming is required to set the qualitative and quantitative standards desired and methods to fill the imbalances.

17. The staff employed at present conduct experiments based on curriculum set by Mr. Vartak. The staff uses, besides their notes, a Marathi Vigyan Parishad publication… A booklet titled' Bal Vigyan Karita Proyog Sanch' for conduct of experiments. The booklet contains more than 100 simple experiments.

18. Mr. Vartak has trained these two demonstrators in performing experiments. At present they are conversed with 12 experiments and will add on more gradually.

19.Working days available for visits are approx. 110 - 120, after catering for holidays, power cuts, other student engagements. This may be the reason for restricting the frequency of visits to one or two and also keep the number of target schools to 60.

20. Some schools have received equipment (including microscopes) From Central Government but they are not being utilized. Vasundhara may rectify this anomaly where teachers are confident of using the equipment.

21.Existing operations: is based on their objectives (extract from report)

- To create an environment conducive for making science learning enjoyable.
- To develop scientific competencies among students.
- To help students to gain confidence in their thinking power.
- To get acquainted wit the methods of science.
- To help students to develop themselves cognitively.
- To demonstrate learner centered teaching-learning process for teachers.

A. The school principal is informed of tentative dates of the program. A format has also been prepared to take down school statistics.

B. On appointed day, the van proceeds to location with material and demonstrators. As reported earlier, for the time being, efforts are made to visit each of 60 schools atleast twice in a year (one in each semester).

C. The demonstrators choose the experiments to be conducted from the booklet' Bal Vigyan Karita Proyog Sanch'. These are simple experiments demonstrating the effect of light, air, gravity, heat, electricity, magnetism etc.

D. Your query: Science/ hands on activity kit, required to perform these experiments, are readily available in cities. Some Example of material used: stove, fish tank/water tank, magnets, balloon, naphthalene balls, gloves, straws, tumblers, switches, candles, card boards, normal laboratory utensils etc. Mr. Vartak is planning some more. Experiments are not necessarily linked with classroom syllabus.

E. Basically, these are experiments to display scientific explanations for day to day phenomenon and evoke their reasoning. Demonstrators start discussion with science stories related to discoveries followed by demonstrations of learners approaches e.g. Inquiry training model, discussion based on simple science activities and experiments. Some examples: -

- Effect of Eggs placed in plain water vs salted water/ acid added.
- Dropping of different size /weight/ mass/ material from same height.
- Effect of Light through water.
- Effect of air on Playing Cards thrown in different position.
- Naphthalene balls dropped in water. Effect?
- Blowing air through funnel towards candle flames. How it is sucked in?
- Draining water throw container having two outlets (showing vacuum effect).
- Chemistry experiments if required by the school e.g. producing gases.

F. The van also carries exhibition & display materials to Create awareness amongst school children in personal hygiene, public health, environment and ecology. After the experiment, students have a look at the exhibition of posters. On the day of our visit, we displayed about 15 posters depicting space ships, lunar/solar eclipse, rockets and aerial photography etc.

G. Feed back form is given to students so that they can look for answers while watching the prints. I am giving advertisement in dailies on my own asking for magazines and other educational material in local language/English for distribution. It should not be a problem.

21. Computer Education: We visited Shivaji Vidya Mandir, Kalshe (secondary school with 340 students). The computer is in place and they have sent one teacher for basic computer training. The course for students will commence after his return. I was told that one more school, Sarbhal English School has been provided with the computer.

1. I feel that the logistics should be deliberately worked out to optimize the utility of van and target audience. It should not be restricted to 8th, 9th & 10th particularly where the program is not textbook based. Let the van reach out to society at their doorstep. I gave my views to Mr. Vartak and he too is on the same grid.

2. The aim is to evoke interest and inculcate an inquiring mind. The issues that may require thinking are

• How to maintain the student's interest?
• How to ensure that the novelty does not wear off in both students and teachers?
• How to encourage teachers participation in the program?
• One student said "give me the book and science kit & I can do this at home": why not? He will come back with more ideas. How about developing hobby club to encourage such students?

I am not going in to details of other activities planned by Vasundhara independent of daily 'Science on wheels' curriculum. In short, these are:

- Setting up of Science center in the District (But not on the lines of those in Mumbai and Nagpur as reported in your feed back but based on issues.) This is a separate project requiring space, capital and educational material.
- Science education students for 10th students for the national Science talent examination.
- Development of basic science skills.
- Wksp for teachers & science camp students.
- Science films & experiments for 8-10th students.
- Basic computer training in 2 schools.
- Exhibitions on subjects like personal hygiene, public health, environment and conduct of basic science experiments for village students.
- Sponsor students from poor families for automobile/electronic engg. diploma.

Comments. Perpetual Science Workshop, Discovery Workshop for teachers, District Students science. These are basically categorization of various activities pertaining to training through posters, feed back questionnaires, teachers involvement in furtheri ng the concept, summer camps. I cannot comment on their utility value at this since these are still in formative/conceptual stage.

22. Problem Areas is as follows:

• The major issue is teacher's approach towards students & lack of infrastructure facilities in learning of science, mathematics, geography, environment etc.
• All these subjects are taught in very routine way & no real learning takes place.
• Some of the schools in his work area are supported by zilla parishads which provide grants for various school activities and some are supported by private agencies. The government grants are supposed to cover various School expenses, such as salaries, administrative costs, and of course science labs (since the lab is part of curriculum).
• In reality, what happens is that either (1) these grants are not sufficient, or (2) since overall funds are somewhat scarce, so the lab funds are utilized for other necessary activities (not to be interpreted in a wrong way), or (3) the labs/equipment are there but completely ignored or Which essentially means there is no interest among the teachers/school administrators to conduct these labs. Thus, this mobile lab is more of an encouragement/motivation/impetus to the schoolteachers to something open up the dusty labs/equipment and use them. You could interpret it as a success measure. In slightly long run, these Schools should wake up and act on their own; which is also a success Measure. Vasundhara, within its limitations, is trying to improve the situation by training the teachers & developing a new vision amongst the students.