Site visit by: Deepak Azad - deepakazad@gmail.com ________ This visit focused on one of the schools that TTF has proposed the TSA program for - HBP Indian School. The idea is to understand 'affordable private schools' better. ________ I visited this school this morning. I was accompanied by Prakash and Padma from TTF to this school. Here is what I learned, let me know if you have any questions, I may have missed some info here... HBP Indian School History Established in 1854! :) It was originally known as “Hindu Balika Patshala” (or something like that) i.e. it was initially a girls school. It became coed in 1930s. In early 90’s the school had a total of about 1000 students in classes 1-10 with Tamil, Kannada, Telgu and English (roughly in this order in terms of student strength) being the medium of instruction. Few years back English became the only medium of instruction. Current numbers - About 400 students in classes 1-10. In addition there are some students in kindergarten. - Rs 2500-3000 is the annual fees. The total amount has to be paid once per year, as opposed to monthly payments. - There are 16 teachers. Few (3-4) are funded by the govt, rest are paid for by the school board. - The starting salary of a teacher is Rs 3000. To put this in perspective I pay Rs 1300 to the maid, and this is what she earns from just one house. The salary for the teachers funded by government is a bit higher. - The teachers are all graduates, but except for one or two do not have any teacher training. - There are about 25-35 students in each class. - The school follows the curriculum prescribed by the state board. TTF and the school This school has been a ‘control’ school for TTF for the past 2 years. Some teachers also interact with TTF once a month for a 2-3 hour session. The community Most of the students in the school are from a nearby area, though the school head mentioned that some come from far off places as well – as much as 10 km or more. These kids use the BMTC (Bangalore Muncipal Transport Corporation) buses to commute to school and back. These are middle school or even primary school students. (This is something I have noticed in Bangalore, very very young kids taking public transport to commute to school, generally there is no adult accompanying them). Being a very old school, almost everyone knows someone who has studied at the school. For example the grandmother of an ex school head had studied in this school :). Some of the current teachers have studied at this school. I am not too sure about the background of students’ families. The principal said that most of them have single parents and generally it is the mother who takes care of the family. But this statement did not sound too convincing to me. (Please also refer to ‘the students’ part below) The school board Luckily, I met with the President of the school board as well. He is a retired old man and got involved with the school only after his retirement; his father was also on the school board and stayed very near to the school. His main motive of working with the school is to try and improve the quality of education, he has seen days – early 90s and before – when the quality of education at the school was much better. To quote him “We (the school board) want to provide the same education as Bishop Cotton but at a much lesser price”. The school principal She started as a teacher in this school in 1972! :) Overall both the president and the principal came across as quite sincere in wanting to improve the quality of education at the school. The students The students were well dressed and well behaved in general. I spent about 15-20 minutes in a 5th standard classroom while the teacher was doing some revision for the upcoming exam. Most students could perform the tasks the teacher was asking them. I have seen much worse in MCD schools in Delhi. Even Prakash and Padma admitted that this school is among the better ones that they work with. School infrastructure It has a - Library - Science lab - Computer room - about 15 computers in goodish condition, all of them donated to the school e.g. by Rotary club - A decent sized playground – I have seen some other schools in Bangalore with no playgrounds at all. Overall, the infrastructure at the school is not bad (see: photos)