Nutanhat update (Joydeep):

July 21st, 2002

We gave $950 per year for 2 years (2000 and 2001). Again associated with J.K.Mahato. Site visits done by Milan K. Dhinda (professional social worker) and by Joydeep (See earlier discussions).

Alka: These are not the poorest kids since they pay Rs. 40 to go to school.

Joydeep: Yes, the poorest kids don't even go to school but work in brick kilns. I did mention this and in response, they sent another 2 proposals. First one was to build a boundary wall and a 2nd floor for the existing school. We discarded this one 'cos of infrastructure costs. Second proposal is now being discussed.

Second proposal is for volunteers to go to the poorest (labourer) children and impart some education to them.  They want to start in 10 NFE centers. They have similar experience from the Purulia district.
This has to be different from the school for the better-off children because they are in a different set of circumstances (for instance, they cannot go to school in regular hours).

Q from earlier discussion: Can kids study through these media and then move on to English medium schools?
A: Not known yet.

Q: Can we get attendance for these sessions?
A: Yes, but we don't have it yet.

Q: There are 10 schools. Why so many? Why not start small?
A: This was written to them, but they haven't answered yet.

We found that we were comfortable funding 2 centers as long as they answered all our questions. Mahato had a negative opinion of the administrators because he thought they were always after money. We
have only funded the teachers however, and Joydeep found that those teachers indeed existed and were being paid.

Alka: If we're funding teachers, where are the students' fees going?
Joydeep: Mostly towards infrastructure maintenance. We are still waiting on updates on our questions and
will finally consider it when we have answers to all of them.

Q1: Question on honorarium for administrators/coordinators.

Nutanhat (Sept. 23, 01)

Joydeep gave a description of his site visit to Nutanhat again. There were

two main issues that had come out of that site visit

- The school was running a English medium school and charging each student

Rs. 100 per month to attend this school and they had a Bengali medium school

for which they were charging each student Rs. 40 per month. This was never

brought to Asha's attention. Joydeep had felt that the people running

Nutanhat were not very forthcoming in declaring this situation

- The treatment of the cleaner of the school who herself was a school going

age girl. She was treated badly by the school headmaster in front of

Joydeep for not keeping the school clean. We had an issue why she was not

in school.

These issues was discussed in an earlier meeting and Melli and Joydeep had

composed a letter to Nutanhat for which we got a reply. We discussed this

reply in this meeting. The organisers of Nutanhat replied that the two tier

system was put up to satisfy the request of the parents in that area. They

also feel it is not such a good idea and they mentioned that they revert

back to Bengali medium only school. There was some confusion regarding Renu

(the girl working for the school). Joydeep was under the impression, by

talking to the girl herself, that she could not afford to go to school. But

the organizers have replied saying that under the instance of her parents

she was let to work in the school so that she find enough motivation to get

educated.

A healthy discussion pursued on the culture of respect to others that these

schools should encourage through the behaviour of the teachers themselves as

an example. Also there were questions of what cultural norms should Asha

impose on their projects.

At the end of the discussion a vote was held for sending the second

installment to Nutanhat. 8 voted in favour, 1 voted against and 3 absained.

http://www.mail-archive.com/asha-strategy%40mit.edu/msg02424.html

Melli's email letter to Nutanhat regarding issues rasied in previous meeting, and their response

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Nutanhat Project - Joydeep (March 25th, 2001)

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Located in West Bengal, district Bordhaman. Joydeep made a site visit, and has his observations to discuss.

He (Joydeep) was picked up in a TATA Sumo from Calcutta. The school is not located in an urban area, but some 5 hour drive from Calcutta. The place used to be a barren piece of land, donated by the locals. Indo - German society donations helped construct a school in that area.

Nutanhat came to know of ASHA from SLADS, whom we have a relationship with.

One of the coordinators has studied social work, and acts as the liaison with foreign donors. Indo German society has been funding this society for a few years. As Nutanhat has 2 sites where they are doing work, Indo - German society funded the organization for a vehicle. It seemed the car was being used extensively for personal usage, though gasoline / petrol expenses were being paid by the individual users, as opposed to funding money.

With the funding from the Indo German society, Nutanhat did construct the school on the land provided to them from the locals of the area. For funding the teacher's salary, Nutanhat approached ASHA.

The school has 4 classes, kg - 4. ASHA pays teachers salary, and agreed to fund $2000 annually. $950 was paid in July, next installment due now. Expense report is needed from them prior to payment of 2nd installment.

There are 12 teachers, each receiving Rs. 1000. Joydeep got the opportunity to talk to teachers / parents / children. The children did seem to be learning, and interested in the school.

The teachers / administrators / parents requested extending the building to a 2nd floor, for additional classes, i.e. 5 - 8th. Other parents asked for constructing boundaries around the school... reason for this given was that students would not get distracted when people pass around. The parents did seem interested in the school functioning / performance. They sent their children to this school instead of the free government schools in the neighborhood.

Joydeep realized that the school was divided into 2 group of students. There was a morning group of 40 students taught in Bengali, and another group of 60 afternoon students taught in English. The same teachers would cater to both groups of students. The children being taught in Bengali were required to pay Rs. 40 and the children taught in English were paying Rs. 100. Thus, this implies difference in social standing led to difference in education. The poorer ones were not being given the education in English, because they were not able to afford the amount / or may not agree to the benefits of an education in an English medium school. The parents paying Rs. 40 are yet not the poorest in the community. It should be noted, that this difference is due to the present social scenario in the community.

Some parents had demanded education in English, and were willing to pay the higher cost. The extra cost was accounted for books / teaching material needed for the children.

Upon observing the clothing of the children, one could see the difference in living standards between the poorer, and better off children. Similarly, the poorer parents would sit on the floor, while the ones affording the Rs. 100 education would sit on chairs, when sitting in a group during the discussion with Joydeep. The coordinators may have catered to the social difference in society, but this is just a result of having some people able to pay more for education. The benefit of an English education is well understood; Nutanhat was able to coordinate this effort with the additional fees received from the parents (i.e. paying Rs. 100 as opposed to Rs. 40).

The school is a few years old. The administrators were requesting for an additional floor / more money to be spent in improvement.

Joydeep suggested to consider local efforts / contributions / involvement to improve the funding / running of the school. The administrators did not seem willing to pressure the panchayat / politicians about infrastructure needs in the locality, and were asking ASHA to fund them, eg. roads.

Upon rejecting the idea of getting involved in non education related issues, Nutanhat mentioned the idea of a night school for children of bonded laborers, who cannot come during the day. Joydeep suggested providing a new proposal for this.

Long-term sustainability of school has not been given much thought. Further independent progress has not been considered either. Administrators seemed to have access to other donations. No initiative / driving forces to learn on their own.

ASHA - St. Louis also funded Nutanhat, and we were not aware of this, till mentioned during Joydeep's visit.

Rajesh mentioned than a generation of NGO's seem to follow the philosophy of processing donation money received from foreign organizations. i.e. being dependent upon donations, and helping the community with the funds.

Nutanhat is following the same philosophy of being dependent on foreign donations. It is time for them to consider becoming self reliant, generating income to pay for running school in the locality.

The people in the locality seemed to follow the philosophy that it was the duty of ASHA and other funding organization to take care of the expenses of the school.

Further, in the original proposal, Nutanhat had only indicated charging the children Rs. 40, and did not mention having two group of students, and teaching them differently.

It was mentioned that ASHA is trying to break the social barriers, whereas this school seemed to be reimposing, and accepting the social differences between children. ASHA should not keep relations which such organizations. ASHA should work for breaking such barriers in society.

On the other hand, it could be perceived as the current social scenario in the society. As opposed to being upset on this condition, maybe we can try to help them understand our perspective, and help them change.

Other observations Joydeep made, the poorest children of that region were not able to afford education, as they were required to work and earn.

It was brought up that if the English medium school helps pay for the Bengali medium school, this may be the case of reinvesting the earnings. But numbers did not show this to be the case, and ASHA is paying for the teacher's salaries, and thus is not the case.

The question arose as to what should be done with the next installment that is due now. There did seem to be a general feeling that we are not satisfied with how this organization is being run. Nevertheless, not providing them the needed money would affect the teacher's salaries, and the thus the children education. Is this appropriate?

Also realizing that we have not received an expense report from them, what should ASHA Boston do next?

Joydeep did provide names of other people / NGO's in the neighborhood that Nutanhat could get in touch with. Melli has provided them with a project outline format.

If we continue funding them, it will be that we are accepting their philosophy of imposing different social standards on children. If we do not fund them, the children may suffer, as they may not get any education. Rajesh mentioned that if we fund them, then we are loosing on funding another bunch of children who may better benefit from the funding.

If we were given the proposal with different structures in schooling, we may not have funded them. At this time, they are depending on our funds. Without enough notice it may not be appropriate to cut off the funding. Further, we should give them feedback to let them understand our issues with the current school structure / organization. Give them the opportunity to explain / change. Then we may consider either funding them or not. How important is our funding for running the school? Joydeep will find out.

A vote was taken on this, whether we wanted to give Nutanhat an opportunity to explain themselves, or be willing to change their school structure.

YES - 10

NO - 2

Abstain - 3

Joydeep will get in touch with Nutanhat, provide our perspective on the school, learn about their long-term perspective. We should try to guide them if we can, but if they are not willing, then we should not fund them any further. Thus, upon receiving an expense report, and a response to our issues, this may be discussed again.

As ASHA St Louis has also funded this organization, Joydeep will provide them with his site visit report, and discuss his observations, as needed.