Dear Maithreyi:

Sorry for the late replies, I was able to check mails only today. I was running around from one school to another meeting the teachers and collecting data. I have had a very positive response from the teachers. They are all very interested in the programme and are looking forward for the new academic year, when we will be working together. Summer vacations for the government schools start from 24^th April and the new session begins from 11^th June. I am sending the answers as an attachment file in Word format. The school data is in another file in Excel format.

Ravi.

Let me answer the backlog questions first (Q 3,6 and 9).

I am sending the details of 15 schools as an attachment (Excel format).

The information provided pertains to the present academic year. In June there will new be enrolments. Apart from this I need to include children who are not on the roles. I have not done this survey yet.

I will start work with 10 schools right now. Work in the remaining 5 schools will begin from August. I feel that I need 2 months time to ground myself and get used to the working situation. From August onwards I will be working with 15 schools.

Most of the schools have two teachers. The intention of selecting schools with two teachers is that, we can work from both ends, i.e., children in 15 schools will benefit from our intervention and also a good number of teachers are exposed to a different kind of teaching method.

As mentioned earlier all these 15 schools are government rural Primary Schools. Primary schools are from class 1 to class 5.

The teacher child ratio according to the present data is more than 1:30. The major problem here is that a teacher has to handle more than one class at a time. The typical situation in such a circumstance is that, the teacher lets the children out or asks the class leader to keep the children quiet, both of which do not contribute to fruitful learning. Here the method of Multi-grade teaching becomes very relevant, Where the teacher is able to work with more than one class at a time.

The feed back I get from teachers in my preliminary discussions is very encouraging. They are open to new ideas and they were very happy when I told them about introducing art and craft, getting children to do science experiments in their schools. Till now they do not have any such activity at all. If there is a need, may be we can together devise a questionnaire to assess their motivation.

My work will involve both the teachers and children. My primary task will be to transfer skills to teachers particularly in handling multi grade teaching. My work with children will enable me to demonstrate methods of multi grade teaching. This is why I am intending to develop a resource school. This school will be linked up with 30 teachers and more than 900 children in my target area.

On an average a teacher who has worked for about ten years gets around 7000 plus other benefits.

9. Can you tell us why these materials will incur a cost of 5000 per month?

Let us assume that we spend 3000 for art and craft material.

Art and craft material includes paint, crayons, colour pencils, colour paper, glue, scissors, wool, cloth etc.,

We will be working with more than 900 children, I am sure the teachers would want to do art and craft as well. Taking into consideration minimal wasteage let us say 1000 people will be using this material. That works out to 3 per child per month. Sure this is very little but we will have to collect locally available low-cost (waste material from tailors, printing press, potters for clay, etc.,) material to supplement our needs.

That leaves us with 2000 for learning material.

Stationary required for making learning material includes paper, card, paints, felt pens, glue, laminating sheet, books, envelopes, boxes, scissors, cutters, cellotape, photo copying charges, etc.,.
Each school will be spending around 130 per month. And most of the learning material made can be used for many months so, this become an asset for the school. Learning material includes flash cards, work cards, matching cards, pellumnism cards, etc.,

Now let me see if I can answer your new questions:

Regarding the 8000, I consider it as my living expenses. I can include my travel and communication expenses within this 8000. In that case we can say 7000 will be my living expenses 1000 is for travel and communication expenses.

Regarding the 5000, I have tried explain it in Q.9. At this stage may be it is not possible for me to tell you exactly how much I am going to spend on each item. I will keep detailed accounts and bills for the 5000 I spend. These details could be sent to you monthly.

Regarding the computer and reference software mentioned in the application form, it is not included in the 8000 nor 5000. It expected as gift from ASHA volunteers. The teachers will use this to update their knowledge and equip them in their teaching skills. The computer will be very useful in preparing learning material for the schools. The best reference material a resource centre can have is a very well equipped library, which will be very expensive initially. Therefore, reference software could be the other alternative. Regarding this I had a discussion with Jayashree at Chengalpattu Conference.

The Resource Centre (Resource School) mentioned in the application form will be located in a central place so that the teachers can have access to it. The Resource Centre will also function as a school for the nearby village children. According to my plan the Resource Centre cum School should happen in the second year. Still there is some time to think about this. I will get back to you about the Centre later.

Whatever learning material made will be used for multi-grade teaching. All the schools will need learning material.

None of these schools provide midday meals for the children.

I will work with 10 schools right now and then expand to 15 schools by August.

I suggest that, even for June and July you should send 5000 per month. Since, in the initial stages there will be more expenses.

Yes, this should not be a problem.

Looking forward to your reply.

Ravi.