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Below are our chapter’s questions from=
the
6 March 2005 projects meeting and Dr. Balu’s email responses.
*Additional comments/informa=
tion
from teleconference on 9 April 2005 (Attendees: Melli, Amy, Parthiv, Dr.
Balasubramaniam) are in red italics.
Dear Parthiv/Amy,
=
This is regarding some of the
questions that you had. I have tried to provide as much clarification=
s as
possible. do mail me if you need any furth=
er
information. The head of our Inst. based education programs is curren=
tly
on Sabbatical and will be back on the 1st of May 05. She is Malathi a=
nd
can be reached at hdm_mysore@yaho=
o.com
after this date. She will be the nodal person for the tribal school f=
rom
then onwards.
=
=
(1) &n=
bsp;
We no=
ticed
that in the past year girls’ enrollment has dropped by about 10%. Is there a specific reason that
girls’ enrollment is dropping?
=
We are
also concerned about this. We are yet to identify the exact reason fo=
r the
same and this is not a trend seen over the years. OVer the years,
admission to girl children was steadily increasing. This aberration i=
s a
matter of concern for us too. We are planning a strategy session in t=
he
month of may to address this issue and plan on
different approaches to address the same.
=
Around
the onset of menarche (13-14 years or grades 7-10), some girls who return h=
ome
for their school holidays often partner with another boy (usually older than
them) and begin to live together and don’t return to school. This is often culturally accepted =
by the
tribal community, i.e., parents don’t necessarily discourage this.
=
(2) &n=
bsp;
It ap=
pears
that in your last batch of class X students, girls’ pass rates were l=
ower
than boys’. Do you beli=
eve
there is any specific reason for this?
This has been the case over the last few years. All thru,
the girls have not been performing as well as the boys. We feel not
having lady teachers at the high school level could be a contributing
cause. We are now trying our best to recruit adequate lady teachers as
and when vacancies arise.
=
Girls
seem to have satisfactory performance in the elementary grades, but begin to
have problems in the middle school and high school grades. The elementary grades don’t
participate in formal examinations in the way upper grades do. The absence of lady teachers at th=
e high
school level is one hypothesis that came out of interactions between girl
students and a counselor, but this is an ongoing question that may require
further discussion with the teachers.
In May there will be a large meeting (when the new school director, =
Ms.
Malathi returns from her advanced training sabbatical) of school staff and =
some
outside professors (?) and this issue will be discussed further.
(3) &n=
bsp;
From =
the
VCTL goal statement we know that you care deeply about the value of
girls’ education. Can o=
ur
chapter do anything to support girls’ education directly vis-à=
-vis
questions (1) and (2)?=
One area of support could be =
to
start awareness generation activities amongst parents and the general commu=
nity
about the need for girl's education. Other areas of support could be =
to
provide some non-cash incentives to girl children performing well. (<=
span
class=3DGramE>we need to brainstorm on this and get back to you)
One idea that is being looked into is to have one or two
tribal graduates of the school do some community outreach to further establ=
ish
links between the school and community and to raise awareness about the
importance of remaining in school through class X and not becoming involved=
in
male/female partnerships at such an early age. Dr. Balu will send us the anticipa=
ted
costs associated with this pilot program, and our
chapter can discuss it.
=
(4) &n=
bsp;
What =
is
next step for kids after passing? Do they want to leave their area? Can they be entrepreneurs locally?=
Does the community have its own id=
eas
about what students can do after they have graduated? As we are new project
stewards, perhaps you could also describe the local economy to us.
=
This is a question that we are constantly asking and trying to
address. WE do have strong li=
nkages
with children who have graduated from the school. We encourage them to pursue the fu=
rther
education in H D Kote town,
=
(5) &n=
bsp;
Melli
mentioned to us that some students have had a challenging time upon finishi=
ng
their studies and leaving their homes to enter college. Can you provide us a description o=
f the
experience of those students who have gone on college? Where did they go and what was it =
like
for some of them?
Students were admitted to
=
(6) &n=
bsp;
What =
type
of vocational training do the students receive? What has happened as a result of a=
ny
vocational training? Have any
students gotten jobs from this, and are they able to transition into life a=
fter
school?
Vocational training is in subjects like horticulture, drawing =
and
painting, computer and office automation, tailoring, pottery and sculpture,
dress designing, carpentry etc. they are all being presently trained in
specialised instns and are yet to graduate to the extent of finding jobs.&n=
bsp;
Only one student with trainign in painting is now self employed and earning=
a
decent livelihood.
=
(7) &n=
bsp;
We
understand you have a very nice library at VCTL. One Asha volunteer mention=
ed
that the Tulika group, www.tulikabooks.com, (publis=
hers
whose books have been used in other Asha projects) has Kannada/English
children’s books. Are y=
ou
familiar with Tulika, and could VCTL benefit from these types of
children’s books? If yo=
u know
of them, what do you think about their books in terms of content and
pricing? We can bring it up a=
s a
discussion item at one of our meetings if you feel these types of books may
benefit VCTL.
WE do have a good
library facility. We need more info regarding the tulika books. =
I
shall get more info about this, talk to our VTCL team and revert back to yo=
u in
mid-may after our strategy meet.
--------------------=
---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
------------
Dr.
Balu has requested information on learning standards for each grade in the =
US,
with the intention of developing locally, contextually-relevant standards to
the VCTL school.
He is also interested in evaluation of teachers in the
As
English is taught in the schools, Dr. Balu mentioned that volunteers intere=
sted
in teaching English during a 8-12-week stay woul=
d be
welcomed. Past foreign visito=
rs
could be contacted to learn more about their experiences there.
In
the past, SVYM had a sister school in the