Projects meeting on March 13, 2005.
Attendees: Melli, Parthiv, Amy, Alka, Bijay, Sreenivas

Support for NIAS for CRC and BRC centers

Background: Viveka Asha Yojane (works on improving govt. schools)

1)	Background – Karnataka govt., Chamrajnagar district (poorest dist. In S. Karnataka. N. Karn. is poorer). 

2)	Some stats:

a)	Karnataka school #’s 45,000 primary (to 4 grade), 2,000 high (8-10).  (System indirectly set up so that not all will get to HS)
b)	90% of budget – teachers & staff salaray. Hence, adopt a school program, 2yr commitment.  Donors signed MOU w/govt.
c)	Children go to primary, but going to middle, & HS is often more difficult (i.e., distances) which leads to dropouts.

3)	Viveka Asha Yojane started 3 yrs. Ago.  Details are on the wbebsite.  It is coordinated by Mr. Jayadev.

4)	Mr. Jayadev’s background: he is the coordinator of Deenabandhu children’s home (orphans, single parent, juvenile delinquents).  Mr. Jaydev is coord.  He was interested in this, and signed an MOU (on behalf of Asha), and adopted 75 schools (V.A.Y. signed w/govt. of Karn.) in Cham. District.
a)	Deliberately chose “remote” schools

5)	Improvement of State Ed. In Govt. Schools.
a)	V.A.Y intervention has mostly been teacher training
i)	Melli’s visit – teacher’s eager in asking questions, but often content issues (mirror/lens anecdote) Refer to site visit dated Aug. 2004
ii)	Teachers have no access to good books/material
b)	Some infrastructure improvement through community involvement

6)	NIAS – Natl. Instl of Advanced Studies (Educationists – Dr. Vasavi, EdD, Dr. Padma)
a)	Focus on Teaching Methods (as opposed to content)
b)	Picked Chamrajnagar to work w/ a poor district
c)	Contacted Mr. Jaydev due to his involvement. 
d)	NIAS paid the same social workers Rs. 6000/mo (they have moved on from our payroll).  Dr. Jaydev had to find new social workers.
7)	NIAS did a study to understand the situation in Ch.nagar govt. schools – govt. school teachers generally better educated than private, but student performance is generally opposite trend
a)	Alka’s anecdote about how teaching in a govt. school means teacher’s effort matters more because students have less reinforcement from home, etc.
8)	DIET- District Institute of  Educational Training (started in 1995)
9)	DPEP –  District Primary Education Program- govt. run parallel org. (funded by World bank, etc.) – (Training in techniques to complement DIET???)
a)	BRC – Block Resource Centers
i)	BRP – Block resource person.
b)	CRC – Clusters Resource Centers (infrastructure to serve 12-30 schools)
i)	CRP – Job title.  Not teachers when in this role, but former teachers?  Represents a promotion for teachers. Q: Who funds this salary?
10)	NIAS wants to improve BRCs CRCs in Kollegal.  Support requested is for material for the structures built as part of the DPEP program.  The structures (buildings) have been built but not used.  Some painting/cleaning might be necessary, and material (books, learning material, lab equipment, material for CRPs and BRPs to understand their role, etc.) has to be placed there.   Refer to NIAS proposal document for details.
11)	Questions to be asked of NIAS at the end of the meeting:
a)	What is the existing teaching materials & physical infrastructure at the CRCs and BRCs?   From your proposal we understand that a building with poor insfrastructure was all that was completed.   Was there any material at all, as part of the DPEP progam, and if so what was the material?  
b)	How many CRCs/BRCs do you plan to work with?
c)	Do the CRCs span primary, middle and high schools?
d)	Who support’s a CRP’s and a BRP’s salary?  Is it the government?
e)	Where will the materials be acquired from?   Are there enough materials in Kannada (in other projects we have found that it can be difficult to get materials in the local language)
f)	Who are the resource people who will train the CRPs (in other projects it has often been hard to get good experts who can teach/train in the local language) ?  What are the their qualifications?
g)	What is the role of DIET vs. DPEP?  Who are the Kannada speaking resource persons for DIET?  What are there qualifications?  (this is for our learning)
h)	We will request Ram (Asha-Bangalore) volunteer to take a look at some of the material so that we can understand them better (including the CRP handbook, etc.), again this is for our learning
i)	Does NIAS have access to CIET materials that Alka described?  Are they in Kannada, otherwise can they be translated (dubbed for video material) into Kannada? 
12)	Sreenivas will help with proj. coordination & helping w/this project.
13)	Vote – Should we fund this concept to some degree?  If yes, level of funding will be contingent upon responses to the questions from this meeting.
a)	5 – Yes,  1 – Abstain
b)	Shoot for next meeting on April 10th so that same volunteers are in attendance.
c)	Discussion will continue on strategy.