Yearly Information Survey

 

Please attach additional sheets wherever necessary. Thank you for your time and patience.

Organization Profile

 

Name of the organization:

                                    DIGANTAR SHIKSHA EVEM KHELKUD SAMITI

Date of establishment :  March, 1987

Location :                       Todi Ramjanipura, Jagatpura, Jaipur – 302 017, INDIA.

Description of area:         Outskirts of Jaipur. When Digantar came here in 1989 it was a rural area, now fast urbanising rural area. Majority of inhabitants (about 70%) are minority community, remaining scheduled casts and scheduled tribes.

Current  contact person  Rohit Dhankar and Reena Das

Current Address           Digantar, Todi Ramjanipura, Jagatpura, Jaipur – 302 017, INDIA

                                     

Current Phone number__________________________________   91-141-570 310, 91-141- 570 230

Current number of children:     485 from July 1999 to March 2000. Then 55 children took fifth standard examination, in April and May 435. From July 2000 the number is 496.

 

Current Girl/Boy ratio:   Girls – 240; Boys – 256; Total – 496.  Girl- boy ratio 48:52.

 

Current Teacher/student ratio:     The teacher/student ration is maintained at 1:20. This ratio is disturbed only when a teacher leaves without notice, then the new teacher is appointed immediately but starts teaching after completing a four month training course.                                  

 

Over all school attendence percentage:    Attendence percentage during the last academic session was 82%.

 

Medium of instruction:   Initially the children’s mother tongue (Dhundhari – local language, very close to Hindi), then gradually (in about 2 years) the medium of instruction becomes Hindi.

 

Details on School curriculum (please attach additional sheets if necessary): 

The following details of the school curriculum should be seen in the light of our understanding of education given very briefly in Appendix – 1.

A)    The school subjects and activities at the primary level:

1.       Cleaning and arranging the school and classrooms: Everyone at the school, teachers as well as children spend the first 15 minutes of the day in cleaning the classrooms and schools in general. This involves sweeping floor, cleaning toilets, cleaning drinking water vessels and refilling them, watering plants (very few), dusting classrooms, arranging the teaching/learning material and so on. In addition to keeping the school clean and in working order this collective session of cleaning also emphasizes responsibility and importance of manual work. Since everyone including the teachers do all the chores by taking turns it establishes equality as well. Being responsible for the school generates a feeling of ownership for the school among the children.

2.       Assembly: Next 35 minutes after the cleaning are spent in assembly. We do not have enough space for all the children to sit together in the assembly, therefore, groups of about sixty children and three teachers have their separate assemblies. Last year (July 1999 – May 2000) we had singing twice a week, play acting by teachers once a week, play acting by children once a week and out-doors play once a week in the assembly time. Singing together, play acting and playing are important to develop fellow feelings, learn coordination with others, learning to listen to others, develop aesthetic sense and general cooperation.

3. Hindi Language: (Rest of the school time is divided into six periods of 40 minutes each. The account of the school subjects and timetable from here onwards is not necessarily in the order of description.) Teaching of Hindi language is given one period o 40 minutes every day. Language is considered to be the basis of human thought and intentional action. It is much more than just the means of communication. It is the first necessary condition for organisation of experience to codify it into knowledge. Therefore, the emphasis remains on the child’s understanding and articulation.
4. Mathematics: Mathematics is given 50 minutes every day. The idea is to help children understand quantities, spaces and numbers and their use in making sense of the world around. Mathematics teaching is seen as an opportunity to develop abstract thinking, reasoning, use of notations and precision of language in addition to numbers an calculations for daily use.
5. Environmental Studies: EVS is given 40 minutes each. It is a bunch of areas of study that includes sciences, social sciences, history and geography. The aim in EVS teaching is not to stuff children’s minds with information, but it is to enable them to use different ways of knowledge formation which form the basis of human understanding. When children start reading and writing the first five booklets (about 30 pages each) they work with are designed to help them organise, question, verify and sort out their own information and beliefs. Then they are taken on a path of active investigation in the areas of science etc. in order to introduce the specific methodology in investigation and truth criteria of the subject area concerned.
6. Arts and handicrafts: Two periods of 40 minutes (combined into a chunk of time, 80 minutes) are given every day to arts and handicrafts. Arts include fine-arts (drawing, painting, clay modelling etc.), performing arts (dancing, singing) and literature (mostly in the form of creative writing and poetry). The idea is to develop aesthetic sense and ability to learn skills with confidence and speed.
7. English Language: English is taught as second language at Digantar. Teaching of English begins with oral work. Reading and writing in English is started when children can read an write in Hindi. That is to avoid confusion and pressure of simultaneously learning two scripts.

 

Please describe the long term goals of the project. Please mention any changes you may foresee:

Goals of the project as mentioned in the proposal for funding are as following:

1.      To develop a suitable model of elementary (equivalent to standard VIII) school for rural areas which

a) contributes to the improvement of quality of education in terms of academic standards and relevance of education to life,

b) can solve the problem of low enrolment and high drop-out rates in rural areas, specially amongst the girl children, and

c) can contribute to the development of alternative pedagogy.

2. To develop a suitable curriculum schema for elementary education that has the following features:

            a) builds upon the child’s existing understanding and skills,

            b) takes into account the local reality

c) helps the child become an independent learner, thinker and actor by fostering the spirit of enquiry and independent decision making,

d) helps the child become sensitive to other human beings and environment around her/him which in turn should help her develop a responsible moral code for herself.

3.      To develop suitable material and pedagogy for upper primary classes based on the basic principles of curriculum listed in objective 2 above and basic features of critical pedagogy.

4.      To develop a method/system of learner evaluation suitable for the aforementioned curriculum and pedagogy

5.      To improve upon the existing levels of peoples participation in the programme.

The proposed specific objectives or targets of the project:

1.      To increase the number of children under the programme from existing 300 to 500 at primary level.

2.      To create facilities for upper primary education for about 40 new children each year.

3.      To develop a complete package (curriculum, teaching/learning material, teacher guides, training material etc.) for alternative elementary education (equivalent to class VIII) in five year.

 

At present these schools are very important for the surrounding villages. Most of the five hundred children studying in these schools would have remained uneducated but for these schools. Most of the girls will stop going to school if these schools are closed.

 

Insights gained through this programme are widely used in programmes run by the NGOs as well as by the government. Digantar is able to provide resource support because the Alternative Elementary Education Project provides opportunities to explore and experiment with new ideas and much needed practical practical experiences for staff development.

 

How much longer is funding required :  Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, is funding the project till March 31, 2002. The additional help ASHA is providing will be used to augment teacher’ salary. This additional help is needed till 2002. We will need to find a funder who can support the entire programme from April 2002 onwards. The schools can not be closed own as that will further deprive the children from this area.

Current expenditure details:

Current total income of your project and details of funds from other sources.

 

Details of the Alternative Elementary Education Project are given in the previous column. The project is funded by the Ministry of HRD. Deficit will be born by Digantar Samiti. If what is meant in this column is total budget of Digantar the summary is given below:

Project or activity	App. budget	Funded by
1. Alternative Elementary Edu. Project	25,05,000	Ministry of HRD, deficit to be met by Digantar though funds generated by working for other agencies.
2. Activities of The Academic Resource Unit (TARU)	15,00,000 This amount can vary ad more activities may come	NGOs and agencies who use the services of TARU (training, material development, workshops etc.)
3. Central account of the Samiti	1,90,000	Funds generated through consultancy work.
Total	41,95,000

 

Percentage of funds being sponsored by Asha.

If we calculate at the rate of Rs. 43 per 1 $,  $3000= Rs. 3000x43= Rs. 129,000.

Percentage of Alt. Ele. Edu. Programme budget     5.15%

Percentage of total Digantar budget                       3.07%

 

Description of current school facilities (building, equipment etc)

 

Digantar is running three schools. A brief account of facilities in each school is given below:

1. Digantar Shala, Todi: This school is situated in the campus. Has about 60 children and adequate facility. There are two classrooms for children. Each classroom has adequate space for storage of material. Individual places or children in shelve. Enough display space on the walls. Rooms are well ventilated. The school has a carpentry and clay room,  teachers’ (or all the Digantar teachers) room, Central library of the organisation. Has adequate toilets and drinking water facilities. The playground out side has a slide and  a swing, both are rather old by now (about 25 years) and need to be replaces. Teaching learning material is all low cost and made at Digantar.
2. Digantar Shala, Ratwali: Situated about 1.5 km from the campus. Has 120 children. The school has two class rooms, two more are being built currently. Has drinking water facility in terms of a hand-pump. No slides and swings etc., teaching learning material made by teachers.
3. Digantar Shala, Bandhyali: situated about 6 km from the campus, in the middle of several helmets. Has about 320 children. Also houses the Upper Primary Programme. Has 11 class rooms, one clay and carpentry shade, teachers room/library, cycle stand. Drinking water facility in terms of a hand-pump. Teaching learning material is all made by the teachers.

 

Describe the potential improvements required in facilities

There is a lot of room or improvement and certain improvements are urgently needed. I am describing only the second category:

1. Digantar Shala, Todi: Roof of the clay and carpentry room and of the teachers room need urgent redoing. Slide and swing for the children need replacement. Carpentry workshop needs a bit more equipment.
2. Digantar Shala, Ratwali: Requires one room for carpentry and clay. Carpentry workshop equipment. One room as teachers workroom. Play equipment for children.
3. Digantar Shala, Bandhyali: Needs at the least 5-6 additional rooms. The present building is what we call a ‘kachcha’ building, will not stand for more than two years. Even for that the roof needs replacement urgently. We also need some money for additional land for this school. Clay carpentry workshop needs equipment and a science laboratory is urgently needed.

 

What are the perceived improvements seen for the last year?

If the question is related to the last one: Plastering of the walls of the teachers room in Todi Shala, two rooms built in the Ratwali Shala, two more are under construction. A cycle stand is built and part of the thatched roof was replaced in Bandhyali.

If by improvement here you mean general improvement: Three new schemes were started in the schools. Connected with art teaching, English teaching and a general thrust on reflective teaching coupled with action research. All this generated a lot o enthusiasm, a few good pieces of writing by teachers, an in-house children’s magazine and a lot o art work. The art curriculum got modified with many improvements.

 

What are the problems you have faced last year?

1. Could not cop with the pressure of work, report went late, material was not developed in time and generally office administration and documentation was less efficient than we would have liked it to be.
2. Severe financial problems due to problems in Lok Jumbish and delay in fund release from Ministry of HRD, both these agencies sat with about Rs.1,200,000 which is still due to us.
3. Four highly trained coordinator left to join other organisations at salaries double or more of what Digantar could afford to give. These people were prepared to provide academic support to teachers through training courses of six month or longer duration.
4. Had close down a project funded by Sir Ratan Tata Trust because could not start in time.
5. In all it was a year of disasters, we are till striving to rebuild our team to cop with the work new projects are bringing.

 

What do you think is the overall effectiveness of this project  over the past year?

There are several programmes running at present which use Digantar books, training packages and teaching methods. New additions in the current year are: a training programme for Janashala programme of the Government o India, currently running about 30 blocks in 8 states. We are interacting with state, district and block level functionaries from 7 stats.

 

Anything you would like to say to us:

1. Need funding or our schools to the tune of 3 million rupees per year from 2002 on wards. Can you help us getting in touch with funding agencies?
2. We have two projects going which need faculty capable in running training programmes and material development. But both are only for one year. There is a dilemma here: one does not get educational workers ready to contribute, they have to be prepared and trained. Consultancy work does not give enough space to appoint and train workers. Therefore, need some insulation fund which could be utilised for staff development in anticipation of work in future. Could you help by suggesting possible funding agencies?