Hi, Not sure if you already got this. Below are the comments apart from the report. Regards, Anuj Kadyan My comments/observations to be added are here: 1. The school is for slum children around the area and majority of them are muslims (90%) and hence are attracted (only thing that makes them go to school) is only because of the teaching of Arabic and Quran. 2. There is small amount of fee collected (Rs. 25 for admission and Rs 50 every month). Only 25% of the students would end up paying and rest try not to come to school because they have to pay. Mr. Subramanyam seems to notice this and go to the kids and drag them back to school and give concession of not paying the fee for that month and he ends up paying it from his pocket. 3. More than 50% of the expenses incurred in running the school and teachers salary is paid from Mr. Subramanyam's pocket. 4. This is the first time that Mr. Subramanyam has asked somebody (Asha) for fniancial help after 23 years. 5. There has not been any community involvement in running the school. I think this some thing that should be looked into and try to make the school sustainable. The local community should be made aware of the good work being done and encouraged to visit the school do some voluntary activities, donations etc. 6. There is one govt school near to this school which also has urdu as one of the subjects, but is not performing well (according to the Urdu teacher). The govt teachers do not teach in the nearby govt school and get their personal work done by their students. 7. The students after passing 7th standard (board exam), either go to govt school to continue their education or end up doing labour work and support their parents. 8. I think the school is lacking vision. I think the vision should have been making the students pass 7th standard and make them go to higher studies from the local govt school. 9. I think there should be regular parents meeting and also teachers need training on better educational methods. 10. The infrastructure is in bad shape and needs more class rooms, teaching material and playing material (not sure how they use when there is no place or ground to play). 11. My overall feedback is that this school could be funded and can be monitered for improvement. Giri My Comments on the site Visit: The school has been running since 1983 due to the commitment of the founder and on his personal expenses. We found that there is a great interest taken by the school teachers and the founder in making sure the children attend the classes. They seem to be going to the house of each children incase they stop coming to school to motivate them to come to the school. The school is situated in a place with very high Muslim population and thus Majority of the students are muslim. There is a teacher who teaches urdu and they do namaaz as well. I think they also do some bhajans on some days of the week. The teachers are mix of both Hindu and Muslim community. One thing which needs to be found from the founder is why was he reluctant in approaching anyone from the local community for donations to expand his initiative. It seems this is the first time he is seeking help. The school seems to be in need for a lot of things apart which were not covered in the budget. The basic infrastucture like benches, some indoor games for kids, better blackboards etc are not there. The classes are small in size a lot of children sit in one class. Two classes happenen parallely in one classroom. The class strength is very low in the senior classes and the drop out rate is more as the children move to senior class. As of now the plan for expansion till 10th class unviable. I think they would be better of improving the quality fo education and decreasing the drop out rate of the children and catering till 7th class. As after 7th class children who clear the board exam will get an opportunity to move to the government school in that area which is from 6th-12th std. Regards, Anuj Hi People, The following are my comments Commitment to the cause : Good ==================== The school definitely seems to be committed to the cause of imparting education to students from the economically poor sections of the society. The teachers and the founder of the school seem to be very dedicated. Overall Vision : Poor =========== The school currently is currently being run on the efforts of one good samaritan - the founder who has been incurring more than 50% of the expenses consistently in running the school. There seems to be a distinct lack of vision in the running of the school though. What struck me the most was that the school has been operational for the past 22 years, but there has been little or new improvement in the infrastructure in the school. The school has students till the VII th Std and one girl in the VIII std as well, but there is no playground or for that matter even a regular P.T period in the timetable. Infrastructure : Poor ========== The infrastructure available is quite poor. The campus available is quite small and the blackboards available are quite old and in bad condition. There are only 4 classrooms and each classroom is shared by 2 classes. I personally felt that combining maybe class I and II in the same classroom is acceptable, but having children of the VI and VII class studying together can be quite distracting for the children. Overall comments: ============== The overall commitment to the cause is appreciable , but there is a distinct lack of vision. The school has been running for the past 22 yrs on the infrastructure that was available and the school would continue running in the same fashion even if funding is not available for them. If a decision is made to fund this school, it would be better to try and improve the overall infrastructure as well as the system in place. Thanks, Keerthi Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ravi Mundoli To: kolanupaka@yahoo.com, Keerthi , Anuj Kadyan Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 20:18:39 -0800 (PST) Subject: SES site visit report Lady and gents Please to find attached a first cut (whatever I could remember plus my own take). I've separately emailed a link with the photos. http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=x6wko69.bckuaofd&x=0&y=iso0ts Anyway, please to correct errors, add your own spin, and we can send it to Asha-SV before the end of the week hopefully. I'm in Chennai from tonight till Thursday morning, so please to call me if there's anything. Cheers Ravi __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com