BHARATHI
TRUST
QUARTERLY REPORT-OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2001
On 4th Dec.2001, Nirmala Jayaraj of Bharathi Trust gave a surprise visit to all the Motivation Centres in Thiruvallur District. The purpose of this visit was to observe the working of the schools and also to look into the infrastructure of the schools. Most of the schools seemed sturdy enough, except for schools like Senjiagaram, Elavambedu and Rajarathinagar. One of these schools had gaping holes in their roof, the other school had a portion of the roof blown off and yet another had its floor tunneled out by rodents. The children had a lot of playing space, either in the front of the school or at the sides. Almost all the schools had Black Boards except for two schools. The teachers use a big wooden box to store play materials and also the food materials in the same box.
The teachers follow their own curriculum, which was earlier, prepared with the help of Shyamala and Siddamma. Some teachers also follow the Government school syllabus along with the said curriculum. The teachers, in order to make their teaching meaningful, prepare their lesson plans based on what the child likes to learn, rather than what she wants the child to learn. This has its plus and minus points. The plus point is that the children feel free, as there is nothing restricting them. On the other hand there is lot of confusion in the groups, especially where there is only one teacher for the school. She is not able to cater to all the children and only a few get what they want. Therefore, grouping the children according to their interests and providing enough learning materials to each child, is the need of the hour.
The teachers have a great amount of love and concern for their students. They wipe a running nose when they see one and carry a crying child to pacify it. They take active part in the games and sing along with the children with great gusto. With a little bit of help in their planning and methodology, one can see the teachers taking these schools to new heights.
School Report
Name of the school -
Rajarathinagar Name of the
Teacher - C. Durga Devi
Level 8-10 and 10-15
The teacher conducted tests in Tamil and Maths and found that the children were able to answer the given questions. A number of objective types of questions were asked and they seem to have grasped what was taught. The children read and write short stories and are also able to write their own stories.
They are now able to do multiplication and tables up to 7 is being taught.
In science class, the parts of the banana tree and its uses are discussed.
Study of the pre-historic man and pictures depicting it are shown to the children. The children make clay models of the dinosaur as part of their project on pre-historic man.
Durga Devi reports on her trip to Kanpur.
Asha held a conference in Kanpur starting on 23-25 Dec.2001. The participants were from various parts of India, as well as from different countries. Even though most of the participants spoke in Hindi, we were made to feel at home with translation being made in Tamil. There were people who worked with working children, emotionally disturbed and physically abused children. These projects are being funded by Asha. Doctors, scientists, agriculturists were among the guest speakers at this conference. An agriculturist spoke on organic farming and some doctors enlightened us with the efficacy of Herbal Medicine. There was this interesting person, who taught the villagers, how to produce electricity, if they did not have the facility for it.
I wish to express my gratitude to the people at Asha for giving me this opportunity to attend the conference, due to this enriching experience, I have gained a great amount of knowledge and useful information. I hope every teacher at Thiruvallur will get such an opportunity to attend similar conference.
Name of the
school - Rajarathinagar
Name of the Teacher - Rathi
Level 3-6
and 6-8
The children who are not able to write the alphabet is given a card, which has a sand paper cut out of the alphabet. The children run their fingers several times over the letter to get the feel of the letter. This enables them to write the alphabet on their slates.
The children are able to work out double-digit addition and subtraction. They say from memory the tables 2,3,and 4.
As the children live close to the sea, they make several trips to the beach and collect shells and pebbles. They have made interesting charts on flowers, birds and butterflies, using the shells.
Name of the school Elavambedu Name of the teacher Bhavani
Level 3-6 and 6-8
The children after they have had their morning breakfast are made to sit in a circle. Children then speak about his/her family and what they want to be taught for the day. Then they sing songs and listen to stories, which is narrated by the teacher. Names of birds, colours and shape are taught.
The 6-8 years old are taught numbers from 1-30,both to memorize and write.
In order to re-enforce learning of colours and shapes, they play a game where the teacher asks the children to pick up anything that is round or blue, so on and so forth. They draw pictures of animals and birds. On Vaikunta Ekadasi, the teacher took the children to the temple.
Name of the school Elavambedu Name of the Teacher Manohar
Level 8-12
The children are given words to write in their note- books. Dictation on these words is given to assess their written ability.
The children are able to memorize numbers from 50-100. Addition, subtraction and tables from 2-4 are being taught to the children.
Clay work, singing, story telling are some of the co-curricular activities of the children.
Name of the
school Kotakulam Name of
the Teacher Amudha
Level 3-6
The main activities for this group of children are story telling, singing, and writing of the alphabet and numbers from 1-10. After lunch the children take a short nap and then play.
The children who attend the Government school are helped with their Homework and other general work.
Name of the school Mullainagar Name of the Teacher Sumathi
Level 3-6
This group consists of 10 children who take turn in reading the words from the cards, while the others listen. Later they write these words on their slates. After the children become thorough with these words, it is given as dictation. Stories are read from the book and children recall and narrate them.
In the science class, the teacher shows the picture of the human body and its function. The importance of health and cleanliness is discussed.
Numbers 1-20, addition and subtraction are also taught.
The second group consists of another 15 children aged 6-8. The teacher gives them cards with words, which are commonly used by the children. They first read and then write them on their slates.
Oral testing is done in Maths. For e.g the teacher asks the children to say what comes after a certain number. They are able to write up to 50.
A sample of a plant that is commonly grown in their village is brought to the class and the parts of the plant are studied.
During the games period the children play with the rubber ring, carrum board and running race.
Name of the school Mullainagar Name of the teacher Usha
Level 8-15
The teacher has taught seven lessons from the II Std. Tamil textbook. Some of the poems from the text are sung and the children are greatly pleased with this activity. The children are encouraged to ask questions and the teacher also involves all the children in class discussions. They are given written tests from the lessons covered.
Drill work in maths, e.g the children work out maths problem orally. Tables 2,3,4 and 5 are being taught to them.
Medicinal plants and its uses, the diseases caused due to lack of vitamins and minerals is discussed in the science class.
The formation of soil, its type and uses is discussed in the social studies class.
The co-curricular activities comprises of games, clay work, singing and dancing.
Name of the school Kundalimedu Name of the Teacher E.Ramani
Level 3-6 and 6-10
The first group learns to sing and write the alphabet. They are now learning the days of the week and names of the Tamil months.
They are able to say the numbers 1-20 and identify them.
Before the children go home they have a go with the ball and ring. They also try a hand with clay and form objects.
D. Kumari, the teacher of the same school, is in charge of the second group 6-10 year old. After the Morning Prayer and singing of the devotional songs, the children are thoroughly examined for cleanliness of hair and nails.
Commonly used words and also words from the prepared cards are taught.
The children use maths cards, which has addition and subtraction sums.
Co-curricular activities such as dancing, singing and games are held at the end of the day.
Name of the
school Senjiagaram Name of
the Teacher Selvi
Level 0-3,
3-6 and 6-10
The 6-10 year old children who attend the Government school are given extra coaching to complete their school work.
The 0-3 level children are taken care of by the ayah, who keeps them engaged with toys.
The 3-6 year old children are given cards with Tamil letters to form words out of them. The teacher sometimes uses the Government text book to read out stories and poems to the children. Later questions are framed on the lesson and children answer them. Some children even write out the answer in their note books.
The children are very good at addition and subtraction. Now they are being taught Multiplication and tables.
Science classes are sometimes practical in nature. The children are taken to lakes and ponds to study its eco-system. Games, story telling, singing are some of the activities.
Name of the school
Thamaraikuppam Name of
the teacher Mariamma
Level 3-6, 6-10 and 10-15
The children are divided into 3 groups. For the 3-6 year old children, the teacher talks to the children on general topics. New words are taught such as names of fruits, flowers and vegetables. They draw some of these pictures shown to them. They learn to write the alphabet and numbers from 1-10.
The 6-10 year old children are given dictation on words taught. They are able to make sentences on their own. Single digit addition and subtraction and writing of numbers 1-50 are taught to them. At the end of the week a test is conducted to assess the children. To drive the point home that health and hygiene is an important aspect in ones life, the teacher prepared a script for the class to enact the play.
Giving teacher a break
The 10-15 year old children are the working children. They graze their goats in the morning and attend school only in the afternoon. The teacher reads out stories from the text and asks the children to answer the questions at the end of the lesson. Simple addition and subtraction have been taught and now they are on to multiplication. They are able to read the I Std.Government Tamil text book.
Name of the
school Kulathumedu
Name of the Teacher M. Amulu
Level 6-15
The children are divided into two groups the first group consists of 6-10 year old children and the second group 10-15. For the first group, the teacher tells them stories from the Government textbook. She asks them questions to find out their grasping power. Words are taken from the story and the children write them in their notebook. The next exercise is to make the children narrate the story. The teacher corrects the pronunciation and other grammatical errors in the narration. Children are encouraged to draw pictures of the words they have learnt. A collage is done with leaves and sticks and when dry, they are hung on a string for display. They are given a lot of drill work in maths. They are able to do sums orally.
They dance to their tune
The second group of children is the working children, who graze goats in the morning and attend school in the afternoon. They are taught words that are commonly used in their day-to-day activities. They are able to form sentences from these words. Simple multiplication sums are now being introduced to these children.
Sridevi, a teacher of the same school, handles children of 0-3 and 3-6 level. The 0-3 year old are given toys and puzzles to play. The 3-6 years old are taught alphabet and those who are not able to write are provided with a sand paper cut out of the letters, which is pasted on to a card. With the help of this, the children run their fingers on the letter and then write them on their slates. Similarly the numbers are also taught this way.
The teacher draws some pictures on the board and asks the children to write the word below the picture. She also gives each child a card with numbers on one side of the card and beside these numbers you have various pictures. The children are asked to match the number with the picture.
Some of the co-curricular activities are playing, singing, dancing and clay modelling.