The Tribal Empowerment Public School is in Leingangching Village, Litan, Ukhrul District in Manipur. The school is situated in the center of 13 villages which include both the Kuki and Naga tribes. The local population is fairly illiterate. Most of the kids are from the area around the location of the school.
The school is in a remote and poor area in Manipur. Thus it is difficult to visit the school or try to get some more qualified teachers who can help in improving the quality of education. Since the community is not well off, it also makes it difficult to get some local funding from people who may be well off. The corruption in the state of Manipur also hinders the progress by not being able to tap into some of the government schemes like to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (for text books, work books etc). It is going to be extremely difficult to make the school self sustaining and so funding will have to be provided to keep the school running.
Story 1:
The TEP School started with about 30 students 8 years ago and now has over 500 students. There were several private schools in this area and now most of them have closed down. These private schools used to have 30 to 50 students and they made money from the tuition from students from poor families. Most students were never able to complete an academic year as the families were unable to pay the high fees. The students were often sent home in the middle of the year for non-payment of fees. The enrollment of more than 500 students in TEP School, situated in this remote area speaks for itself. In TEP School the tribal families have found a good alternative which is also promising in the results it delivers.
A majority of the school students are now confident that they can somehow complete their education and settle down with reasonable jobs. Some students have qualified for admission in Navodaya Vidyalaya School. Others have graduated from Matriculation which was not possible for many before this school started. There are some students who studied in TEP School for two or three years but due to family circumstances were compelled to take up jobs to support their families. The English and Hindi languages that they had learned in their 2 to 3 years at the school helped them take up jobs in the Indian Army, police or private jobs in big cities.
Story 2:
There are about 15 students who are orphans and are able to attend the school. Described below are two cases where the students are not orphans but have had trying personal circumstances and yet have benefited from an education at TEP.
Master L lost his mother years ago and has 9 siblings. His father is physically disabled due to TB (very poor family). He was one of six students who made it to Navodaya Vidyalaya in 2008, and is now studying in that much desired school preparing for a bright future. His story is important because without TEP School he could not have the dream of getting an education. He and his elder sister feed all his younger siblings even as he pursues his education. Whenever he comes home he visits the TEP School and encourages other students and expresses his praise for TEP School.
A second student whose story is encouraging is Master V. His father does not work due to his mental illness and often (once or twice a month) will destroy anything he sees at home and beat up his wife (V's mother). His family is extremely poor and often goes through bouts of starvation. Master V could not make it through the Navodaya Vidyalaya entrance exam but he straight away attempted matriculate exam after building up is education background from TEP School. Now he is in class XI. He was able to pass the matriculation exam because of quality education he got from TEP School. His mother has expressed her deepest thanks to the school and prays that Asha will continue to provide support for the school.
These are the two different stories; one who has made it to the Navodaya Vidyalaya and another who could not made it but did not give up. These students have a chance to make it as they have overcome a very difficult stage of their life.
Story 3:
Government school in this part of the state is almost nonexistent. Government of Manipur is one of the highest ranking governments in India in term of corruption. Some of the governments schools exist only in paper, even the building is not there, forget about students. It is a very sad situation.
Private school is the only hope, but they cater to the well-off 10% of the population. Ninety percent of the population lives in poverty. Their kids continue in the same cycle due to lack of access to affordable education. NGO schools have not succeeded because of limited resources and abilities and problems with terrorists taxing them for every little work they do.
TEP School is the only success story in Manipur (one out of thousands) because, Joy who is the founder of the school is in Defense Ministry as an Assistant Director. The Defense Ministry oversees the work of Indian Army and the Army keeps the terrorists at a distance. The school has been in existence for 8 years and so far the terrorists have not disturbed the school. In addition, children of some employees of the Indian Army come to this school and this also helps in limiting terrorist’s interference in the school. The terrorist groups apparently recruit kids who do not go to school.
Further, the Kuki and Naga tribes are the two biggest tribes and they have historically been enemies. TEP School has 50% each from these tribes, both teachers and students and this is the good platform wherein they work for communal harmony among the students and teachers. In the past thousands have been killed in fights between these two tribes.
Lastly, this school area is situated in the poorest region of Manipur, where resources are lean and terrorist and poverty are abundant. And believe it or not, an ASHA school situated in this area is one of the best Asha schools of India which is producing real practical results.
The project started in 2003 with 30 students and some volunteer teachers. The school is now is up to 7th grade. The number of students increased to 519 in 2010. The growth has been extremely good and with our project partners, we agreed that the school will only be up to 7th grade. We will focus on improving quality of education instead of growing the classes.
The future vision is to sustain the school and provide education from KG to 7th for as many children as possible. The goal is to further improve the quality of education so that the children can get admission in other schools to continue their education and find jobs so that they can get out of the poverty cycle.
