Project Brief: An Asha Chennai project that involves working with government schools and communities in rural areas of Thoothukudi district in the areas of education, health & hygiene.
Project Type: Working with the Government (description)
Primary Focus: to go to formal school (description)

Secondary Focus: health and cleanliness

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact:
Chennai

Status: CURRENT
Project Steward: Bhaskar Venkateswaran
Co-Steward: Rajaraman Krishnan
Project Partner(s): Rajaraman Krishnan
Project Address: Asha Trust - Project Pearl
14/12 Rangaraman complex Madurai main road Kayathar
Thoothukkudi, Tamil Nadu 628952
Tel: 91-9884437340
Stewarding Chapter: Chennai

Thoothukudi or Tuticorin is called as "Pearl city" because it is famous for pearl fishery. Thoothukudi district is in the south of TamilNadu and is one of the backward districts in terms of economic indicators, social progress and industrialization. It is also a notoriously dry district and agriculture is completely dependent on the monsoons. Some of the blocks in this district are rain-shadow regions and receive no more than 10-15 days of rains in a year. Livelihood options for the people here are quite limited and migration to urban areas in search of jobs is quite common. With respect to education, access to schools for the underprivileged children is not an issue, especially at the primary school level (classes 1-5) but the quality of education is quite suspect.

A couple of Asha Chennai volunteers visited several remote government schools in three blocks of Thoothukudi namely Ottapidaram, Vilathikulam and Kayathar during the 2008-09 academic year. We identified schools where the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) was more than the government-mandated ratio of 40:1, visited them and interacted with the school teachers to understand the issues they were facing. Activity-Based Learning (ABL) was introduced for all primary level classes in TamilNadu about three years back. Teachers need to dedicate a lot more time to students on an individual basis under this methodology. Our interaction with teachers in these schools and several schools over the past couple of years presented a common picture - the mandated PTR of 40:1 was way too high and the ABL methodology would be absolutely ineffective in such a scenario. It was obvious that a lot of these schools absolutely need additional teachers to help out with ABL, to provide normal education to the students and for the smooth functioning of the schools.

Asha Chennai's involvement will start with appointment of additional teachers to supplement government teachers in some of the following panchayat schools:
1. Middle school at Nagalapuram - Kayathar block
2. Primary school at Panickar Kulam - Kayathar block
3. Primary school at Melamanthai - Vilathikulam block
4. Middle school at Anaindha Madan Patcheri - Ottapidaram block
5. Primary school at A.Velayudhapuram - Ottapidaram block

We also plan to set up community centers in a couple of the above villages to provide children and adults access to newspapers, magazines and books.