HYSEA Annual CSR Summit

If there is one event that NGOs and Corp-orates in Hyderabad look forward to, it’s the HYSEA Annual CSR summit. This year, the event took place on 4^th Nov 2015 and evoked the same enthusiasm and participation across diversified fields. As always, our stall attracted the attention of many visitors and participants who appreciated the work we do for the poor and needy children in Government schools.

Here are some of the pictures from the event, let the pictures speak for themselves.

Seen in the above picture is IT Minister for the Telangana State, Mr. KTR who visited all the stalls.

People from different backgrounds had attended the event which helped me learn about their innovation. Being a part of this event was a great experience.

Hole-in-the-wall

Lately, I’ve been exposed to numerous organizations that work towards improving the lives of underprivileged people. Education being one major aspect and thanks to EFF, I’ve been also privileged to work closely with some of them.

Beginning from cupboards to be called home for the homeless, food prepared using technology for the hungry, virtual teachers for the teacher-less, and here is yet another, with a rather unusual name, “Hole-in-the-wall”. Except that it’s a hole where thousands of underprivileged children get to touch computers for the first time in their lives. And they don’t have a computer sir monitoring them with a stick. They get to play around and learn on their own.  The computers are affixed to the wall outside the community hall or somewhere near the playground or anywhere in the village where it could be conveniently accessed by the students. An initiative established in 2001, a joint venture between NIIT Ltd. and the International Finance Corporation. This looks like a fine step to self-educating and thereby taking the efforts of educating millions more widespread. Good job. 

EFF updates...

Since this blog is one of our channels to stay in touch with people, I have another quick round of updates on what Education For Free has been up to:

For the past few weeks, our engineers were working on improving the video quality, and the whiteboard. The video quality works much better now. We will soon have a much friendlier ‘pen’ too to write on the whiteboard. Thanks to the Dusserah vacation, no classes were interrupted.

We were also testing the equipment, especially the microphones—to see which ones work best in a regular classroom. Ravi Shankar, one of the registered members of EFF, helped us immensely with figuring out the acoustics and the right equipment for our classrooms. He is a senior sound engineer with Ramoji Film City and his expertise in this field has helped us understand how the whole sound system works.  He has been extremely helpful, and has consistently gone out of his way, whether to help us solve some nagging audio-related issues, or to just stop by and say hello. We are now using the new set of microphones he recommended, and it works great. A big thanks to Ravi from all of us here.

We are also running around, meeting different organizations for more schools. And phew! by next week we will have 2 more schools with Virtual Classroom. I will sure be writing about this.

EFF as young as it seems, participated in the National Seminar for Education organized by Byyraju Foundation on the 21^st October.  Sridhar presented a paper on “A technological approach to educational problems”. 17 other organizations participated in the seminar and collaborated on the issues with the present education system and ways to solve them. It is encouraging and challenging at the same time as we take our steps further, becoming more mature with each experience. And we are thankful to all the individuals and organizations that support and motivate us to do our bit --for our country.

Have the brightest Diwali Ever! :) 

Akshaya Patra Foundation in action

After I wrote about Akshaya Patra Foundation and their efforts in using technology to prepare and provide hygienic food, I searched Google images for the machines--the conveyor, industrial steam boilers, bucket elevators, and material handling systems etc they have mentioned just to get a feel of it, but couldn’t find any. This morning I searched in Youtube and viola! I found some amazing videos. I share one of them here. Their effort is awesome ! And btw, the sambhar totally looks yum! :)

Check it out...

Akshaya Patra Foundation

Until now I had only been aware of people using technology to harness education, EFF being one. But here is Akshaya Patra Foundation using technology to prepare and supply hot (nothing to do with spice) nutritious, quality, hygienic food, to feed thousands of hungry children and thereby bringing them to school and keeping them. It is interesting to note that they have been using industrial steam boilers, bucket elevators, conveyor & material handling systems, and other industrial processes in the kitchens to prepare the meals.

Started in 2000, Bangalore, they feed children aged 6-16. So far they have provided mid day meals to over 825, 000 children in over 4500 government schools. Their vision is “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.” And as you enter their website, you will see “Feeding a hungry child is not charity; it's our duty” flashing on the screen. Way to go guys!

Check out their website

ICICI's Read to Lead

ICICI has also joined in the effort to work towards educating the uneducated millions in India. “Read to lead” is the program which for now will cover the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

ICICI pledges through this initiative that they will educate 1,00,000 children at the elementary level by partnering with major NGOs in this field. By December they plan to reach out to a hundred thousand children.

I hope this initiative will not be only about reducing the drop-out rate but also about quality education—a wholesome drive to give EDUCATION its true meaning.

Idea ad campaign

The ‘idea ad campaign’  has been catching a lot of attention these days. While many people appreciate the ad, there are some who dismiss that it is silly and absurd and that they are ‘abusing education’ and giving false hope to poor people to promote their product.

Both sides have a valid point. The ad in itself is good, creative, and appealing to the masses.

But I wouldn’t take it literally and assume that teaching through phones is going to become a reality. There are issues of cost, or pedagogical effectiveness, and, of course, great as it sounds, if one teacher is going to educate “a million students” in a single classroom, they might as well use a TV, considering the level of interactivity these classes would have. I just think of it as a clever, well-meaning ad and leave it at that.

However, this ad does convey the message that there is a lot you can do with connectivity and technology. That distance isn’t a barrier anymore, that with technology, nothing need be distant or impossible.

Every time I catch this ad on TV, I’m reminded of my grandma who finally had some idea of how EFF works—for her, it was a question of whether the Education for Free project was similar to this. The explanation is altogether a different story, but I’m thankful that there is something we can take away from this ad campaign—even if it is not teaching through phones.

Little drops of water indeed make the mighty ocean

There are millions of homeless children here in India. Several NGOs, the government, individuals are all doing their bit to give these homeless a space and a place in society. Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta talks about his experience as he helped an institution in Bhopal where orphans and underprivileged children found a place where they could get some education and a locker to be called their home. It is indeed touching!

These children, in my opinion, do not have anything personal and individual, no assets, no home, not even a toothbrush, nothing. It is a totally transient existence. And it is horrible, not to have anything to call your own.

But the idea was, that if they have a locker, with their own locks and keys, it becomes their little piece of home. And that is what we saw, there were thirty lockers and each had been decorated individually by their owners. The key was hung around their necks with a piece of sturdy twine, but some had put up photographs, some had arranged their clothes in pleasing manners, one even had managed to put in a tiny curtain in that locker.

Read the story here.

East or west, government schools are the same!

In India, Government schools are synonymous to lack of everything a normal school should have: Teachers, classrooms, drinking water, toilet, desk and benches, books, the works!

I’ve been writing about the government schools in Andhra Pradesh ever since we started the EFF project. For a quick recap, it’s here, here, here and here.

As I read this story in Express India, it’s a déjà vu moment for me.

Due to lack of infrastructure, students are made to either sit in the verandah or outside the classrooms, irrespective of the weather — rain, heat or cold.

The pictures below are students of Rasoolpura Government School Hyderabad diligently taking a test in the veranda of their school.



Despite the absolute negligence by the government towards the school, the students are blessed with an organization called Bhumi--a group of young individuals who have revived the school and have given it a fresh lease of life. In two years, apart from other necessities, they have even managed to built enough classrooms for all the students-- Thanks to organizations like Panterra Networks (formerly Pandora Networks--where I worked last) who in their own way contribute to make this change easier.

Next time around when I visit the school, i'll see a different picture. Literally.

Good news from UNESCO

Early last year, while researching on education, I read bundles of reports from UNESCO, UNICEF, EFA etc. The 2005 UNESCO report, while highlighting the phenomenon of the Out-of-School students, called upon us to understand better who they are and what background they are from, to help us design programs for them.

A vibrant organization here in Hyderabad, the MV Foundation takes care of over 2500 schools in A.P. They employ volunteer teachers in these schools and make sure that the dropout rate is controlled. They also rescue child labors, who are often dropouts, rehabilitate them, and prepare them to rejoin school with the help of their specially designed bridge course.

If the number of school dropouts has decreased in recent years, organizations like MVF have had a lot to do with it.. As I read this news from UNESCO, I rejoice with high sounding cymbals.

06-05-2008 - The number of primary-school-age children not in primary or secondary school fell by 2 million worldwide between 2005 and 2006, according to new estimates published by UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

The new figures confirm a downward trend: between 1999 and 2006, the number of these children fell from 103 million to 75 million. From a regional perspective, South and West Asia reported the greatest progress. This was mainly due to changes in India, where the number of children out of school fell by over 12 million as participation in primary education significantly improved for girls (accounting for more than 75% of the decrease).

Sub-Saharan Africa also made important strides, with a reduction of 10 million. This was largely the result of progress reported by the Governments of Ethiopia and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Globally, more than one-half of the 75 million out-of-school children are girls. The following countries had 2 million or more children out of school in 2006: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Sudan.

These figures are part of the latest release of UIS education statistics for the pre-primary to tertiary levels for the school year ending in 2006. The new data are available in the UIS Data Centre.

Azim Premji Foundation

The Azim Premji Foundation is a well-known name today for its contribution to the field of education and child welfare. They sum up their vision in a single line: “To significantly contribute to quality universal education as a foundation to a just, humane and equitable society”. They have achieved much and changed many lives.

We are proud to have them as one of our partners and as a start, they sent us a pack of CDs (educational software content), beautifully illustrated and designed. I wanted to become a child all over again just so that I get to be in a class where interesting ‘cartoons’ are shown as part of a classroom lesson. :)

Blessed are these children!

Our Educational System: a Report Card

I am posting an email sent to one of the NGOs by a colleague of mine. We had visited some schools the other day and just as I was about to write on them I saw this email, and it speaks much more than I could have said. So here’s an account through the voice and eyes of Sridhar.

KL,

Thanks for taking the time to read about our Education For Free (EFF) project, and I really appreciate your comments.

Lack of adequate teaching staff in government schools is one of our biggest concerns. In every high school we have visited so far, 40% of the teachers were either on long leave or casual leave, the few teachers left were either sent on some training program or assorted government duties. The classrooms are filled with students but there is no one, to teach them.

Primary schools are in an even bigger mess than the high schools. Out of the 3 allotted teachers and 2 Vidya volunteers, usually only one teacher, comes to the school, usually bringing in the other two teachers’ leave applications (I’m guessing they take turns doing this!).

Most high school teachers lament that students graduating from primary schools are not ready for high school. But due to the “no detention policy” of the government, they have no choice but to accept them into the 6th grade.

Most teachers I have met so far complain that infrastructure is one of their biggest problems. I think is only partly true. I visited Kondakal High School last Friday in Ranga Reddy dist. This school told a different story all together. It had a well-maintained computer lab (courtesy Microsoft’s 1000 village program) with audio-visual aids (Wipro) and Internet, science labs with all the equipments. They even had a TV and a bunch of video’s, 24 hour power supply, children wearing very clean school uniform (donated by some NGO), well maintained garden and play grounds, the works.

This was by far the best maintained government high school I have seen. Ironically, their 10th pass percentage is still less than 25% same as Janwada High School just 15 km away but a world apart. JHS is like any other government school in AP, not enough classrooms, roof leaking with rain water, no toilets (school ground used as a defecation center), no power, not enough teachers, too many students… the list could go on but this tells us that lack of adequate infrastructure is only, one of the problems. Proper infrastructure would help but it doesn’t solve the problems of our education system.

Here are some of our observations after talking to different stakeholders:

1. Too many students and not enough teachers (In 2001 there were around 1.3 million teachers in AP, right now there are only 750 thousand teachers, rest of the posts need to be filled)

• Teachers are used for all the government programs from election duty to pulse polio campaigns. And all this happens at the expense of the children who come to the schools to learn.

• Teachers are sent on way too many training programs which are almost always based on theories that do not take the real situation into account, and are therefore impractical to implement with the number of students they have deal to with, the limited time available, the examination oriented focus of education, and the lack of facilities.

• Very high percentage of teachers are absent from schools (infrastructure, corruption and motivational issues)

• Government Policy says that there need to be a teacher for every 40 students. Most administrators seem to be following this to book, if a school only has 120 students than they only get 3 teachers even though there are 5 classes or grades to cover.

2. Serious infrastructure issues like power, lack of classrooms, lack of study material (Even textbooks--the minimal study material available to children--are usually delayed by 2-3 months after the school year starts)

• Lack of toilets is given as a major reason for female students’ absence from the school.

3. Students don’t put in any effort at home (Most rural children have to work after school)

4. Students are very irregular to school due to lack of parental encouragement and lack of understanding on what education can offer (It is really hard to follow high school math if certain classes are missed and math is major reason for students failing 10th)

5. Primary education is non-existent: Very small percentage of the students coming out of our primary schools have basic reading and writing skills.

• Assuming all the 3 teachers are present and teaching, that still leaves 2 grades without teachers and the government policy mandates that 1st, 2nd and 3rd should be taken by regular teachers, that leaves our 4th and 5th to be taught by under qualified Vidya volunteers.

• Due to 'no detention policy' student performance can’t be measured.

Private school education is no better; the actual number of students writing a board exam is never disclosed. Most rural private schools make 50-60% of their below standard students write exams outside the institute name just to increase their official pass percentage.

As you can see it all comes down to a serious lack of trained teachers and no motivation for the students from the parents. And that is where we can make a difference. There is a lot which needs to be done but we are taking this one step at a time. Our current focus is to get the service ready by November and deploy it in 4-5 schools with 8th grade English. In the 2008-09 academic year we would launch a pilot program with 50 schools and more subjects.

You could help us by putting us in touch with NGOs.We need as many of them as possible for field work (logistics). We are also in need of good teachers (retired or still working) to help us with content development and contribute to our curriculum strategy discussions. It would be great if you could help us in identifying the teachers as well.

Thanks again for your time and interest in our project.

Sridhar

*The Schools are in Andhra Pradesh, India

Rasoolpura School through the lens

the school entrance

the school compound

classroom

"Classrooms"

Morning Assembly...the seniors take the lead

some of the teachers

happy boys and happy girls :)

their only playground

The boys demonstrating the school bell for me. The iron rod is the school bell and they use stones to bang against the rod, it does make a tolling sound! ding ding ding..it rings.

my sunday sundae with Bhumi

Usually I spend my Sunday mornings lazing around at home, doing laundry and pampering myself with a pedi-mani-cure, feasting on sumptuous home cooked food, and of course Church and friends. The last Sunday, I instead visited a government school with two of my colleagues. While there were many surprises awaiting us, the first was discovering a slum right in the middle of the city in a so-called posh locality.

The road got narrower as we entered the locality, too small for our car, after some looking and asking around, we made it to the school vicinity. At first I found it difficult to accept that the “building” in front of me was actually a school. We went in.

There stood two small four roomed, tin roofed buildings facing each other. The classrooms were empty. There was only a whitish blackboard in each of the classrooms. The ceiling was leaking, the floor wet, and the walls damp. It’s beyond my comprehension how a child would learn in a wet, dark classroom sitting right on the floor, without even a desk to keep his books.

The educational psychology paper I opted in college taught me that “Education is an all round development of a child”. However, what I saw that day relates nowhere with this definition.

With a garbage dump, a defecation compound, animals of various kinds (including pigs), no benches or desks, not enough classrooms (half the classes are held outside, right on the floor), no fans and lights, no library and no laboratory, I wondered where the “all- round development” was going to come from.

But the students didn’t seem to be bothered with all this. All that mattered to them was the school, the classrooms, their teachers and their books.

How could the government be so negligent? I went through mixed emotions: there was anger against the government, sympathy for the students, and there was respect for the Bhumi angels.

Not waiting for the government, the Bhumi angels (a group of dedicated youth) have gone ahead and done things on their own. They adopted this school a year ago and have so far constructed a new building (half of the existing school structure was created by them), got in more teachers, and are on their way to building more classrooms. They are keen to get in more qualified teachers, clean up the surroundings and the school (a recurring task they don’t flinch from) and do much more.

They have their jobs, families, and their own lives. But every little moment they can, they spare for Bhumi. Even eating the last meal at home has become such a rarity that they in fact declined an offer to dine with the three of us after a meeting because their folks were waiting for them at home.

This school is only a representation of many such schools. Thousands of government schools I’m told are run this way. The Government should stop deceiving our motherland, give us what is ours, and stand by its promises. Some of them, at least.

In the mean time, I salute the Bhumi angels.

To know more about Bhumi, click here

Girls Bridge Course School. Aloor, India

I would do anything to see those smiles again, feel those little fingers, and meet those eyes with dreams.

It was drizzling, soon after a dazzling summer which only made the experience even more enduring. Far far away from the hustle and bustle of the city, away from the glaring eyes, abusive tongues and hands. Away from tears, fears, scars, and hunger, here was a place inside a caged gate, where they found their freedom.

700 beautiful girls live in this world, the Bridge Course camp. As we stopped by the gate, I saw two girls pulling open the iron gate for us. They smiled a happy smile and had big dreams written all over their face. We were taken on an entourage by one of the teachers, exploring their classrooms, their bedrooms, dinning hall, their hearts and their world.

A little girl of 3 years old who I was told is an orphan, held my hand and my heart. Like every typical child on this earth, she wanted that extra attention and affection. Another girl who was dumb spoke to me a million words through her eyes and smiles. I also met a future lawyer, so full of hope. I know she will. Someday soon. There was another; a year and a half old girl, oblivious to the world around her, gazing at me endlessly. She probably must’ve wondered why she had such a big family when others she knew usually had three to four. Or was she wondering why her mom and dad never returned home that fateful night. I held her tight and wished her well.

These girls before they were given this new life were bonded laborers, child laborers. Some of them were rescued from child marriages. Their savior? M.V Foundation, a committed NGO, a dedicated conglomerate up in arms against child labor and on a mission to educate ALL children. They proclaimed it as nonnegotiable. Started in 1992 with 16 children, they have grown to educating thousands.

“The Bridge Course is a bridges the gap for children who have already reached an age too old to join school from class 1. And therefore, we train the children for a period of 12 months. Once they learn the basics, they are enrolled in regular schools--older children are placed in higher classes” Manjula the camp in charge explained. Apparently they have a program designed specifically to cater to the needs of different age group.

More than the books and pencils, the roof, food and clothes, it's love they found here.

Being around these children made me a happier me. From that girl touching my eyebrows and probably learning a sense of style, showing them where Nagaland was on the India map, spelling out my name, posing for pictures and simply meeting them. I went back even more inspired, to make EFF come true, true for me, us and them.

This was a visit to the Girls' Bridge Course school run by The M.V Foundation at Aloor. A.P India.