Proposed Phase III 

1 Scope of the Project

Phase III involves validating the concept of Sikshana over all the schools in a Taluk. We have already adopted 34 upper primary schools in Kanakapura school District, which has a total of 132 such schools. It naturally qualifies as a preferred site for this intervention. Some of the schools in this zone have medium of instruction other than Kannada. For operational reasons, we have decided to focus exclusively on Kannada schools for the present. The list prepared on this basis is given under Enclosure 5.  The number of schools works out to 89, with an approximate strength of 12,000 kids. In our assessment of costs, we have assumed a typical school to have 150 students. Some of the schools however have strengths much in excess of this number, while others have very few; accordingly, we have used the concept of equivalent numbers, with 150 as the base. Accordingly, the number of equivalent schools works out to 80. The details may be seen under Enclosure 1 below.  

2 Organizational Structure

Sivasri Charitable Trust which implemented the first two phases of Sikshana under the direct guidance of Mr ES Ramamurthy is now being strengthened and reorganized to handle the difficult task of scaling the program to the next higher level under Phase III. To start with, it is proposed to change the name of the Trust itself into Sikshana Foundation, a step aimed at eliminating the confusion arising out of the use of two names – one for the Trust and another for the program. At the same time, the bye-laws are being amended for a more professional and effective management of resources. The Board is being strengthened with the inclusion of more members to widen the base of expertise available for tackling the problems that are likely to come up during the implementation of this project. A provision is being made to include representatives of major Donor Organizations to bring about a change in the conventional approach of funding in the Voluntary Sector from one of monitoring/ supervision to participation. The amended constitution of the Trust, which is going through the statutory legal processes, is likely to come into effect by the first Quarter of 2008- so as to be available for Phase III.     

While the first two phases of Sikshana depended almost totally on intervention through volunteers, the increasing number and complexity under this phase call for a more structured Organization based on deployment of salaried staff with well defined responsibilities and functions.

For the present, we propose a three tier organization headed by a Program Director and staffed by Mentors and Field Workers. The former working under the direction of the Board of Trustees will be effectively the CEO of the Program and will be responsible for compliance of the schools to the concepts of Sikshana. While the Board itself is expected to meet typically every quarter of the year and review the operations and other policy issues, a smaller working group consisting of not more than 5 Members is proposed to be formed which will meet every month, or more often as required, for a closer monitoring of the program. In fact, the current Board has already started implementing this concept- a step which has considerably improved the efficacy of the operations of the Trust. 

It is proposed to organize the 100 schools into five clusters, each roughly comprising of 20 schools. This step will take into account the geographical limitations and ground realities to yield the most cost effective coverage of each cluster. The program requires that a Mentor visits the schools at reasonable intervals to guide them and ensure optimum compliance to the task schedules under the Sikshana template. We plan to have one Mentor for each cluster of 20 schools, which will enable one visit per school per month based on coverage of one schools per day. A volunteer bank of 15 is being created in Kanakapura to supplement the efforts of the Mentors.  In order to ensure that the time of the Mentors is not wasted on logistic activities, which we have found till now to occupy a considerable part, we propose to deploy three persons at a lower entry level in the category of Field Workers. In addition, we propose to deploy a Senior Project Coordinator at Kanakapura, who in addition to taking care of day to day logistics and data base management, will also deputize for the Program Director at Kanakapura in the interactions with the Department, Schools and the Communities, as and when required. We are looking for a person with the right aptitude and the background of a Business school for this post. 

We propose to induct the Mentors from local resources, typically with Master’s degree or equivalent and aptitude for the type of work involved. The Field Workers will be at the level of PUC; they will also be typically from the same rural clusters.   

Each cluster of 20 schools will nominate a HM (Headmaster/ Headmistress) to represent them in our periodic interactions; the five nominees so chosen will form a Core Working Group which will bridge the gap between the Organization and the Schools. A meet will be organized every month at Kanakapura with the Program Director to look into the various problems and issues that crop from time to time, and find solutions. 

3 Logistics and Facilities

A field office is proposed at Kanakapura in the form of a three bed room house which is a typical structure in the Town. The office will be provided with a Telephone, a PC and Broadband Connection. In assessing the mode and cost of school visits, we need to take into account the nature of the project terrain. The schools are spread over a radius of 50 Kms from Kanakapura. Many schools fall very much out of the range of the public roads radiating from Kanakapura, being reachable only through rutted local roads and bye-lanes. The public buses which ply on these routes often have a frequency of less than 5 trips per day.  Some schools fall even beyond these, requiring a walk up to 2kms from the feeder roads. Incidentally, this is one of the major reasons for a poor attendance record of the teachers. 

The school visits, except in 20% of the schools at the most, have hence to be by personal conveyance. This is on account of the fact that public transport in these areas is infrequent; depending on them will result in wastage of time and reduction of school visits per day by half.  Considering that the volunteers are mostly women and that the total number of people going out every day is likely to be 16 plus, we propose to have a mix of taxis and two-wheelers, the former on wet lease and the latter on a re-imbursement basis. In assessing the costs, we are assuming that we will need one taxi under this arrangement; and that the others will be reimbursed their costs of travel. It is proposed to encourage owning of a two-wheeler by all those who need to travel and reimburse them on the basis of EMI for the hire purchase and the cost per km.      

4 Features of intervention

Step 1

 Our proposed intervention will be through a number of graded and sequential steps. To start with, a meet is scheduled with the Principals of the schools and the staff, in which we will seek to introduce them to the salient features, the concepts and strategies of our program. The staff will then be exposed to a one day workshop on Total Quality Management in batches of 50/75. We will then sit with each school and work out a detailed plan with benchmarks for its up-gradation during the ensuing year. To start with, each school will be encouraged to come up with their own assessment of where they stand in the quality hierarchy and the slot they would like to reach in a year. The staff will then be guided to come up with a suitable plan of action within the scope of the Sikshana template that will enable them to reach their goals. During these interactions, it is emphasized that our role is essentially that of a Facilitator in the process and the plans/ goals will have to be owned by them. The Mentors are expected to play a key role in assessing the progress and providing a feedback to both the schools and the Trust for corrective action in case of shortfalls.   

Exchanges between our First/ Second Phase schools and the new ones will be encouraged at all levels. 

Volunteers will accompany the Mentors in the above school visits; it is expected that at least four out of the 10 projected will be available on a daily basis. A check list is proposed on the lines of Enclosure 8A, which will form part of the monitoring of the progress of the schools at the field level. This will be reviewed regularly both at Kanakapura and Bangalore . 

Since this is an experiment which is the first of its type, the efficacy of intervention through volunteering vis-à-vis the salaried Mentors on a scale such as this is to some extent uncertain at this stage and this need to be established over a period of time. 

Step 2

The initiatives in the schools under the Sikshana template will commence by the beginning of the academic year in June 08. These are adequately described under Part 1. The unique feature of the program lies in the approach to the task of rebuilding the image of the schools by the Trust and its Staff through a process of self reliance and self help aided by facilitation and guidance, without appearing to be ‘providers’ or ‘inspectors’ at any point of time.

Step 3

Even though Sikshana is a program aimed at Primary schools, it has its focus on ensuring that the momentum generated at this stage is carried to its logical conclusion by ensuring that the talented kids from this stream belonging to the deprived sections of the society get the opportunity that they deserve to realize their full potential in life. Towards this end, we provide a scholarship of Rs 150 per month to three deserving kids from each upper primary school through the three years of high schooling. This has two salutary effects: one of ensuring that these kids do not drop out of school for want of funds beyond 7th; and the other resulting in a cascading effect whereby 10 to 15 kids in each school raise themselves to a much higher level by taking to studies seriously in the 7^th Std itself. This scheme is an essential and integral part of Sikshana.

During the three years of this Phase, the number of students aspiring to this scholarship will increase from 240 in the second year to 480/ 720 in the third year and beyond. The staggered cash outflow is reflected in the budgeted estimates.  

5 Schedule of Implementation

This phase is essentially a Pilot Project with a time line of academic three years, starting from June 2008 and running up to May 2011. The first ‘year’ of intervention however is planned for a period of 18 months, commencing from Jan 08, though the cash flow during Jan- June 08 will be kept to a minimal level.   

Our past experience showed that initiation of a school in June invariably means that the benefits start reaching the kids only by Sep/ Oct of the year, thereby resulting in loss of valuable time during the academic year in progress. The current thinking is to announce the induction/ adoption of the schools in Jan 08 and go through the various steps involving sensitization and re-orientation of the staff listed under Step 1 above during the six months prior to the start of the first academic year.

6 Benchmarks for Progress

In order to establish the quantum of progress, we have examined the various methods currently used to assess academic standards in the public school system at the level of a school. We found that the one developed by the Azim Premji Foundation most suitable, especially for a program like ours. We have been following this model for the last three years with satisfactory results. The concepts underlying the tests as well as the outline of two typical papers are given under Enclosure 9. As may be seen, the tests are in two categories: lingual and arithmetic, applied in written and oral forms. Depending on the resources available, they may be carried out in one or more among classes 2 to 5. All children in a class are covered and the average obtained over the class may be taken as representative of the school, when applied at the optimum levels and numbers.

The assessment is done twice a year, once at start and the other at the end of an academic year, so as to obtain a picture of the impact of the program on the school. The schools are encouraged to aim at an improvement of 15% in the annual scores or a sustained score of 65 plus in the case of schools which are faring well at start. There are many Organizations in the State, who are competent to carry out this assessment in a professional manner; we have been utilizing a couple of them to do this for us in the past. Azim Premji Foundation provides support in the form of training the prospective assessors. With the increasing load under this project, we intend to use this resource and develop a set of committed persons for this effort.

Another benchmark used by us is based on the conventional tests provided for under the Syllabus and the Department guidelines. We have introduced one minor variation through the introduction of examinations with the grading system in Classes 1 to 4, under which the existing scheme calls only for a skill based chart to be furnished to the parents. This is very much in line with the expectations of the parents, who prefer this feedback to the others.  

In this case, we encourage the schools to aim at getting all kids in Classes V / VII to pass with Grades B or more. This is against a normally expected C+, which raises the bar from 35% to 50% in effect. The results of the first semester examinations are reviewed to ascertain the weaknesses and take remedial action to achieve this goal. The results in Classes 1 to 4 or in 6 are taken only as indicative and not for setting goals in view of two crucial factors:

Ø      The stipulation pertaining to admissions in a State run school: that a kid has to be taken into a class appropriate to his age irrespective of his prior schooling status

Ø      The fact that the upper primary schools get kids into 6^th Std from rural feeder schools which are invariably single teacher schools and hence with poor academic records

In the light of the prevailing standards in state run schools, a voluntary acceptance of a Grade B goal means a major improvement aimed at and achieved.

We have also identified a few qualitative benchmarks, which are as significant as above. The schools have been coming forward to accept the following goals in this category:

Ø      That all kids in Std 3, barring those with recognized handicaps, will be able to read and write fluently non-text book Kannada content appropriate to their level; this is against a prevailing scenario in which 30% plus kids cannot read or write in their mother tongue even in Fifth 

Ø      A similar target for computational skills in Class 4; and a minimal power of expression by Class 5  as evidenced by ability to talk on any given subject fluently for 3 minutes

It may be noted here, that with the introduction of mid-day meals by the Government, attendance of registered kids has ceased to be a factor to be taken serious cognizance of; and dropouts are directly indicative of the parents’ lack of confidence in the quality of the schooling system, rather than a lack of understanding on how important education is to their kids.  

7 Budget Estimates

The project is estimated to cost Rs 5280 k ($139k) / Rs 5938 k ($156k)/ and Rs 6596 k ($174k), during its three years of implementation. The details are given under Enclosure 2.

Enclosure 1

Schools selected under Phase III