Asha for Education November 2005 Nemmilikuppam Project Proposal

1. Asha for Education November 2005 Nemmilikuppam Project Proposal Asha AZ Project Champion –Mukund Asha Chennai Contacts – Lakshmi and Rajaraman

2. After due diligence and site visits and estimates from volunteers with thehelp of the experts in this field Asha Chennai has come up with a proposal and fairly clear estimate of the costs involved for the following: 1) Construction of rooms and painting,2) A resource room cum computer room cum library, 3) Learning-teaching and sports materials,4) Teacher salaries Following documents for the project are on the projects webpage. 1) Project Proposal for the Panchayat Union School, Nemmililuppam 2) Initial list of questions from the AshaAZ project champion 3) Answers from AshaChennai contacts to the list of questions 4) More questions and answers

3. Rebuilding Tsunami Affected School at Nemmilikuppam Panchayat Union Primary School, Nemmeli, Perur Post, Kanchipuram Dist., Tamil Nadu 603104 Brought to Asha Chennai notice by Sandhya Sundar, a volunteer with Asha Chennai. Nemmelikuppam was one of the villages badly hit by the tsunami on 26.12.2004. In the course of relief and rehabilitation work at this village, the volunteers came in contact with the Nemmeli Panchayat Union Primary School, which caters to a number of villages of the area, including tsunami-hit villages along the coast. The school caters to children between the ages of 5 and 11

4. Asha Chennai submitted a formal project proposal to Asha AZ on November 12 2005. Refer to the project proposal on the project website. Following project constructions have taken place: 1) Compound wall – provided by employees of GE 2) Tsunami relief funds [Rs. 25000/-] collected from friends to provide the following: a) Water tank to store drinking water b) Piping to draw water from the well to the toilets c) Taps in the toilets. d) Motor and a closed room and necessary electrical work to draw water from the well to a storage tank.

5. Project Details and Estimates

6. Fund Requirement Information/Summary Total cost is as follows: Construction and painting – Rs 7.07 Lakhs Teaching/Learning materials – Rs 0.79 Lakhs Teacher Salaries and Miscellaneous Expenses – Rs 1.35 Lakhs Total Cost for the project – Rs 9.21 Lakhs – USD 21,930.00 @ $1= Rs 42 (This is what AshaChennai get after bank charges) Total Cost for the Asha AZ part of the funding: ~ USD 21,930.00

7. Nemmilikuppam Project • List of initial questions and answers from Asha Chennai: • a) Pl provide details for all the three schools (primary, middle, and high) for the following: • Ans: This information is for the primary school only. The middle and high school are also run by the govt. (panchayat). Their accounts are different. The only reason we gave the details was to emphasize that the children of this school have opportunities for further schooling upto Class 10 in their neighbour hood • 1) Number of students: • Ans 250- Boys 126, Girls 124 (find this info in the proposal below) • 2) Girls to boys ratio : • Ans 1:1 • 3) Number of teachers : • Ans :2 from the govt. 3 from the Parent teacher association; 1 Noon meal organizer of the govt who also helps with the teaching- total 6 • 4) Classes being taught: • Ans:Std 1 to 5- No of sections in each class- • Std 1 = 2sections • Std 2 = 1 section • Std 3 = 2 sections • Std 4 – 2 sections • Std 5 = 1 section • Total = 8 sections

8. Nemmilikuppam Project b) What is the means of support currently for the school (where do they get the funds to run the school)? Ans: This is a panchayat school- meaning school run by the local govt. of the village. So funding comes from the govt. The school has a responsible Parent Teacher Association, which helps with additional teacher support and some other requirements. c) Are the students paying fees? Ans: No. It is a totally free school. Govt. provides the noon meal and text books to all the children, salaries for teachers appointed by it. d) What are the primary means of livelihood for the people in this area? Ans: Fishing and agriculture e) Does the school currently provide mid-day meals? Ans:Yes, this is under the govt. noon meal scheme f) How many meals a day are the students having now? Ans: One meal during the mid day- lunch of rice, dal (sambar) and some minimum vegetables

9. Nemmilikuppam Project g) If AshaAZ provides the hall, kitchen (this got left out in your question ) and store room, who will provide the funds for the midday meals? Ans: The funds are already there from the Govt for the noon meals. The children always sit in their classrooms during lunch. The good feeling of having a place for everything is important. Quality improvement of the school can happen if there are places where children can be together like an assembly hall, which also doubles up as the lunch area, also as a place where children can speak in larger audiences for improving self confidence. The school open hall is a very important aspect of any good school and the objective of this proposal is to make it a “good school” with a distinct flavour of good school culture …. h) Who will be overseeing/monitoring the project from Asha Chennai? Asha :From asha Chennai- Right now it is Sandhya and Lakshmi as volunteers. The local noon meal organizer and the headmaster will take responsibility of getting things organized. They have both together got the improvements like building the compound wall … as well as running the PTA. During the construction period we also propose to have one person Natesan who well known to me and very responsible and honest who can stay in the place in a local shelter, during the months of April and May to work as well as report to us from Nemmillikuppam.The village will be able to accommodate that.

10. Nemmilikuppam Project i) Does the school have sufficient class rooms, toilets, etc? Ans: Yes. There is an additional building which is now being repaired with the help of locals and some other donors. This will provide for the additional requirement of rooms. Also group activities like indoor games can also be conducted in the open hall proposed to you. j) Who does the cleaning and night watchman duties now? Ans: The cleaning as such needs to improve. Right now this is one of the problems. This is right now randomly done by students and staff. Once the school improves it is important that vandals are kept out and also that the school is facilities like common areas are well maintained. The children are only 5-11 years old – they cannot manage cleaning on their own. quality of the learning teaching process.

11. Nemmilikuppam Project k) Wouldn’t it be possible for the middle/high school accountant to the accounting for the primary school? Is it really a critical need to have this accountant? Ans: The school accounts as mentioned earlier is different for the three sections of the school. The headmaster does all this besides attend meetings and take classes- so invariably the classes suffer. The accts asst. can help him in all the routine matters including the delivery of statistics to the Lead dist. Authorities-The AEO (Asst. education Officer)… This will free the HM for academic work and also improvement in the school based student activities. Thios condition is not unique to this school alone. This is the problem in all govt. schools. If we address this in this school we will be able to see quite some improvement in the quality of the learning teaching process. l) Is there currently a shortage of teachers in the primary school that necessitates the hiring of 2 new teachers? Ans: Yes. Question a) Point 4 addresses this.

12. Nemmilikuppam Project m) What are the other avenues for funding if AshaAZ does not approve? I am trying to (for my own self) understand/gauge how critical the needs are. Ans: There is a good need. The people do not seem to have the sources for such work right now. All these are critical needs of the school for improvement. With the increased strength after the Tsunami the school will suffer if the schools amenities do not keep pace particularly materials and teachers. Also in the long run working with the govt. schools is one thing that asah Chennai feels is a big solution for improvement in quality of education. n) It would be great if you could send me few pictures of the school and the immediate area surrounding the school along with the answers to the questions. Ans: Some pictures of Nemmillikuppam people and children are in the website in the Back to school page. There are boat pictures on the launch of boats in April with me that need to be uploaded. I shall try and see if I can get some people to get pictures of the school and its neighbouring areas. This may take a while – cannot be done so easily now as the weather is not reliable. May have to be done on a weekend.