New Project Proposal for

Asha for Education, Austin Chapter

UDAY SAMUDAYIK PATHSHALA GSK - GIRIRAJPURA (RAJASTHAN)

Introduction• UDAY Saamudaayik Pathshala, Girirajpura is the newest school that Gramin Shiksha Kendra initiated on 5th March 2014.

• The school is located about 45 kilometers from Sawai Madhopur and is part of Tonk District’s Aligarh block.

• This school serves mainly relocated community of two villages.

• Currently, it has 45 children – 27 boys and 18 girls and 2 teachers. The teacher-pupil ratio is 1:22.

About Girirajpura• Girirajpura is a small village located four kilometers from Amli Railway station on Delhi – Mumbai mainline.• This is a newly formed village. Villagers from two villages (Mor Dungari and Padra) in core of Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve were relocated here in 2012. • It took almost two years for them to settle down, make their houses, start agriculture, start day to day religious rituals etc.• Gramin Shiksha Kendra has played a very important role in the just relocation package of the village.• Due to regular interactions with the community on their rights and with the Forest Department on their responsibility by the organization, the villagers have been happily relocated.

How it started… • The community had been demanding for the Uday Samudayik Pathshala in their new village from GSK and has been insisting the forest department and district administration for the same. • The forest department wrote to Gramin Shiksha Kendra in January 2014 requesting to start a Uday Pathshala for children of Girirajpura. • They also provided a peace of 10 acres of community land a three room school building.• The nearest elementary school to this village is 4 km away near the Amli Railway station, that too on the other side of the very busy railway line. • There is also a private school in Amli but it is also located on the other side of the railway station at 4 km from Girirajpura.

Academic – Teachers and StudentsSr. No

Name of teacher

Educational Qualification

Group

1. Mr. Ashok Sharma

MA, B.Ed. School Leader; Primary

2. Mr Shailendra Singh

MA, B.Ed. Pre Primary

GroupNo. of enrolled children

Average Attendance % AttendanceBoys Girls Total

Pre- Primary 16 5 21 18 86

Primary 11 13 24 22 92

Sub-total 27 18 40 89

Grand-total 45

Pre-Primary• Pre-primary group (3-6 Years) is comprised of 21 children of 3-6 years. • These 21 children are further divided into 2 sub-groups according to their ages and the year of admission to the school. • 10 children in 1st sub-group • 11 children in 2nd sub-group.

• This group runs for 4 hours each day.

Pre-Primary - Activities• The activities like dance, music and dramatics are taken as an

integrated whole. • Children are encouraged to join in singing and dancing on

balgeet (children songs). • Activities linked to drawing, painting and clay modelling and

collage making are part of the daily routine. • A similar trend is followed in class I and II, with further

additions such as copying shapes, origami etc. • The exposure to varied forms and mediums is increased with

each successive class. The curriculum developed by GSK team is followed in the school.

Primary• There are 24 students who are divided among 2 different groups of 12 children each. There are children from class I to class V level in both groups. • 7 children are at class I level• 8 children are at class II level• 2 children are at class IV level• 7 children are class V level.

• Both teachers work with the groups. A single teacher teaches all the subjects to her assigned group.

Primary – Curriculum/Activities• The objective is to encourage creativity and self-expression and

also, enhance aesthetic sense. • Topics taught• Arts and craft • Sports• English• Hindi• Mathematics• Environmental studies.

• SIERT textbooks prescribed by the state government as our major reference point for teaching. • Use children literature from various sources and the learning

levels developed by the organization over a period of practice. • Use TLM for understand comprehensive knowledge about

subject related things.

Sharing, Monitoring, & Reporting @ School Level

• Each day, after school hours teachers sit together to plan for the teaching/lesson planning for the next day and recording the progress of student for the day (CCE). Teachers share their problems in the group and plan according to the suggestions made by the peer group. • The senior team members visit school often and they guide teachers, if needed.• Every Thursday, a half-day meeting of teachers is organized i.e. four such meeting per month to take stock of things. • 1st Thu - teachers review the academic work done against the

school annual plan. • 2nd Thu - dedicated to SMC meeting. • 3rd Thu - meant for sharing academic problems and seeking

solution collectively.• 4th Thu - share the progress of the children with the community

according to our daily evaluation records.

Sharing, Monitoring, & Reporting @ Org. Level

• Monthly Workshop-1. The monthly workshop of 2-day is organized where teachers share their

monthly report with all the other members.

2. Generally, we discuss the processes of work and the problems faced and try to seek solutions collectively.

3. These workshops are also a platform for teachers to raise any particular subject-content related issue for discussion or any other issue of particular concern related to school, children or community.

4. During this reporting period we hold these workshops regularly, where we shared our monthly reports and planned for the coming months.

• Core-team (Review and Planning) meeting-1. This is a bi-monthly meeting, in which the members of the core team of

the organization meet. There are 8 members in the core team, including the Secretary of the organization.

2. The agenda of the meeting is decided collaboratively and shared with the team in advance.

3. During these meetings, we reviewed the decisions made in the previous meetings and tracked the progress of the accomplishment of set individual or group targets.

Working with Community • SMC (School Management Committee) Meetings - SMC is a 14-members committee comprised of the representatives from local villages, parents, school teachers and a few nominated members. • The aims of SMC monthly meetings were as follows: • Reorganization of SMC and ensure female representation• Setting up of admission norms for the school• Motivating the SMC and making them more aware about their

rights• Apprising them of the decisions taken by the organization (GSK)

for the school• Discussions on the necessary resource requirements for the

school

Working with Community • Interaction with Local community • It is mandatory for male teachers to live in the villages. This

gives them opportunities to interact with the community members on a daily basis. This helps in building strong bonds with the community.

•Weekly home visits by teachers-• Teachers visit the homes of their children once a week and

share the progress and difficulties faced by the child with their parents. They also try to find solutions and know more about their children from parents.

Professional Development of Teachers• Regular Professional Development activities are conducted. • Recently a 4-day October (Deepawali) Workshop was held.• focus was capacity building of teachers of different levels. • Teachers who are making TLM (clay modelling, mask designing

etc.) at various levels worked on the understanding of pedagogy.

Site Visit• Murali recently visited Girirajpura when Kilol was happening. He narrated his experience in the meeting and showed pictures from his visit. • Will ask him to write up a report.

Q&A – from earlier meetingsQues. What is involved in legal formalities ? What is the current understanding between Uday Girirajpura, villagers, forest department about ownership of the land and use of it.

Ans. legal formalities - affiliation to rajasthan board. everything belongs to the village. They have been asked by the forest dept and villagers to provide education.

Ques. Is the increase in number of students shown per year estimated based on migration rate ?

Ans. # of children based on the relocation plan decided by local administration

Q&A – from earlier meetings Ques. Original budget was 5.17 lakh but in the new sheet its 6.25 lakh. What was the reason for increase ?

Ans. He was travelling so did not know the exactly why. More likely it was to keep salaries consistent with other schools.

Ques.

- What is the motivation behind being a resource center ?

- Who will conduct government teacher workshop ? Who pays for it ?

- Who will be running the training centre ? What is the plan for that ?

Ans. Resource Center concept is for GSK in general. GSK's goal is not to open and run more and more schools. Their goal is to set examples in education for govt. school teachers. They can implement ideas, innovating ways of teaching. Govt. teachers are invited to come. Govt does not send them, they come on their own free will. The resource center is done by GSK at location where schools exist. Depending on the capacity and capability of the school and its teacher, they can also organize these workshops. Typically these would be organized at the school itself.

RTE Compliance• The school is affiliated to the state education board and they comply with almost all the RTE norms.

• There is a bit of concern in the infrastructure part but that is due to lack of resources.

• They are trying to get the resources for the infrastructure so that they can comply with the RTE norms in that area also.

Looking forward … • The Forest Department is planning to relocate 3-4 more villages from the core of Ranthambhore to this location.

• The population of this village is going to be around 250-300 families in a few years and the number of children will be 200-250.

• This number is good enough establish this new Uday as resource school to support 20-25 government schools in the area.

VOTEAPPROVE A BUDGET OF RS. 824040 ($13178.43) FOR THE YEAR 2015-16 FOR UDAY SAMUDAYIK PATHSHALA, GIRIRAJPURA (RAJASTHAN)

Current Exchange Rate 1 USD = 62.53 INR