Annual Report Aide-Et-Action, Feb 2009 Oct 2009

Annual Report Back to Basics Programme to Improve Quality of Education in Primary Schools – Chandampet and Devarkonda Mandals, Nalgonda District

Supported by Aide-et-Action, Feb 2009 – Oct 2009

Date: 24-Jan-10
Report Prepared by:
K Sumalata
P Sri Laxmi
B Prameela
S Ramulu
A Hyma
K Naveen Babu
Dr V Rukmini Rao / Gramya Resource Centre for Women
12-13-440,Street no 1, Tarnaka
Secunderabad 500017.India
email:
website:
Phone: 0091-40-27002947

Index

Introduction / 3
About Gramya / 3
About the Community / 3
Status of Education in Lamabadi Thandas / 4
B2B Programme / 5
Official Enrollment Data and the Reality / 5
Competency Assessment / 12
Cause for the Current Situation - Issues which affect quality / 20
Positive Efforts by SSA / 23
B2B Interventions and Our Strategy / 23
Regular Follow Up / 23
Results and Analysis of CCA II Phase in Devarkonda and Chandampet Mandal, Nalgonda District, Andhra Pradesh / 24
Interventions / 24
Results / 25
Comparative Analysis / 40
Improvement of Education / 40
Responses from the Community / 44
The Way Forward / 48
Annexure I : List of Villages / 49

Annual Report Aide-et-Action, Feb 2009 – Oct 2009

Prepared by GramyaResourceCenter for Women

Introduction

About Gramya

Gramya’s development initiatives in Chandampet and Devarkonda mandal started with its intervention to stop female infanticide and sale of girl babies in 1997. As a result of Gramya’s campaigns the “backward” status of the area was highlighted. At the time there were few roads to the interior villages and government development efforts did not reach the people. In Chandampet, very few schools were functioning. In the twelve villages where Gramya started work, though there were a few school buildings teachers were not available or came to school occasionally. The first intervention that Gramya took up with the support of state government was to set up 12 schools in their area of operations. These schools were supported by CRY for several years and strategically Gramya handed over the schools to DPEP. Since then Gramya has been running a hostel cum school as a bridge school to mainstream girl’s education. The B2B programme supported by Aid-et-Action provides us with a new opportunity to promote child rights and quality education in the area.

About the Community

The report “A Community Besieged” prepared by Gita Ramaswamy and Bhangya Bhukya supported by UNICEF and Government of Andhra Pradesh highlights the difficult terrain and living conditions of lambada tribal community who inhabit this area. The report highlights abject poverty, lack of access to all government schemes and educational deprivation in the community. Infant and child mortality rates among the community are extremely high. For example,

Infant and Child Mortality Rate (per thousand)

Rural (NHFS)STs (NHFS)Lambadas (in survey)

0-178.6 103.6108.7

Below 5102.1 115.6162.8

Review of Current Status of Primary Education in 100 Schools of Devarkonda and Chandampet Mandal, Nalgonda District

Status of Education in Lamabadi Thandas

The report has also recorded the status of education in lambada thandas in Andhra Pradesh. “Sixty thandas reported access to schools. (This does not mean that there was a school in the thanda itself. It could also mean that the children were sent to the nearest school.) We noticed a peculiar feature in some Mandals, particularly Bala Nagar, where there were 48 schools funded by the DPEP, but not a single teacher. We would have visited at least 18 of these schools at some time of the school-day, but there was no teacher. Our common query then became, “when did the teacher last come to your school? and the answer would be 12 days, 15 days, even more. These nearest big town, where they and their wives worked at side businesses, we were told. We even discovered that the local School Committee had complained several times to the local Mandal Education Officer, but to no avail. The para-teacher (the Vidya volunteer) however was inevitably present, though we cannot vouch whether he took classes seriously at all. Parents however, were unanimous in their opinion that their children were not taught in the schools.”

Vidya volunteers felt, “DPEP schools in the thandas are considered low-grade schools by teachers. The schools being exclusively in the thandas, the teachers do not care – a reflection of what they think of the lambada community in general. If the DPEP schools had been attended by Reddy children, say the Vidya volunteers, teachers would have taken pains to attend and teach. That is, there is visible discrimination against the lambadas. When we asked the lambadas what facilities the teacher would have, if he could stay in the thanda, they said they would worship the ground he walked on. They would provide him a house, plenty of milk and grain. Why would we not do that to the teacher, they asked us.” While this report was prepared in 2001, the ground reality has changed only marginally.

B2B Programme

At the start of the programme, Gramya staff identified 100 schools where the programme was to be taken up. The two mandals of Devarkonda and Chandam Pet were chosen. The connectivity to the villages is extremely poor with only single bus services during the day. Many villages are not connected through public transport. People use private autos which are extremely expensive and erratic or have to walk to the villages. This also means that teachers have difficulty in reaching schools.

Official Enrollment Data and the Reality

The initial enrollment data was collected from 53 schools in Devarkonda and 47 schools in Chandampet mandal. Out of these, 10 are UpperPrimary Schools and the rest Primary Schools. The list of schools is annexed (Annexure I). The official enrollment data showed following figures:

Mandal: Devarkonda
I Class / II Class / III Class / IV Class / V Class / Total
1204 / 736 / 589 / 517 / 467 / 3513

Mandal: Chandam Pet
I Class / II Class / III Class / IV Class / V Class / Total
692 / 259 / 191 / 165 / 144 / 1451

The total for 100 schools was

Mandal: Devarkonda and Chandampet
I Class / II Class / III Class / IV Class / V Class / Total
1204 / 736 / 589 / 517 / 467 / 3513
692 / 259 / 191 / 165 / 144 / 1451
1896 / 995 / 780 / 682 / 611 / 4964

In contrast to the above enrollment figures collected in February – March 2009 we found the actual number of students attending classes was much lower except in Chandampet Mandal. The Children Competency Assessment (CCA) which was carried out in July 2009 after the new enrollments for the year highlighted the following:

Children who participated in Competency Assessment

Devarkonda Mandal

Boys / Girls
DEVARKONDA OVERALL ENROLLMENT / 1804 / 1709
CHILDREN WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE ASSESSMENT / 515 / 680
Reduced Percentage Difference / 71.46% / 60.22%

As we can see from the data, the number of children actually present in school is much lower than the enrollment figure. In Devarkonda Mandal, only 28.54% of boys and 39.78% of girls were in school. While we can assume that some short fall is due to absenteeism due to normal reasons such as ill health, the large variation calls for further investigation on the local situation.

The situation in Chandampet can be seen from the data below:

Chandampet Mandal

Boys / Girls
CHANDAMPET OVERALL ENROLLMENT / 785 / 666
CHILDREN WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE ASSESSMENT / 700 / 681
Reduced Percentage Difference / 11.9% / +2.2%

The situation in Chandampet is different. 89.17% of boys are actually in class while the enrollment of girls appears to have increased marginally on school re-opening in June.
Overall Status

Boys / Girls / Total / % Reduction
Overall Enrollment / 2589 / 2375 / 4964 / 49.1%
Participated in CCA / 1215 / 1361 / 2576

The discrepancy in overall data is enormous with actual enrollment being only 49.1%. The figure may be slightly higher if we taken into account normal absenteeism.

Sex Ratio

Devarkonda

Girls / Boys
680 / 515

Chandampet

Girls / Boys
653 / 659

Devarkonda

Girls / Boys / Total / Girls % / Boys %
680 / 515 / 1195 / 56.90 / 43.10

Chandampet

Girls / Boys / Total / Girls % / Boys %
653 / 659 / 1312 / 49.77 / 50.23
Girls / Boys
Devarkonda / 680 / 515
Chandampet / 653 / 659
Total / 1333 / 1174
% / 53.17 / 46.83

In Devarkonda, the number of girls enrolled is higher than boys and in Chandam Pet it is marginally lower. While mainstream thinking suggests that girls are discriminated against and therefore enrollment figures for girls should be lower. Here we find a reverse trend with 53% girls enrolled in comparison to 46% boys. However, it should be noted that this once again reflects gender bias against girls. On discussion with the community and teachers we found that boys are given preference for better quality education and therefore parents are spending Rs. 5 to Rs. 10,000 per year and are enrolling boys in private English medium schools. Boys are also mainstreamed as a priority into government social welfare hostels. On the other hand parents are reluctant to spend money on their daughters and therefore are sending them to the local government school.

In Devarkonda, we can see that many more boys would have been sent to private schools. This is also a reflection of greater proximity to the mainstream as well as better economic development of Devarkonda. In contrast Chandampet mandal is more backward with a large number of lambadi families living in remote villages in sub human conditions. They are not in a position to send their boys to private schools. Therefore greater equality is reflected here.

Competency Assessment

The measurement of competencies has to be seen in view of the above. Aide-et-Action provided centralized assessment formats to review whether the children had minimum competencies.

Simple competency assessments were carried out for each class. Class I was exempted. For class II minimum levels of learning were assessed by a Reading test, writing test, Addition test and Subtraction test. For Class III to Class V competencies were assessed for reading, writing, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The same test was used for all the classes since minimum levels of learning were measured. The results can be seen below.

Class II

Class II Data
Strength / Read / Write / Add / Subtract
Devarkonda / 630 / 281 / 242 / 291 / 206
Chandam Pet / 529 / 204 / 155 / 228 / 177
Total / 1159 / 485 / 397 / 519 / 383
Percentage% / 42 / 34.3 / 44.8 / 33.05

As can be seen from the data, a majority of the children have not acquired the necessary reading and writing skills. Less than half the children can read while only 1/3 are able to write the alphabet. Examining the Arithmatic skills we once again find that only 44.8% children can add, and 33.05% can subtract. Only 3.3% children possess both the abilities

Class III

Class III Data
Strength / Read / Write / Add / Subtract / Multiply / Divide
Devarkonda / 444 / 166 / 95 / 177 / 155 / 99 / 62
Chandam Pet / 309 / 171 / 74 / 129 / 99 / 67 / 40
Total / 753 / 337 / 169 / 306 / 254 / 166 / 102
Percentage% / 44.75 / 22.44 / 40.64 / 33.73 / 22.05 / 13.55

Once again we find that 44.75% children can read while only 22.44% were able to write down words correctly. Only 4.46% are able to accomplish both the tasks.

Examining arithmetic skills, we find that 40.64% children are able to add, 33.73% are able to subtract, 22.05% are able to multiply and only 13.55% are able to carry out divisions. The assessment reflected poor skills of the students. Only 0.19% children could carry out all the arithmetic functions.

Class IV

Class IV Data
Strength / Read / Write / Add / Subtract / Multiply / Divide
Devarkonda / 491 / 260 / 182 / 285 / 212 / 211 / 90
Chandam Pet / 271 / 105 / 71 / 172 / 151 / 104 / 43
Total / 762 / 365 / 253 / 457 / 363 / 315 / 133
Percentage% / 47.9 / 33.2 / 60 / 48 / 41.34 / 17.45

In class IV also we find that only 47.9% children can read which is a marginal improvement from class III where only 44.8% could read. We again find that only 5.32% children can read and write which is a dismal reflection of teaching and learning in the class room.

The figure once again highlights that children’s arithmetic abilities are reduced as new functions are introduced. 60% children can add, 48% can subtract, 41.34% can multiply and only 17.45% are able to do divisions. Only 0.29% is able to carry out all the functions. This data highlights the enormous learning disadvantages with which children are burdened as they move up the school hierarchy.

Class V

Class V Data
Strength / Read / Write / Add / Subtract / Multiply / Divide
Devarkonda / 470 / 260 / 281 / 317 / 276 / 206 / 107
Chandam Pet / 218 / 147 / 100 / 162 / 140 / 114 / 83
Total / 688 / 407 / 381 / 479 / 416 / 320 / 190
Percentage% / 59.2 / 55.4 / 69.6 / 60 / 47 / 27.6

In class V reading ability has improved to the level that 59.2% are able to read and 55.4% are able to write simple words. This still highlights the poor performance of students at this level since they should have mastered the skills to read and write in previous classes. Only 8.31% are able to read and write which is a very low figure.

The arithmetic skills also continue to be at a low level with only 0.49% children able to perform all the four operations. Though the children’s ability is improved to add and subtract. There are a number of reasons for the poor performance of the children in the two mandals. These are discussed below.

Cause for the Current Situation - Issues which affect quality

Language

One of the major problems children face is of language. The lambadi children speak their own mother tongue and are disadvantaged from the first day at school. While we do not have the overall figures of the class and caste of teachers we are aware that very few are from the lambadi community. There is no attempt to bridge the language divide and help the children to learn Telugu. Telugu is a foreign language for the children but there is no attempt to teach it as such. Traditional text books with alphabets and photographs naming animals and other objects in Telugu language immediately distance the children. While lambadi teachers may be able to involve the children in activities, teachers from other communities are at a disadvantaged unless they know lambadi language.

Geographical Spread of Villages

Devarkonda and Chandampet mandal as mentioned earlier are poorly connected. The thandas are located away from mainstream villages. While schools in larger and mixed villages appear to function more regularly we find that schools in thandas are neglected. Teachers are not available in school and the community is not able to take them to task. Since teachers have to walk or own their own transport to reach remote schools on time we find such schools are more neglected.

Infrastructure

While most of the schools have pucca building all the children are seated in one or two rooms which disturb classroom interaction. In some schools, toilets have been physically provided but due to lack of water, none of them are functioning. Children with physical disability do not have access to the schools. In many schools children with a variety of disability were recognized but the teachers have not been provided training to deal with such children.

Limited use of Available Teaching Materials

The SSA has provided story cards and encourages teachers to decorate the classroom with alphabets etc. However during field visits we found that teachers are not using all the material available to them.

Teacher Attendance

In some cases the government appointed teachers were not coming to school regularly. The local para teachers appointed as Vidya volunteers were running the schools. As such the improvements in children’s competencies by additional appointment of teachers were not visible.

Teachers not planning lessons regularly

While teachers are expected to plan their lessons regularly there was no evidence of this.

Classroom Transactions

Observations in the classroom showed that children were passive. Some children could be found sleeping at the back of the class when the classes were going on. Some of the children could answer questions which were included in the text book but when questioned otherwise they could not give answers to simple questions. This was clearly due to rote learning practiced in the schools.

Fearful Children

It was found that generally children were fearful to come forward to speak and interact. They also appeared afraid to write/read perhaps expecting disapproval from adults.

Problems due to Migration

Since the area is a rain shadow region, and most lambadi families own little land or poor quality land they are forced to migrate in search of work. Families either go for seasonal migration to neighboring districts such as Guntur as agriculture labor or move to Hyderabad to undertake whatever daily work is available usually in the construction industry. For seasonal migration, parents take away their children for a few months at a time. Children kept away from school for long periods are likely to drop out. When some return they are “left behind” in their learning.

Functioning of School Committees

Even though thandas/village parent committees were present on paper, few committees were working.

Non Availability of Text Books

In all the schools children have not received their arithmetic, and science textbooks from classes III to V. In many villages schools have not received social studies text books for class V. In class I and II children have received all their books. The non availability of textbooks even three months after school has started not only disadvantages children but also de-motivates teachers who feel handicapped and helpless.

Non Payment of Para-Teachers Salaries

Most of the schools are run and managed by Vidya volunteers in the SSA. They have not received their salaries and this obviously once again de-motivates them.