Tomorrow’s Foundation Site Visit in Kolkata

July 01, 2015 (Wednesday)

Visit to TF main headquarters in Kolkata

I met with four staff at the Tomorrow’s Foundation headquarters: SaswatiMartes, PradipMondal, Arup Ghosh, and Arpan Bhattacharya. The visit began by Pradip giving me a high level overview of the organizations history, mission statement, and projects. Pradip started TFin Kolkata with his brother1990 as an informal school to tutor kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. Today the organization operates in three states in India (West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand) and hosts a variety of different educational and vocational programs for students and their families.

Project overviews

The programs operating which Pradip explained to me in depth are The Model School, Uttaran, Charaibeti, and the Mother Project.

  • The Model School is a school with two defining aspects that set it apart from mainstream schools: (1) the teaching style is based on “activity based learning” (ABL) which is a form of interactive teaching (2) in each grade level, teaching materials are partitions in to three categories based on different tiers of difficulty: low, average, and high. The goal is to target students to their current competency for each subject, so they can improve. The goal of the Model School is to create an environment which makes learning more interactive, adaptable, and thus enjoyable for the students, the affect being that students will enjoy learning and want to come to school and will receive a better education and retain more information.
  • The Mother Project is an after school tutoring program targeted to government school students. It also uses ABL and the three-tiered competency levels for each grade. The goal of the program is to supplement students’ regular education and help them learn better and identify and improve on weaknesses in their current education.
  • Charaibeti is a special education program targeted to students with disabilities. This program was initiated because poorer children with disabilities are at risk of having their education compromised if they require special private school programs which their families can’t afford. This program not only services education for the children, it also provides various therapies such as physiotherapy, speech therapy, and occupational training. Furthermore, it is a mobile program operating out of a bus, which goes to the homes of the students as opposed to having the students come to them.
  • Uttaran is a residential school project targeted to children in Chhattisgarh who have been displaced due to political violence. This program was initiated due to the fact that occasionally schools in villages of Chhattisgarh are destroyed due to the political violence, which limits educational opportunities to the children living there. Furthermore, children who become orphaned as a result of the political violence are often shifted back and forth to various family members in the aftermath, and their education no longer becomes a priority. This project provides a residential school for the children to live at throughout the duration of their education, so that they can ensure they have a place to stay and continue their education.

Discussion with Arpan about home visits in Chhattisgarh

Pradip mentioned several times about the children’s right to education. He mentioned there was an act, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which passed in 2009 in India, which mandates by law that all children up until the age of 14 have a right to attend a school, and not be restricted due to inability to pay for tuitions, books, uniforms, etc. He explained that there is still a lot of misconception around the right to education, and some people do not know the details of the act. Especially in rural areas, he explained that there is sometimes a culture of keeping kids at home beyond a primary school level to help with the family and household chores. Arpan speaks to families directly and tries to explain to them not only the legal implications of keeping kids from school, but suggests solutions of howchildren can go to school and still be a functioning member of the home – have the “best of both worlds”. TF believes it is important to approach communities with empathy and understandingand by suggesting ways to integrate the new approach (getting education) with the old one (keeping the kids at home), rather than trying to convince families they are wrong. The hope is that a family will be more receptive to these integrative solutions, and if one family sees the merit in sending their kids to school at higher levels, then other families in the community will start doing the same. Note – Arpan has since been transferred to Kolkata, and only goes to Chhattisgarh when needed.

High level goal of organizationand strategy for achieving goal

After describing the main projects, Pradip explained the high level mission statement of the program – they do not wish to be an organization that runs schools, rather they present their current programs as “laboratories”, examples to the government of a different, effective approach to education.The hope is this evidence will be sufficient, and local governments will be willing to adopt the new form of education and that it will spread throughout the country. For governments willing to try out the new style of education, TF offers to train teachers and assist with setting up the school. Pradip was adamant that TF is not an “activist” organization in the sense; they do not wish to private schools within communities, nor do they wish to go to the government demanding reform the by trying to convince them to adopt their new style of education. They believe their goal of making slow systematic change can be best achieved by providing evidence of an effective alternative to the current education system in India’s government schools, and presenting this evidence to the government with an offer to help replicate it.

Visit to masjid community to meet families

Saswatiand ShilaChatterjeeaccompanied me to one of the neighborhood communities, “masjid area”, where many of the students from the Mother Project live. Shila is familiar with the neighborhood and performs regular site visits to students’ homes. For example, if a student has not attended class for a few days, she visits their home personally to check on the welfare of the student and enquire if they are planning on returning to school. I accompanied Shila and Saswati for several site visits where I was introduced to students and their families.

Mother Project site visit

Upon leaving the masjid area we went to the Mother Project at 13/1 Nepal Battacharjee Street. This program is held at the same government building where the model school operates during the day, on weekdays between 5:30 – 8:30 PM. On the weekend there are also programs for the students which mainly include art activities, yoga, and other recreational activities.

Upon arrival I met with multiple teachers. The teachers described the activity based learning approach (ABL). The goal of ABL is to focus less on rote memorization and bland learning materials, and instead engage students’ creativity and encourage participation in the classroom. The desired affect is that learning will be more enjoyable for the students so they will be less likely to abandon their education and encouraged to put in the hard work at a young age to learn. The teaching materials were all handmade, very creative materials that were developed to catch the attention of the students and make learning more enjoyable for them. Examplesare hand drawn worksheets flashcards with plenty of pictures to make language learning more enjoyable for the kids. Another example was a set of book projects where each student would contribute a page of art and writing explaining a certain topic, as part of their English or Bengali studies, and the pages were all compiled in to full books for the children to read afterward. The kids have great fun compiling these books, and so have an incentive to do the work. Each grade has a separate set of teaching materials for the three competency levels – low, average, and high.

Example of handmade ABL (activity based learning) teaching materials

After meeting the teachers I met with the students who were attending the Mother Project. I met each of the secondary school and college students individually and they told me their name and major study focus. I was able to spend the most time then with four students who had just finished their bachelor’s studies and were waiting on the results: LaboniSarkar, SrikantaNaskar, SubrotoDutta, and SomnathSen. Laboni, Subroto, and Somnath are all currently supported by ASV, and Srikanta is formerly supported by ASV until 2013 when he began earning and supporting himself.

Secondary and post-secondary school students at the Mother Project

Post-secondary grads: left to right: LaboniSarkar, SrikantaNaskar, SubrotoDutta, SomnathSen

After meeting with the students, I went to each of the classes and sat in briefly. There is a class for each grade that is taught from primary school up to 12th standard. In each class I was able to witness the interactive learning methods, which involved a variety of games for younger students and classroom participation for the older students.

Ganesh Mondal (grade IV) playing the “clock game” to learn to tell analogue time

DebashisSen (grade IX) answering questions on the board in Bengali class

NamitaMondal (grade VI) filling out answers on board to address the negation of an English sentence

The classrooms provided a very judgment free atmosphere. If a student was struggling with an answer or provided the wrong answer, there were no negative repercussions nor were they made to feel bad. Instead the teacher and students worked together to help them to get the right answer and understand why their answer had been incorrect. The students appeared to enjoy going up to the board to participate rather than being hesitant. It was an overall positive and fun environment.

July 06, 2015 (Monday)

Visit with Finance Team

I returned to the TF headquarters where I met with the finance team, which included SaswatiMartes, PradipMondal, and Subhankar who handles the accounts.

I was given an audit report for the previous year, as well as the details for the request for funding in the upcoming year. The audit report was broken down to explain what all costs were going to. The administrative fees that go to TF itself were also explained to me as the fees necessary to keep the programming running and employ the teachers.

Meeting with the finance team at TF headquarters

The finance team spoke about a special funding request for Nikita Yadav. Nikita is an orphaned girl who is pursuing her nursing education. They spoke highly of her character and dedication and her drive to complete her studies. They would like to provide her not only with the tuition fees, but small stipends to care for her basic living needs such as school supplies (notebooks, etc), and transportation to be able to go and visit her uncle and his family during breaks. Since she is from a disadvantaged background having no immediate family and not yet achieved her education, it will be difficult for her to obtain funds on her own right now. Furthermore, TF would like Nikita to be able to focus on her studies to ensure her future success, rather than have her worrying about working to make ends meet which could have an impact on her education.