ChampaMahila Society Visit – Asha for Education – October 3, 2016

By PadmanavaSen (Asha Bangalore volunteer, )

I have reached Canning via Canning Local from Kolkata Sealdah station. It takes around 1 hr 15 minutes from Sealdah. After that to reach CMS office and hospital, one has to take a bus for Jhorkhali or Amlamethi. It takes around 45-50 minutes to reach Shivganj. MrGopalMazumdar received me at the bus stop and then I went to their main campus. MrAmalNayak mentioned that Seattle steward has visited all the surrounding projects in Shivganj area and they have arranged the visit to the school near Amlamethi.

We took CMS ambassador car to reach the Amlamethi boat-ghat through muddy roads (it was in really bad condition after monsoon and multiple times, the tires got stuck). After that, we boarded a small boat with other locals to reach other side of the river, an island under Gosaba Block. The island is Bali I. Then another motor-ed van ride of 30 minute (6 km) took us to the school. It almost took 1 hr 30 minutes from Shivganj. I realized how remote this school is. The area does not have any electricity and very few homes have proper solar connections. There were solar-driven streetlights installed 2-3 yrs back by Government, most of them become non-functional due to lack of maintenance. There have been plans to draw electric lines via Gosaba but the implementation have been very slow and it may a good 2-5 yrs to get electricity in these villages.

The Boat ride and the cycle Van ride via unpaved roads

I was received by MrSwapan and other teachers in the school. I talked a bit about the village and the need of this Asha-supported school with him. The closest Government school is at a distance of 3 km which was near the Boat jetty before (6 km distance).Currently it is opposite to the Panchayat office. The children in neighboring area can not travel 3 km and the parents know about the good quality of education. Hence they have a very good turn-out of students in each class. I have also noticed 300+ students present in the school. I have visited each class one by one. Depending on the class, I have interacted with students. For LKG, UKG, I have asked their names. For Class 1, 2- I have asked alphabets and simple additions. For Class 3, 4- I have asked more detailed questions about their village (trees, animals, flowers in Bengali), English words starting with different alphabets, simple additions and multiplications. For Class 5, 6, I have done simple games with Chain math, asked sentences in English, questions about other subjects. For higher classes like Class 7,8 – I have asked more questions about their career goals, more complicated questions, AtoZ in opposite order, and their fears. Higher classes have mostly expressed their fear for Math and English. Math being the most hated subject, I told the students to discuss and to figure out the root cause of their problems all by themselves.

I spent almost 2 hours with the students. After that, they went for mid day meal which seemed to be a full-fledged lunch. I also checked the notice board about the Overall I felt the kids are brighter than usual Government school kids and I could notice an offset of one class (i.e. Class 3 in this school as bright as Class 4 of Govt schools).

Students in different Classes

Then I talked to the teachers after lunch about scope of improvements. Being remote by nature, this area does not have much implementations of RTE i.e. there are many areas where there is no school within 2 km radius from villages.

The main points raised are

  • It gets very hot and humid most of the time. If possible, a simple solar-powered connection for Fan will be very beneficial as this area may not get electricity in next 3 yrs.
  • Some science workshop or training workshops will be very good. They also mentioned BikramShila. (I mentioned my involvements in such workshop using Arvind Gupta kits made from scrap)
  • Non-formal centers for age 4-6 were very effective that have been closed.
  • Small infrastructural support needed to separate out rooms. Few rooms do not have partition and that are causing some distractions.
  • A space for LKG/UKG needed. Currently they are seating outside class rooms. Some changes to create for space for eating mid-may meals may be useful.(gets difficult in monsoon time)
  • There are demands for more students and to address that more teachers
  • One additional toilet for girls is something good to have.
  • The uses of books need to be formalized. Since Government books are mostly not available, they use other books in line with Government syllabus.

Also, the salaries of the teachers are quite low compared to government teachers’ salaries (10-20%). Since the teachers spent most of their times in the school in a day, it is their only income source. I would request Seattle consider that as first priority.

Teachers also mentioned that when the students from this school go to higher secondary school, they fare better than students from Government schools consistently. Before leaving, I have checked the documents maintained by the school management like the Admission of students with pictures & background, the attendance sheet for teachers, the meal menu etc. I put my name in the visitor’s sheet and noticed some notes from early Seattle volunteers like SwatiSircar.

Background and admission register for students

Meal menu and Teachers’ attendance sheet

At the end of my visit, the headmaster of the school stressed also on the fact that there is a need of pre-primary center in this area. There is no ICDS (integrated child development school) from Government side. To compensate for that , the pre-primary center will serve two purposes – bridge the education gap for age group 4-6 in that area and solve the malnutrition problem giving some nutritious food in center.

After that I headed for Canning and in the path, saw the government school as well 3 km from this area.

Asha-supported school and the Government school

The location is beautiful but remote (2nd picture shows the shift of sea water in the jetty later in the day when we have to come to Amlamethi via slippery steps)

Overall had a very good time with the kids in the school

-PadmanavaSen ()