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: Project Name: Tribal Community Schools – Bala Mitra Badis in

Project Contact Information Asha Contact Name K.Bhanumati Ravi Mundoli

Contact Director, Dhaatri Resource Centre for Asha-Hyderabad volunteer Women and Children-Samata

Address D.No. 14-40-1, Krishna Vihar, Gokhale A1-35 Mayuri Apt, Mayur Marg Road, Maharanipeta, – Begumpet 530002 Hyderabad 500 016

Phone(s) 0891-2737662 94418 86489

Fax 0891-2737662 E-mail [email protected] ; [email protected] [email protected]

Part I: Information about your group/organization Please feel free to attach any additional sheets and/or information such as brochures, press reports etc. 11 . Name of the group/organization requesting funds. Dhaatri Resource Centre for Women and Children-Samata Visakhapatnam (www.samataindia.org;www.balamitra.org)

2. When was the group established? Formally in 1990 Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

33. Briefly describe the mo tivation for starting this group. Samata is a social justice organization working for the rights of the tribal/ people of Andhra Pradesh and for the protection of the natural resources and livelihoods of the marginalized. We started working in a sma ll tribal hamlet in of Andhra Pradesh, in 1987 with a group of tribal and rural youth in order to mobilize the local communities against exploitation by outsiders and by the government. We were formally registered as a non-gove rnment organization in 1990 and have traveled far from being a small community based social action group to a national level advocacy and support organization for the rights of the tribal people. Genesis of Dhaatri: As Samata’s focus has been on advocacy for tribal rights with a campaign approach, we have been working gradually on evolving a new identity and structure for the activities concerning rights and development of women and children. To meet these objectives, we have developed a Resource Centre for Women and Children called Dhaatri Resource Centre which is in the process of taking an independent role. The Dhaatri Resource Centre anchors Balamitra which is Samata’s tribal education programme and the issues of women in tribal areas and also women i nvolved in or affected by mining. Over the next few years, this will become an independent organisation having developed the capacities of its team in the management and administrative aspects. While the Dhaatri Resource Centre has a legal identity as an i ndependent Trust, as it is still in the nascent stage, Samata assists it in many of its administrative and financial areas. 4 Briefly describe the aims of your group.

 To empower tribal and rural communities to be self reliant in social and economic needs.  To build community strength through strengthening traditional institutions, t hrough interventions improving education, health and increased awareness of rights and laws.  To explore sustainable and alternate development methods of livelihood. 5. Does your group have any religious or political affiliation? If yes, please describe the type of affiliation and the reason for it. No Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

6. What non education -related community development activities is your group involved in?

• Training and capacity building of tribal women’s leadership in Panchayats and economic activities through thrift, processing and value addition of forest and agricultural produce and market linkages. • Promotion of tribal farmers’ societies like vegetable growers’ associations. • Mobilizing resources and facilitating implementation of basic infrastructure like housi ng, drinking water, micro-hydel projects check-dams etc. • Legal aid on civil, criminal and public interest cases on violation of tribal rights. • Lobbying and linkages with government development programs of tribal welfare, forest and other departments. • Health referral and community outreach activities.

7. Does your organization have FCRA clearance from the Indian government? This is required for you to receive foreign funds. Yes

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Part II: Details about your educational project/s

8. List the s chool/s run by your group, and their locations. If you are requesting funds for only a few of several schools, please specify which one/s .

Samata has been running 40 schools since 2004. These schools are located in remote hill top villages in the mandals of Hukumpeta, Paderu, Ananthagiri, Dumbriguda and Natavaram in the district of Visakhapatnam. In addition Samata also runs the Balamitra Model School, which is a residential school located at Sagar Nagar, Visakhapatnam for tribal children. This also serves as the main resource centre that develops curriculum, and coordinates and undertakes teacher training. Annexure 1 has details about the schools and their location 9.Location of school/s Remote hilly areas of 110. Speci fy the type of education provided (e.g. basic literacy, vocational training etc.). Basic Literacy and Primary level education. 111. Please tell us about your teaching techniques (conventional vs. alternative).

Alternate method through play and traditional tribal song and music integrated with the basic curriculum of the state government. Telugu is the medium of instruction. Basic literacy is taught through local idioms and with a mixture of Telugu and other tribal languages like Adivasi Odiya, Kui and Konda dora. We have developed a strong linkage with the Waldorf schools of Germany with whom a volunteer program has been established. This has created an opportunity for tribal children to have well qualified and experienced teachers and committed youth teaching them voluntarily and has also helped in strengthening the training and curriculum development work of our training center.

112. What is the literacy rate in your local community? The female literacy rate is about 6% and that of males is 10% 13. Describe the socio-economic background of the children and their parents (e.g. education, occupational). If any of your students are employed, please tell us about that as well

All the schools are located in interior tribal villages. Some of them are primitive tribal groups. They are extremely poor communities and live on subsistence from the forest and agriculture. Their annual income is less than Rs.6, 000/- However, they are cultural ly unique and are rooted in strong traditions. In most of these villages, this is the first generation of literates.

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114. What are the admission criteria for the students to join your school? How many children attend your school currently? Any child who wishes to join the school can do so. Depending on the level of literacy they are then taught accordingly. What is your boy: girl ratio? About 50-50% What is your teacher: student ratio? 1:20

115. In addition to education, does your group provide any other services to the chi ldren in your schools (e.g. food, health care, clothing, etc.)? Some schools have mid-day meal program of the government. This is not continuous as it is based on project funds. Most of the schools have a kitchen garden maintained by the teacher and the children. Each school also has a school and community health programme where the teachers are trained by us to follow up on some of the primary health issues. Some of these are: • Monitoring the heights and weights of the children. • First aid facility at the school not only for children of the school but to the community. • Village immunization programme where we have linked up with the Primary Health Centres of the government through our health camps to ensure that all children receive proper vaccinations. A record of this is maintained by our teachers and the CBO organizers. • School kitchen gardens to improve the nutritional status of the children. • Community health programmes where children and teachers participate regularly in improving village sanitation, monitoring births and deaths, facilitating referral services from village to district hospitals, campaigns for elimination of child labour and against child marriage, motivation camps for school enrollment and other such campaigns.

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116. How do you percei ve that education will improve the lives of the children in your village?

As tribal people do not have education, outsiders easily exploit them. They are no longer isolated communities which increases the need for their education so that they are well i nformed of their constitutional laws and rights, are better able to compete with the outside world and build capacities to increase their scope of livelihood to other sectors as well. They need to develop abilities to deal with the government and its machinery and protect themselves from being cheated for even simple things like ration- cards, title deeds and caste certificates. Due to lack of education facilities their employment opportunities even within the government are restricted to that of chaprasis ( watchmen), drivers or sweepers in spite of reservations in other levels of employment as well. Please also refer to the concept note in Annexure II.

117. Does your school have: Its own buildings(s): Yes, these are small huts made of mud with cement flooring and tiled roof. Number and type of classrooms (eg. Pukka):- One class room

Yes/ No Yes /No Yes / No Toilets No Playground Natural forests around Chairs & Tables Benches Blackboard Yes Library No Drinking Water No Electricity No Computers No Laboratory No Teaching aids (eg.books/slates) Yes

118. What is the age group of the children currently enrolled in your school(s)? 5-10 years of age 119. How many staff is employed at your schools? Project Director : 1 Village schools : Teachers- 40, Field Coordinator-1; Project Coordinator-1;

Balamitra Model Residential School: Teachers – 4, Cook-1, Warden-1;Hostel staff-2;

20. Average distance the children travel to attend your school 0-1 km Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

21. Please answer this if your school has existed for at least 5 years. How many children have gone through your program in the past five years and what are they doing currently? Please tell us about their future education possibilities . How would you visualize their future employment possibilities?

From 1993-97 Samata along with peoples contributions and government grants ran community schools in tribal villages. About 1000 students were admitted in these schools during 1993-97. The children had no access to primary education, which was essential if they were to be admitted in the residential ashram schools. It was to fill this gap that these schools were started. Children in the village schools study upto Class III in our Balamitra schools after whic h we help them secure admission in the government ashram schools.

In June 2008 189 children were enrolled from the village schools into government schools into class III. In June 2007 140 children were enrolled into class III and they are now in class IV . From the model school in June 2008, 10 children received admission into Class V to the G.Madigula Gurukulam School. In June 2007 6 students from the model school were admitted into government ashram schools. Thus the total number of students enrolled in government schools from the Balamitra programme till date is 345.

22. Do you help your students with their future education efforts after they have passed out of your school? If so please describe your efforts. Once the children reach Std. III (in the case of village schools) and Std III/V (in the case of the model school) we help them obtain caste certificates and get them enrolled in ashram schools (these are residential schools for tribal children). At the community level, we do a lot of motivation w ork to continue girls’ education and motivate dropouts to join back. We help some students who want to pursue higher education through mobilizing scholarships, guiding them about courses available and in representing these cases to the government. We help the tribal people in demanding better facilities in the ashram schools some of which do not even have basic infrastructure like drinking water, electricity, separate toilets for girls, regular food and timely supply of books.

23. Are there any other schools (Kindergarten/Balwadi, Elementary school, High school) in the area? If so, please list the schools and the range of classes each of them offers. There are no other schools in these villages. Some villages have Anganwadi/sub centers but these are for the age groups of 0-3 years. Also in most cases these are non functional. 24. Is your program different from that provided at these schools? Please explain The Anganwadis do not provide any primary education. The age group of Anganwadis is also 0-3 years while our schools admit children about four years .

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25. Why are the children in your school/s not attending government/other schools in the local area ? Because there are no government or any other schools existing in these villages 26. Do you try to involve the parents of the children in the running of the school (e.g. in setting the syllabus etc.)? Please specify. These schools are set up firstly, where parents show very keen interest in starting the school. As government is mostly unresponsive, we have started this concept of “Community-Schools”. All the parents are involved right from identifying the schoolteacher to donating a plot of land and in voluntary construction of mud- house for the school. There is a Vidya Committee, which supervis es the school. We have regular meetings with the parents to explain the methods of teaching adopted in these schools and to motivate them to send children regularly. 27.What is your expansion plans for the future (e.g. adding more classes or schools)? How do you see your school impacting the village five years from now? Based on our experiences and introspection till date and an external evaluation conducted we have been able to identify the gaps in the current programme and have designed a proposal for the next three years on the future focus of the Balamitra Education Programme. The details of the same are given in Annexure II

28. Any additional details you would like to provide to us. Please see Annexure II . 29Do you have any suggestions for us ? Primary education in tribal areas is being neglected in our Plan and Non Plan budgets of the government. Government is trying to reduce its burden by providing only temporary teachers, closing down schools, etc while duplication of projects through bi-lateral aid is invisibly growing. We hope Asha will also study the primary education policy and lobby on the need for more quality primary and secondary education and not privatization of education, especially in tribal areas.

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30. If possible, please provide us with the contact information of two individuals from your community who can describe the impact of your program . NameManmadha Rao Name P.Devulu, Secretary, CRY-Net AddressC/o Adivasimitra Address . Coastal Rural Youth Network (CRYNET) Poolabanda (village), 51-8-40/30 Sita Apartment, Vantlamammidi (Post) Ground Floor, Simmadara Paderu Mandal, Visakhapatnam Dist. Visakhapatnam, AP India AP India Phone08935-241275 Phone 0891-5510255

31. Asha for Education requires reports from its projects every six months to continue funding. Please provide the contact information for the person from your group who will be responsible for these reports

Name K.Bhanumati Address C D.No. 14-40-1, Krishna Vihar, Gokhale Road, Maharanipeta, Visakhapatnam – 530002, Andhra Pradesh, India Phone 0891-2737662, 2737653 Email [email protected] ; [email protected]

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Part III: Financial Details Please feel free to attach any information such as annual reports, budgets etc. 32 . What sources fund your group’s activities at present? List the sources and the current and future funding from each of them. If these funds are meant for a specific part of your group’s activities, please describe those restrictions.

Keeping in mind the current requirements and the future expansion plans for the Balamitra Education Programme a comprehensive proposal has been developed to cover the areas of education, training, advocacy and curriculum development. We are working with other funding agencies like the Sri Dorabji Tata Trust funds to raise finances for the same and our proposal is at present going to be put up to the SDTT board of trustees. We however need urgent funds to support salaries and training of the staff in the village schools and model school. The current request from Asha is to meet this basic requirement.

33. Please provide us with details of your projected budget for the next 3 years:

I. School

Year I Year II Year III Head Per month Per annum Per month Per annum Per month Per annum Teacher’s salary 2,000 24,000 2,200 26,400 2,420 29,040 Teacher’s - 5,000 5,500 6,050 training 1 Education - 5,000 5,500 6,050 material 2 Admin 3 100 1,200 110 1,320 121 1,452 Total (per - 35,200 - 38,720 - 42,592 school) Total (40 - 14,08,000 - 15,48,800 - 17,03,680 schools approx)

II. Training

Year I Year II Year III Head Per month Per annum Per month Per annum Per month Per annum Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

Trainer’s salary 4 5,000 60,000 5500 66,000 6050 72,600 Training centre 5 10,000 1,20,000 11,000 1,32,000 12,100 1,45,200

Total (4 - 3,60,000 - 3,96,000 - 4,35,600 trainers, 1 training centre)

III. Coordination

Year I Year II Year III Head Per month Per annum Per month Per annum Per month Per annum Field coordinator 8,000 96000 8,800 1,05,600 9,680 1,16,160 6 Project 12,000 1,44,000 13,200 1,58,400 14,520 1,74,240 coordinator (1) 7 Total (1 field - 2,40,000 - 2,64,000 - 2,90,400 coords, 1 project coord)

IV. Total Estimated Expenses (from I, II, and III above)

Year I = Rs. 20,08,000 Year II = Rs. 22,08,800 Year III = Rs. 24,29,680

The above figures are our projections for 3 years. At this time (November 2008), we are requesting Asha-Silicon Valley to cover the shortfall in funds for one quarter from the last ICPA grant. So the amount being requested is Rs. 5,02,000 (Rs. 20,08,000/4).

Notes

1. The teachers are based near the schools. The teacher training expenses include the cost of travel to and from Visakhapatnam, accommodation, food, training material etc. On an average each teacher attends 4 such training sessions every year. 2. Education material comprises books, charts, toys etc. for the children in the schools. 3. Admin expenses include bookkeeping expenses and travel expenses. 4. The trainers are individuals from the community, who live and work in the model school in Sagar Nagar, Visakhapatnam. They work with the children of the residential school; develop curriculum and training material that is sensitive to the community’s culture and geography. They impart training to the school teachers at Vizag, as well as travel to the schools to impart training. 5. These are rental and maintenance expenses. Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

6. The field coordinator’s role is one of monitoring and facilitation. He/she makes sure that the school is functioning properly and that the lesson plan (prepared on a monthly basis) is followed. He/she monitors the children’s health and if necessary arrange for medical assistance by taking the child to the city etc. This role involves extensive amounts of travel in remote areas by bus and on foot. 7. The project coordinator’s role is somewhat like that of a school principal. He/she is primarily based in Vizag, but also visits the schools (though not as often as the field coordinators). The schools are run in cooperation with various community based organizations (CBOs). The CBO identifies teachers, school location etc. in consultation with the villagers. One of the project coordinator’s tasks is to ensure that this process works smoothly. Other activities involve monitoring and administration.

334. Please provide details of the fixed costs of your school/s for the next three years

35. How may of your students pay school fees? Please provide details We provide free primary education to all our students. 36. What amount are you requesting from Asha, and for what specific purpose? The entire amount in under point 33 (section IV) is being requested for. The top priority for us currently is the school running expenses (section I) and the training expenses (section II).

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ANNEXURE 1

Sl. Village Mandal Teacher CBO Children Tribes School No. Started M F T 1 Nimmalagondi Hukumpeta K.Ravanamma Adivasi Mitra 5 14 19 Kondu 2005 2 Ambhavada Hukumpeta P.Kondamma Adivasi Mitra 13 7 20 Kondu 2007 3 Thokaduggam Hukumpeta Srinu Adivasi Mitra 4 14 18 Kondu 2004 4 Junjuruvada Paderu T.Nagamani Adivasi Mitra 10 12 22 Nookadora 2006 5 Poduguputta Paderu P.Rajachandhra Adivasi Mitra 9 5 14 Kondu, Nookadora 2005 6 Chidimetta Paderu Santhamma Adivasi Mitra 5 8 13 Nookadora 2004 7 Bodicattu Paderu Y.Eswararao Adivasi Mitra 7 8 15 Kondu 2005 8 Buradapadu Paderu B.Eswararao Adivasi Mitra 10 8 18 Kondu, Nookadora 2004 9 Buruguchettu Paderu P.Charan Adivasi Mitra 7 13 20 Kondu 2004 10 Rallavalasa Ananthagiri S.Sundara rao Adivasi Mitra 12 13 25 Kondadora, Nookadora 2004 11 Gungudivalasa Ananthagiri B.Venkatarao Adivasi Mitra 10 11 21 ,, Oct-07 12 Vanthalagummi Paderu P.Kondababu Adivasi Mitra 14 9 23 Kondu Oct-07 13 Boddaputtu Paderu K.kanthama Adivasi Mitra 11 7 18 ,, 2007 TOTAL 117 129 246 1 Kuda Dumbriguda T.Lakshmi Sanjivini 11 21 32 Kodu, Nookadora, Konda 2004 dora 2 Koyyamamidi Dumbriguda S.Dombu Sanjivini 15 12 27 Kodu, Nookudora 2005 3 Kusumakanda Dumbriguda V.Appana Sanjivini 13 7 20 Kodu, Nookudora 2004 4 Devuduvalasa Dumbriguda G.Subbarao Sanjivini 16 10 26 Mali,Nookadora, Kondadora 2005 5 Karakavalasa Dumbriguda G.Subbarao Sanjivini 14 17 31 Kotiya, Kondadora, 2005 Nookadora 6 Malingavalasa Dumbriguda Ch.Ratnamma Sanjivini 9 11 20 Nookadora, Kodu 2004 7 Odiyavalasa Dumbriguda G.Lakshminarayana Sanjivini 14 7 21 Mali, kotiya, Nookudora, 2004 Kondadora 8 Gondhivalasa Dumbriguda T.Sumanbabu Sanjivini 18 12 30 Kodu 2005 9 Gunjariguda Dumbriguda Guribari Sanjivini 10 15 25 Kotiya, Duliya, Nokadora, 2005 Kondadora, Valmiki 10 Chinakagu valasa Dumbriguda K.Londu Sanjivini 7 13 20 Nookadora 2007 11 Amalaguda Dumbriguda S.Janaki Sanjivini 12 6 18 Kondadora 2007 12 Sirasaguda Dumbriguda G.Ramanna Sanjivini 7 13 20 Kodhu, Nookadora 2007 13 Anjoda Dumbriguda P.Lakshmi Sanjivini 8 12 20 Kodhu 2007 14 Kolaput Dumbriguda Bharathi Sanjivini 15 15 30 Nookadora 2007 TOTAL 169 171 340 Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

1 Masada Hukumpeta B.Nookalamma TERDS 10 7 17 Kotiya, Kondadora 2004 2 P.Panasaputtu Hukumpeta Bujjibabu TERDS 12 8 20 Bagata, Kondadora 2005 3 Dondlavalasa Anantagiri K.Chittibabu TERDS 10 9 19 Kotiya 2004 4 K.Panasaputtu Dumbriguda V.Lavakusa TERDS 10 7 17 Bagata 2004 5 Jankaravalasa Dumbriguda J.Chandrasakar TERDS 10 7 17 Kotiya, Kondadora 2005 6 Livitiputtu Dumbriguda V.Lakshmi TERDS 16 6 22 Kotiya, Valmiki 2005 7 Jodumamidi Dumbriguda P.Ratnalamma TERDS 7 8 15 Kotiya, Nookudora 2005 TOTAL 75 52 127 1 K.Doddugula Natavaram J.Rambabu RKSS 10 11 21 kondadora 2004 2 Torada Natavaram K.Ravi RKSS 12 7 19 kondadora 2004 3 Asanagiri Natavaram P.Padma RKSS 9 14 23 Kondadora, Bagata 2004 4 K.Siripuram Natavaram S.Paparao RKSS 13 8 21 Kondadora 2005 5 M.M.Lodhi Natavaram J.Krishnababu RKSS 8 11 19 Kondadora 2005 6 B.M.Lodhi Natavaram V.Chinnabai RKSS 8 10 18 Kondadora 2005 TOTAL 60 61 121 40 GRAND TOTAL 421 413 834

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ANNEXURE II

CONTEXTUAL EDUCATION OF ADIVASI CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN ANDHRA PRADESH

Background of the programme and milestones in the last few years: Samata has been working for the rights of tribal communities in north coastal Andhra Pradesh (AP) since 1987. As part of this rights based work, the right to primary education was one of our focus areas. Until 2003 our work on education centred around mobilising the local communities to demand from government that every village should have a primary school. Through this campaign strategy we ensured that more than 200 villages had access to primary education through pressuring the ITDA’s (Integrated Tribal Development Agencies) to set up either primary schools, ashram (residential) schools or ‘alternative’/community schools in most of the villages that we have directly worked with the communities-the two districts of East Godavari and Visakhapatnam.

Over the years we have realised that inspite of tall claims by the government, several hill-top and interior villages and hamlets do not have access to primary education. In villages where government states to be running community schools, they exist on paper alone. Secondly, the emphasis of the AP government’s tribal education was the residential school system where all tribal children study in the primary level (upto classes 2/3) at the village and join the residential schools. Where there are no primary schools, children have no opportunity to go to residential schools. In order to bridge this gap, we started working with the communities in initiating community schools. With this, started the process of the Samata education programme with tribal children in Visakhapatnam which is called Balamitra. In 2004 we started with the single objective of ensuring that every tribal child in the villages we work has access to primary education.

The abysmally poor indicators for tribal education in Visakhapatnam district provide an idea about the need for education in these remote hill top villages. According to the 2001 census the general literacy rate for the state of AP was at 61.11% while the Scheduled Tribe (ST) literacy rate was an abysmal 37.03%. In the tribal areas of Visakhapatnam district the literacy rates for tribal people were—total 34.3%, male 46% and women 22.7%. Female literacy is especially of major concern. In 2002-03 the dropout rate in classes I-X for ST boys and ST girls was 82.81% and 87.57% respectively as against the dropout rates for non STs of 65.08% for boys and 68.53% for girls. The status of tribal education in Srikakulam district is worse as the predominant Savara tribe which is a vulnerable tribal group has one of the lowest figures of literacy. Enrollment of ST girls in the district is only 7% of which 68.73% and 72.12% drop out at primary and upper primary levels respectively. Most villages do not have even a single youth who has completed school education among this tribe.

How we have worked so far: Samata initially worked at a community level and developed strong teams of tribal youth who gained capacities to work on community problems upto the district level. As a philosophy we worked towards strengthening local Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

people’s institutions and hence facilitated the local teams in becoming independent community-based organisations (CBOs). Samata works with these CBOs on the education programme also and through them reaches out to the communities. While the CBOs mobilise the communities, identify the villages requiring schools, select the teachers and take care of the day to day functioning, Samata provides the larger support of training, resource mobilisation, curriculum development and lobbying with government at the state level. Hence, under the common banner of Balamitra Badis, we have been facilitating 40 community schools spread across the Visakhapatnam district and work with four CBOs for the education programme. We have been providing education to approximately 800–1000 children at the primary level and then ensure that they join the mainstream government residential schools. In the past few years we have worked with the sole purpose of providing basic literacy and experienced several challenges linked to tribal education. Some of these were: • Tribal communities are scattered and each hamlet has very few children who are in the age group of primary education. • In the absence of any school or anganwadi, the community schools we assisted became a mixture of anganwadi and primary school. • The difficulties in finding a teacher from the village where the school was to be set up or in the surrounding villages. • The challenges of having to cater to the education needs of different age groups of children, although the numbers were few. • The challenges of ensuring minimum quality and regularity in the functioning of the schools through the local youth we appointed as teachers. • The inaccessibility of the schools for regular monitoring and follow up with the communities and the fact that the villages requiring primary schools were scattered across a large area. • Later we realised that language was a great barrier as we were running the schools in Telugu while the children came from tribal communities having their own mother tongue. • The question of how we could make the education creative for tribal children with teachers who were just out of school, had no qualifications or exposure and needed constant motivation to live in remote villages and ensure children’s attendance. • There is high dropout rate especially among children from the primitive tribal groups, and constant ill-health. • Teachers keep leaving either to join college, or get married or get government jobs. Some of them leave Balamitra schools and work in the same village as government teachers for alternate schools started by the government. The very effective teachers end up being incompetent and erratic in their performance due to lack of motivation and supervision.

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Samata education programme started with the first objective because we found that in many hill-top villages there were no schools and the community was demanding for this. Presently, we found that merely running a community school with barely any pedagogic inputs was not bringing much result. So the need to bring in a quality was felt. The search for what kind of a quality was desirable led to the adaptation of the Waldorf methodology and philosophy. However, the discomfort in merely following an alien teaching and content further led us to start exploring a system of integrating Waldorf education with local tribal knowledge. As we had no background in education and did not have the confidence in our direction, we depended on external teachers from alternative schools, mainly Waldorf, and training was started in the second year by a Waldorf teacher from Hyderabad. The training was very good but it was not suited to tribal children and with the limitations in resources we work with (songs, lessons, furniture to name a few), we felt the need to look inwards for developing our own philosophy and methodology of education. In order to work on this closely and to build our own team of teachers and trainers, we felt that the best way to do this was to set up a resource centre with a functioning school. Therefore, in the third year the Balamitra residential school was started in Vizag. This was when the actual process of curriculum development and lesson planning began. This today is the model school cum main resource centre which facilitates training and curriculum development. Review of Balamitra education programme by Sandhan, Rajasthan: On behalf of SDTT, an external evaluation and review was undertaken by Sandhan, Rajasthan in July 2008. It was a very fruitful and learning experience for the entire team and programme as the review was undertaken with a serious analysis of how effectively the adivasi communities can benefit by an intervention of this nature. During the evaluation it was realised that all these interventions helped greatly in bringing a strong motivation and commitment to the activity from the teachers, the CBOs, the resource centre team and volunteers. Yet, the multiple interventions seem to be ambitiously taken up simultaneously and therefore, the results in some of the interventions are sometimes frustrating. This is evident in the quality of teaching as we now realise that our training was geared towards emphasising on the creative capacities of the teachers rather than the literacy aspects. Therefore, we now feel that we should focus our energies in certain specific directions in order to bring out the results more strongly. It was also evident that the government is not going to take over the remote area schools in the near future and is happy with us taking the responsibility. Hence, there is a need to continue the support we give to the children in these hill top villages and build connecting points for following up on the quality of education beyond their education in the Balamitra schools through activities built in at multiple levels. Some important points that emerged from the evaluation: 1. The commitment and motivation of the teachers and the team of Samata-CBOs is very evident and this has enabled the education programme in reaching out to remote villages. 2. The terrain and remoteness of the villages makes it extremely challenging to bring qualitative results and sustain the motivation of the team. Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

3. The limitations of having barely literate youth as teachers is one serious challenge in ensuring quality education to the children. 4. The programme has had a good demonstrative effect in terms of implementing a model school customised for tribal children, a well structured programme of training and field implementation and a micro level resource, advocacy and research centre on adivasi education. 5. However, there are some gaps that need to be addressed contextually to achieve the objective of quality education for children in remote villages. 6. The Waldorf training and focus has brought in the aesthetic and child friendly focus to the schools and especially to the teachers. However, as this method is too dependent on the creative capacities of the teachers, this is too difficult to adopt in its totality. The teachers have no basic literacy and numeracy skills of even class five level. Hence, the creative activities are being done in a mechanical way defeating the purpose of this education. 7. The village teachers’ training is inadequate at the current level of training and the investments in time for teacher capacity building. It has to be more intensively planned with a greater focus on their basic literacy. The programme should be more tightly planned with a more rigorous training of atleast three months for every teacher over a period of one year as suggested by the reviewers. No teacher should commence teaching without atleast 30–45 days of training as the teachers are tribal youth who have not received any quality education and therefore, need skill building even for primary level teaching. The training should have a greater focus on first developing the literacy skills of teachers and ensuring they bring results in children in basic education. 8. The most important question facing us is—what happens to the children after they leave Balamitra schools and how do we take this forward to a more logical larger level of sustained intervention. Based on our last three years of experience and the series of consultations with the CBOs and the discussions during the evaluation, we have come up with a programme for taking this mission forward. The Balamitra Tribal Education Programme: Objectives of the programme: 1. To make quality primary education accessible to tribal children in interior villages who do not have this opportunity. 2. To develop a contextual and indigenous knowledge based education for tribal children and adolescent youth. 3. Advocacy and lobby with government for contextual and quality education for adivasi children. 4. To prepare adivasi children and adolescents with life skills education beyond the class-room.

Programme plan: Based on our experiences, assessment and needs identified, we propose the following action plan for the next three years: Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

1. Providing quality and contextual primary education to about 800 children in 40 community schools. 2. Programme for extension education for children of community schools who join government ashram schools. 3. Developing an adolescent education programme 4. Advocacy and action research. 5. Strengthening the resource centre at Visakhapatnam. 6. Development of four Field Resource Centres at the CBO level.

Dhaatri - the Resource Centre for Advocacy and Education of Children, located in Visakhapatnam: The above activities are envisaged to be delivered through a strong resource centre, which acts as an institution for promotion of adivasi knowledge and creative education. This Centre also develops Field Resource Centres that act as grassroots resource and knowledge centres and are accessible to the teachers, the children and youth in the communities for extending the education activities within and beyond the Balamitra community schools. The Dhaatri Resource Centre is a unique centre in promoting adivasi and creative education in AP with potential for strong advocacy and action research on education and children’s rights. The Dhaatri Resource Centre will undertake educational activities, teacher training, networking and awareness building on adivasi and creative education, take up action research and advocacy, build linkages with mainstream and alternative educational, research and indigenous people’s institutions locally and internationally, develop a live archive of indigenous knowledge and culture that can be integrated into the educational framework, link natural resources management practices of into educational practice. Under this Centre, Field Resource Centres are being developed to take the programme closer to the communities and community schools are facilitated to ensure universal primary education for the inaccessible villages. The following (in brief) are the activities of the Dhaatri Resource Centre, the action plan for the next three years:

I. Action research and advocacy, training, model residential school and volunteer programme: a) Action research and advocacy : The tribal areas in AP are most neglected and worst affected are the children who suffer from lack of primary and quality education, health and development. The government’s claims of universal education, providing mid-day meals, anganwadis, primary health centres and food security cannot be accepted as the real situation and is far from statistics on paper. These discrepancies are due to some important factors like lack of initiative, high levels of corruption, due to the illiteracy and vulnerability of tribal people, lack of clear perspective and sensitivity to the needs of tribal communities and poor financial resources allocated to these areas. Especially with regard to tribal children, the high rates of infant mortality, (ref: Study on the Status and Problems of Tribal Children in Andhra Pradesh, 2007, Samata) malnutrition and illiteracy are cause for concern and in the changing context of development economics, the advocacy discourse and dialogue with government plays an important role. Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

Samata’s experience in the area of advocacy and lobbying with government and other institutions is one of our main strengths in working from grassroots level to policy level advocacy. Besides, this strength also enables us to link up grassroots problems and issues with policy level advocacy through effective documentation, action research and micro level research on tribal history and culture. The latter is one of the main objectives of the education programme where our aim is to develop a strong resource centre that takes up continuous research into tribal knowledge and restructures it into the educational framework. There is no policy level focus on tribal communities and the need to contextualise their knowledge and culture into the curriculum framework. This is one of the areas of advocacy we want to take up by lobbying with government on the need to bring in components of tribal life into school education. We’d like to network with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working on problems of tribal children, tribal education and lobby with policy institutions and government bodies in this respect. Another area for lobby and campaign is to ensure that government schemes for education and health of tribal children are implemented at the grassroot level in the geographical areas that Samata and the CBOs work through monitoring and coordinating with the government. Action research - The action research will consist of three components • Micro level research on tribal music, histories, land, forest and health management practices with our resource centre teams, teachers and children of Balamitra schools. Youth of the communities will also take part in these research and documentation activities that will be recaptured and edited. • A second part will consist of developing children’s literature, drawing from the above research and documentation. Here we will bring out small publications of children’s stories with illustrations made by the children themselves, language books for promoting mother tongue in five languages—Savara, Kui, Oriya, Konda and Telugu and publish them over the three years. Developing lesson plans, curriculum and teacher reference material, undertaking assessment of Balamitra schools and local ashram schools located in our areas will be undertaken. • A third will consist of field level assessment and monitoring reports on status of education, primary schools, anganwadis and ashram schools in the areas we work, monitoring implementation of government programmes and follow up with government on the same. Advocacy – The action research done by our team on tribal education will be used in our advocacy work. This will include: • analysing education and tribal children’s policies and programmes and writing to the government and other institutions • monitoring and following up with the government on problems concerning adivasi children’s education, anganwadis, mid day meal schemes, ashram schools and government programmes for children in the region we work • participating in meetings with government and other civil society groups, participating in a national level seminar/consultation on tribal education, Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

b) Training: Teacher training: Planning and designing the teacher training programmes for the model school as well as the community schools. Preparing training schedules, content and material for the trainings, training the trainers, organising external training and follow up with the field teacher training programmes and classroom teaching. Subject enhancement skills and creative teaching methodology will form the focus of these trainings. Follow up on the trainings is done through monitoring formats developed by us and jointly taken up with the field resource centres. The resource centre at Visakhapatnam and the field resource centres will undertake detailed documentation of the teacher trainings, field follow up and assessment reports. Training for Field Resource Centre staff and CBOs: The Visakhapatnam Resource Centre will undertake training of Field Resource Centre teams and the CBOs involved, in upgrading their literacy skills, in undertaking teacher training at the field level, management of the resource centres, undertaking extension activities with Balamitra children and adolescents and in the field level action research and advocacy. Also, there will be assessment of resource teams, facilitating their requirements of materials, building their capacities for working with volunteers. c) Model residential school Forty children from the community schools who are mainly from primitive tribal groups are taken into the model school at Visakhapatnam. This works as a live laboratory for developing the Balamitra education programme, lessons, integrating tribal knowledge and culture into education, and demonstrating the qualitative education that can be made possible for these children. The teacher trainers and volunteers mainly teach here, build their teaching skills, and in turn transfer these skills to the village teachers. The teachers, who earlier had capacity for teaching only for classes I and II now have the ability to teach upto class V. The children are therefore put into the Gurukulam schools after class V. d) Facilitating the volunteer programme : This programme brings to us local and international volunteer students, teachers, educationists and experts on natural resources management. A good part of the advocacy is working with volunteers linked to the Waldorf institutions who have established a working relationship with Balamitra. Students from Germany work with Balamitra on a voluntary basis for one year each and help in bringing creative aspects to the education programme, build a larger interface for Balamitra and help in simple research and documentation work. Teachers from Europe and other countries visit Balamitra schools and contribute voluntary training services, guidance to teachers and help build the integration of Waldorf methods into the adivasi format. This is a continuous activity for the team of the Visakhapatnam Resource Centre in planning their schedules, giving them orientation and regular work guidance, organizing their stay and facilitating their activities. For the next year and the following, we have a vast potential of volunteers writing to us with confirmed participation from five students and teachers from different countries, and organising their work with us. II. Providing quality and contextual primary education to adivasi children in 40 village schools: Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

The villages where the Balamitra community schools are located are remote and hill-top villages where government is unwilling to take over the responsibility. We will continue to support the primary education of these children who mainly belong to vulnerable tribal groups (VTG’s), until the government sets up the GVVK schools (tribal primary schools). We will ensure that all children of school going age attend school regularly. As the tribal areas do not have access to both anganwadis and primary schools, the Balamitra community schools have children of the age group of anganwadis and the lower grades. We will continue the multi-level learning with the local adivasi teachers identified by the community and the respective CBOs. The 40 community schools are within the sphere of activity of four CBOs currently-Adivasi Mitra, Sanjeevini, TERDS and RKSS spread across the Scheduled Area in Visakhapatnam district. We are in the process of withdrawing from the area of RKSS as the government has set up alternate schools here and we are lobbying for the two other villages to be included into their schools. We will be taking up a fresh set of 6-10 villages in interior hill-top area of the primitive tribe Savara in Srikakulam district where we will work with the CBO Velugu. The tribal villages where these schools are located have five main languages- Telugu, Kui, Savara, Oriya and Kondabhasha. Currently, there are about 800 children enrolled in these schools with a greater majority being from vulnerable tribal groups and girl children. Teaching Learning: We have initiated the process of teaching in the mother tongue in the first year and then introducing Telugu as the main form of instruction. They will continue to work as single teacher schools with a local tribal youth identified by the CBO and the Vidya Committee. A strong focus is the emphasis on tribal culture and knowledge through use of local folklore, music, handwork and occupations so as to build a stronger identity among these children. A structure, lesson planning and curriculum has been developed over the last two years for teaching at this elementary level with check lists for assessment of progress of individual children. The children will be taught upto class III level and from here they will be taken to the government ashram schools. The tribal welfare administration has now introduced quality schools called Gurukulum schools for boys and girls from the level of class V.

III. Programme for extension education for children of community schools who join government ashram schools: We will have bridge courses/summer camps and winter camps for the Balamitra children who are at the level of class IV in the ashram schools or those children who are still studying at the community school but of the age group of class IV or V, to prepare them for the entrance tests to the Gurukulum schools and help them join these schools which have a better quality of teaching. The summer camps will consist of both literacy related skills development as well as adivasi culture and orientation for children who are in government schools from classes IV and the winter camp will be conducted for Balamitra children still in the village schools who will be prepared for getting admissions into ashram schools. Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

A second activity under this programme is the follow up with the children who join the ashram schools and Gurukulum schools to monitor quality, ensure continuity of the children’s education and follow up with government on gaps identified. Through our intervention we wish to support the education of these children, in the long term, upto high school level, by following up with them in their government schools, organising summer and winter camps to bring them to the level required and guiding them for higher education. IV. Developing an Adolescent Education Programme : The changing social and economic scenario of the tribal area has most serious impacts on the adolescent age group who are the first generation literates and semi literates. The poor quality of education deprives them of taking advantage of the reservations in employment and higher education constitutionally provided for tribal people. The pressures on land and natural resources have created a crisis of livelihood and food security where the current generations do not have adequate sustenance. This is luring them away from their villages as migrant labour, or into quick earning commercial activities under the influence of non-tribals making them vulnerable to market forces or is pushing them into political violence under the influence of extremist groups. The vulnerability of the tribal youth needs to be addressed urgently so that they are shown a positive and healthy direction for future life. We will work with the adolescents in the areas where the Balamitra Badis are located along with the CBOs and through our Field Resource Centres by providing a learning space for this age group, by helping them through life skills training, educating them on tribal laws, history and rights, sensitising them to the external socio-economic factors in order that they are aware of the threats and are able to deal with them with confidence and with a balanced perspective. An important focus here is on preventing them from succumbing to violence or to exploiting their own communities, losing their identity and culture. In addition will be engaged in action research and will be closely involved in collecting stories, songs and material for the documentation of tribal life and literature. V. Field Resource Centres: As the community schools are located in remote and hill-top villages and the Visakhapatnam Resource Centre is not accessible enough for regular programmes and field follow up, we have logically planned for decentralisation of the programme through setting up of smaller Field Resource Centres in each cluster. This has just been initiated with the objectives of: a. The Field Resource Centres act as training centres for village teachers located in their respective clusters. b. Undertakes micro level action research on tribal children and documentation on tribal knowledge. c. Provides a wider platform for children and youth of the area. d. Close monitoring and follow up with field schools and the children enrolled here. e. Interface with the community, youth and parents. f. Life skills training to adolescent boys and girls. Asha for Education, Boston Chapter

g. Advocacy and lobbying with government at the local level. h. Centres for volunteers and educationists to interact with the Balamitra education programme.