India Update # 3

12/13/04

Hello all!

I heard from several people that my last update was “the longest email they had ever received.” Sorry for their lengthiness, but there is simply so much to share and I don’t have much opportunity to email—so everything comes out in one massive update.

As can be expected, a lot has happened in the past month.

The weather has cooled down a bit, and my neighbors in the village are wrapping themselves in shawls and caps complaining about it being too cold. (Keep in mind, the temperature is still well in the 70s and 80s). It’s hard for me to believe that December has arrived already and even harder for me to imagine how cold it actually must be where you all are in the states. I hope you all had an enjoyable thanksgiving. I can honestly say, I completely forgot about thanksgiving this year. I am so far removed from all things American at this point, that it didn’t really occur to me that it was November, and that thanksgiving is celebrated in the month of November. A friend from Conn. who is in Mysore at the moment, reminded me the day before thanksgiving, so I did manage to call home to wish mom and dad.

For the moment, I am still teaching a full course load, which is taking its toll. Being a full time teacher and a principal at the same time just doesn’t work. I’ll be in the middle of explaining the difference between the comparative and the superlative in my English grammar class, or having my 4^th standard students role play the story from their “moral” books when a parent will arrive at the school to pay their child’s monthly fees, and I have to leave the class to take the money, write a bill, and record the balance. Or, the PAM director will make a visit to the school and I’ll have to sit with him and discuss school finances or repairing our school benches, and have to leave my class to carry on by themselves.

So, my priority for the past few weeks has been to find one (preferably two) new teachers, so I can focus my attention on my responsibilities as principal—as well as jump into some massive fundraising efforts (more on this later). We did hire a new teacher this week, to work with the little ones (lower and upper kindergarten primarily)—Subha. We’ve commandeered her from a neighboring school. She is sweet and has a decent amount of experience in working with younger students. She barely speaks any English, which is a bit of a problem as I am working to make VMS an actual English medium school as we claim to be. Currently, most of the teachers conduct their classes primarily or exclusively in Tamil. I’m still looking for a teacher with higher qualifications (a college degree and or a teaching certificate) to teacher some of the upper standards (particularly in math and science), and I’m hoping to find someone with some proficiency in English, which in turn would be beneficial in improving the student’s English proficiency. If any of you are interested (and I have already spoken to a few of you about this) in coming to VMS to teach, please get in touch with me! Or if anyone knows of someone who would be interested, please pass along the word.

I recently started an activity room at the school. I cleaned out a small room behind the school office which has now been designated for arts and crafts projects and activities. It is a small room, and we don’t have any furniture, so students sit on the floor. Thanks to the generous donation of several individuals and the American Friends Service Committee, the school now has a modest collection of school supplies and arts and crafts materials. Prior to this, there was absolutely nothing in the way of school supplies. The students absolutely LOVE doing arts and crafts projects, many of whom have never used a crayon or a pair of scissors. Most recently, I had them use old scraps of recycled paper and candy wrappers to make collages and mosaics of the sun, moon, stars and their names. The idea is to get them to reuse old waste and use it to create something beautiful. Arts and crafts projects are completely new for these students, so my hope is to develop individual thought and creativity. I wish you could see how excited the kids are to be doing these projects. “M’aam, can we have arts and crafts period now?” They’ll ask me at every period.

I’ve also taught the students origami—which has been a big hit, especially with the older students. My 6^th and 7^th standard students in particular, love to fold paper cranes. Since I had them read “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes” (as I mentioned in my last email), folding cranes has been a nice complimentary activity and a great way of decorating the activity room (making paper crane chains). Origami is truly an activity that brings people together—transcending all cultural, geographic or linguistic boundaries.

One of my friends from Conn., Dave, who is studying in Mysore on the SATA India program came to Periyapalayam last weekend. Originally, he was just going to come to visit the village and the school. But then generously offered his video/film expertise (he is a film studies major) to make a video about the school. What started out as a cheesy 2 minute publicity video has quickly developed into a much larger documentary style project. We ended up doing six recorded interviews—four with students and their families in their homes, one with Ekambaram, and one with me. I think Dave got lots of good footage of the school, the kids, classes as well as life in Periyapalayam and the surrounding villages. My hope is to use the video for fundraising purposes, and to highlight the good work of PAM in their support of this school project, and the unique vision of the school.

As can be imagined, the kids were thoroughly excited to be the center of camera attention. we (our camera team) were also the center of attention—ok, mainly just dave and I. our team—Dave, Ebi, Mani (VMS teacher) and I caused quite a commotion as we walked through the village, camera and tripod in hand, visiting various students in their homes. Everyone stopped what they were doing, and came out of their houses to watch us pass by. Most folks have never seen a foreigner in the village (besides me of course!) and definitely not a camera team (as make shift as we were).

Now that the filming is finished, the difficult part begins—editing and putting together all the footage into a cohesive and compelling video. Add to this the fact that the cameraman and editor is in the US (or will be in about a week) and the director is in a village with no internet access. A challenge indeed!

Making the video actually helped me clarify and articulate what the vision of the school is and why VMS is different from any of the other schools in the area. in fact, that is the question we decided to focus on in the film: “what makes Victoria Matriculation School different?” we got various answers from the students and families—a focus on spoken English, quality education at a minimal cost, innovative teaching methods, van transportation service, development of both academic and non academic talents in students, arts and crafts etc.

One conversation in particular, that Ekambaram and I had with a parent sums up pretty well what I see as the main difference: in talking about a few of the schools in the area, the father said, “running a school is like running a business.” Ekambaram and I were quick to disagree. “We see running a school as a service, not as a business” we told him. VMS’s vision is to provide education for rural students, particularly those from marginalized and economically disadvantaged communities—genuinely providing opportunities for these children, without the aim of making money. Additionally, Ekambaram’s vision for the school is to develop a learning environment that fosters mutual respect and highlights equality among all communities, in place of religious, or caste divisions and discrimination.

Unfortunately, many school management teams in Indian matriculation schools rake in loads of money that ends up padding their own pockets, without putting that money towards the developing the school or the educational opportunities of the students. a challenge for us (for me in particular) as I go out to seek funders to support the long term objectives of the school, will be to set VMS apart from the school money-making racket that takes place.

So, this brings me to the massive fundraising efforts that I am about to jump headlong into. We’re in a bit of a financial crisis at the moment—I’m not sure where the money for the teacher’s salaries (and my salary) will come from for next month. Thus far, all the money for our monthly operating costs (teacher salaries, rent for the school building, electricity bill etc) has been put on loans that PAM has gotten from a bank and from a fellow NGO. Apparently, the loan runs out by December 31^st. So I need to work quickly to find a more sustainable means of covering our monthly costs. If you put things into dollar terms, it doesn’t actually add up to all that much. I regret to inform you, that our teacher’s salaries are dismally low—not even minimum wage. The highest paid teacher gets Rs. 800 per month (about $17 a month). No wonder we’re not able to find a replacement teacher, with a salary range that low. Our basic monthly costs add up to about Rs. 12,500 (roughly $270 per month). One of my top priorities is to raise our teacher’s salaries—but at the moment, that isn’t possible, as we’re not even able to cover the meager amount that they are getting. I think this is definitely do-able. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to connect willing supporters to our specific needs.

I’m also working on some of our longer term objectives: gaining government recognition for the school, buying land and constructing a new school building. At the moment, we rent the land (about an acre and a half) and two small school buildings. The space that we have is entirely too small to accommodate all of our 103 students. During recess and lunch time, the meager school yard (more like a corridor) are extremely crowded. Ideally, we would like to have at least five acres of land for the students to have plenty of space to play. We’d also like to have proper classrooms—rather than one large classroom that holds six to seven different classes at any one time. Running water and additional toilets are also on our wish list.

One key element for the school is gaining government recognition. This is a lengthy, bureaucratic process, but something that is ultimately of great importance for any school. Presently in Periyapalayam, none of the schools have recognition (even the government sponsored school across the street from us). Having recognition means that the school passes an acceptable standard of academic quality, sanitary needs, building stability and the like. It also means that the school is eligible for government grants and various programs (like the provision of mid-day meals). And more importantly, recognition is essential for any student who wants to continue into higher education. Only recognized schools are allowed to give a student an academic transcript—which is obviously needed for college and beyond. If you attended a non-recognized school, its as though you have no academic record. and thus aren’t able to attend any institution of higher education, which in turn limits one’s ability to access a competitive job market. The reality in many villages like Periyapalayam is that most students do not continue past 10^th or 12^th standard—if they even get that far. I’m hoping we can change that at VMS, but we need recognition in order to do so. If we are able to get recognition, then it would fill a great need in this area—where there are no recognized schools within 20 km of Periyapalayam.

Also, if we do get recognition, we’ll have the support of several local organizations in India. The Rotary Club of Madras, for example, is ready to support the school by purchasing new classroom furniture, but only if the school is recognized. The likelihood of finding additional organizations to support us increases exponentially with recognition.

PAM has already submitted our application for recognition, but the major factor hindering us from moving forward is our lack of land. One major criteria is having sufficient land space that is proportional to the number of students attending the school. We don’t have sufficient land at this time. Once we purchase a larger area of land and show our intent of developing a proper school building, my understanding is that we’ll be able to get approval for recognition. So, essentially, although this is one massive project—the pieces of which are all connected—finding funds for land is the key factor in moving the school forward.

If any of you are interested in supporting the school in anyway—whether contributing towards the fund to purchase new land, or sponsoring a teacher’s monthly salary, sponsoring a classroom in our yet-to-be-built school building, or sending any used books, or a pencil—we would be extremely grateful to have your support. Please don’t feel in any way obligated, only if you feel moved to do so—I thought I would put it out there.

Even passing along information to me about organizations or individuals who you think might be able to help, would be very helpful. I’ve copied our wish list (which I am continually updating) below.

Victoria Matriculation School Wish List

12/13/04

1.) * Sponsor a teacher ($20 per month) Cover the monthly salary of a teacher.

2.) * Cover our school rent ($65 per month) At the moment, we are located in a rented school building, that was built in the early 70’s. It hasn’t been well maintained, and is slowly beginning to fall apart. For the moment however, in order for us not to be kicked out of the building, we need to cover our monthly rent.

3.) * New Land—($6,500 per acre) given the above mentioned conditions of the school, our long term goal is to purchase our own land and construct a new school building. Presently, we rent a total of about an acre and a half worth of land. There is no play space for the students, so during lunch or recess the small yard we have is extremely crowded and most students end up staying indoors. Our goal is to have at least 5 acres of land, with plenty of open space for the students to run and play.

4.) * New School Building—On the new land, we hope to construct a new school building with proper classroom facilities (presently all the upper classes are in one large, noisy classroom), a library (none exists at the school), toilets (we have one outdoor squat toilet for 103 students) science laboratory, auditorium and playground.

5.) * School Van—($3,130 left on the loan) PAM recently purchased a school van that picks up the students from their homes in surrounding villages in the morning, and drops them back home in the afternoon. The cost of the van has been put on a loan that we don’t have the funds to pay back. Without this van, more than 60% of our students would have no way of coming to school everyday.

6.) School benches—the benches that we are using for 2^nd-7^th standard are falling apart.

7.) Chairs for LKG, UKG and 1^st standard students. There are no chairs for these three standards, so they sit on a mat on the floor. (A mat, I might add, that is quickly disintegrating).

8.) Desks and chairs for the teachers. The few desks that we have for the teachers are rusted, the drawers broken or non-existent. The UKG and 1^st standard class teachers do not have chairs to sit in, so they stand during their classes, or sit on the floor with the children.

9.) Computer(s)—We have one desktop computer that was donated by an electronics company in Chennai. During the recent monsoons, the computer was damaged by rain (due to our leaky school roofs) and no longer works. VMS offers computer classes for 2^nd-7^th standard classes, but presently their learning is completely theory based (from books) without any hands-on learning on an actual computer. Our dream would be to have a computer lab—with several computers (with internet access) for students to use.

10.) School supplies—pens, pencils, erasers, rulers, glue sticks, scissors, scotch tape, markers, paints, paper clips, chalk etc. Recently three boxes of school supplies and arts and crafts materials arrived from several generous donors and the American Friends Service Committee. Prior to these materials, the school had literally nothing in the way of school supplies. We’re still grateful for any additional supplies that we can get our hands on.

11.) Arts and craft materials—As I recently started an Activity Room where I’m having the kids do all sorts of arts and crafts projects, any supplies for arts projects would be very useful.

12.) Books—I am trying to begin a small, modest library at the school, for the students to have access to books (story books, picture books and short novels) in English. We have about 30 books in our collection at the moment. Dictionaries and Encyclopedias or reference books are especially helpful.

* Indicates top priority level

Now to continue with some non-finance related updates. Last weekend, Hema auntie came to Periyapalayam to conduct a two day teacher’s training workshop. As Hema has recently started her own organization, conducting workshops in local schools in Chennai to develop their educational goals, it was a great honor to have her come to Periyapalayam to work with our teachers. We ended up co-facilitating the workshop, which focused on teamwork, effective communication, clarifying the role of the teacher and improving teaching strategies and methodologies. We also worked on clarifying our shared vision for the school and identified our short and long term goals. I put my facilitation and graphic recording skills to work, creating wall charts of our discussion as we went along.

I was very happy with the workshop—I think it went extremely well, especially given the fact that none of the teachers had ever participated in a workshop before. Hema has a lovely way of weaving tons of stories into the workshop to use as examples to highlight her points and we worked very well together. We did plenty of activities and games, all of which served a larger purpose of course (team building, understanding group dynamics and effective communication). I think the teachers learned a lot—and I hope gained some new perspectives/ideas on introducing some innovative teaching methods into their classes—getting away from the rote memorization style that is rampant here.

We’ve finally developed a school logo, and finalized our school motto: Education, Equality, Empowerment. I reviewed the final proof for our school diary, which will be printed next week. It is about 5 months behind schedule, but better late than never, I guess. I picked up my visiting/business cards today—so I’ll feel a tad more professional when I meet folks and talk about our school.

Half yearly exams begin on Monday the 13^th, and go until December 22^nd. I still think this is an excessive amount of time to be in exam-mode, but I can’t change the new laws put in place by the Indian government that requires only one exam be taken per day. I’ll be heading to Bangalore on Monday morning to attend an international workshop on Non Violent Communication, which I am looking forward to. Half yearly (winter) holidays begin on December 23^rd and go until January 3^rd. I’ll be heading to Bombay to visit a Conn. camel and her family for new years, which I am also looking forward to.

I think that’s about it. I could probably go on for several more pages with all sorts of things to tell you, but I’ll stop for now and give you the web address for my online pictures again, which I’ve updated with all sorts of new pictures (check out the VMS folder, as well as the Periyapalayam folder).

http://photos.yahoo.com/ellinagairothe

I hope you are all well. I wish you happy holidays.

Love,

Elli