Shirpur, December 1, 2016

Sachin Mehta

sachinrm22@gmail.com

Knowledge & understanding amongst Palas students

Teaching methodology, supervisory framework

Participation of children, Parents and villagers

Quality of educational material, Condition of schools

Maintenance of records by VMS, Budget discussion

Areas of Improvement, Support required from Asha

Transparency on other sources of funds

Objective of Site Visit

Hanuman Pada : 40km from Shirpur

No of Students : 20,

Present : Teacher, Supervisor, Patil of Pada

School : Inside the house of villager

Zirnipada : 6km from Hanuman Pada (New School)

No of Students : 25,

Present : Teacher, Supervisor, Patil of Pada

School : Outside the house ( In Open besides tree)

Pradhanberipada : 30km from Shirpur,

No of Students : 20,

Present : Teacher, Supervisor, Patil of Pada

School : Inside the house of a teacher

VMS Boarding : Palas boy (10) and girls ( 5) who moved from non formal to formal schools

Palas Classes Visited

The Palas project is been run by VMS in line with the Asha Objective and as per approved by budget

The Co-ordinator, teachers and supervisors are working like one team and have bee supporting the project for many years

The VMS team is very close to villagers, Patil and student commanding lot of respect and trusts

The accounts are maintained professionally with close control over expense vs budget

There is a lot of demand for new schools from villages which currently do not have access to education. VMS has started 10 new schools under palas umbrella. However, this was not discussed with Asha co-ordinator. Asha Zurich needs to decide whether to increase coverage or impart quality education to existing schools

There is a immediate need to organize for portable lights (Students study in dark during summer/monsoon) and budget for a uniform annually to ensure they become part of school operation

Need to provide more note books and organise Akash tablets to ensure latest training material reaches school kids

There is a need to have more close collaboration and interaction with VMS team on regular basis

Executive Summary

The educational material was available and used reasonably well to teach students,

teaching was primarily in verbal format from black board

Students could read and write English & Marathi alphabets and words from the

board

Test results :

Students were not comfortable reading/writing on the paper,

could only read alphabets and one digit addition ( 2 schools were only 6mths old)

Students could only understand local pavdi language except for ones moved to

Boarding who picked up Marathi and English

Students in boarding school were very confident and showed material change

from palas students taking informal education ( Stage 1)

Teachers continue to be passionate to teach community kids and eager to improve

teaching skills via training

Supervisors regularly visited schools and met teachers/villagers on regular basis

VMS staff is well respected by villagers and have played a key role in community

growth with the support of Asha

Observations

Areas of Improvement School Condition : All classes are held the “Hut” in Monsoon/extreme summer with complete

darkness finding it difficult for students to study

Proposal : There is a need to have portable light in each classes to ensure basic facilities are

available for kids to study

Teaching material :Kids are provided only 2 note books+2 exercise books thus not having enough

confidence to write. The test conducted reflects that students were not comfortable reading/writing

with books as most of the studies are conducted verbally with contents on blackboard

Proposal :

Provide at least 1 book every month, brainstorm setting up of Library in shirpur with

provision of reading books on fews days in a month

Akash Tablets ( INR 5k) can be adopted in line with governments plans to support rural

village with education material via tablets

Collaboration with Asha : It was observed that Father who runs the schools on the ground didn’t

knew Asha Co-ordinator. The interaction with VMS was limited to asking for performance report

(twice a year) and funding confirmation.

Proposal : Adopt standardised reporting format with details of new students, students left,

success stories, new schools etc that can be requested on monthly basis. There is a need to have

atleast bimonthly call via skype or calling to discuss issues/ areas on improvement on regular

basis

Areas of Improvement Funding sources : It was observed during the discussion that VMS started about 10 palas schools

in 2016 not funded by Asha. This was supported from local donors and internal funding by Gesus

central funds. The current supervisors for Asha schools also supervisors this schools which was not

discussed with Asha Co-ordinator

Proposal :

Request list of Donors and understanding of governance around funding various projects

by VMS.

Request list of VMS Trustees to ensure Asha has key contact points incase need arise and

also independently talk to few once in a year

Expense Approval : The accounts are well documented and maintained with appropriate approvals.

However, Asha needs to requests approval matrix to ensure existing approval process is known to

Asha team which currently seems to have not been asked. It was observed that all expenses above 1

lakh is approved by one of the trustees to ensure adequate controls on material spends

Proposal : Request formal approval matrix for all kinds of expenses and process around it (

One time).This can then be validated in next site visit

School Uniform : Asha provided 2 sets of uniform in 2015/16. However, it seems that there was no

discussion yet on uniforms for new kids, replacement once a year etc. It wouldn’t be prudent to just

provide 2 sets of uniform only once in lifetime of project. The costs is not currently budgeted for 2017

Proposal : Need for discussion in Asha committee on the topic. My proposal would be to

atleast provide once set of uniform to kids every year and keep few for new kids

Hanuman Pada

Zirnipada

Pradhanberi Pada

VMS Boarding

Vishwa Mandal Sevashram (VMS)

Father Neelam Hopes , Project Cordinator (VMS)

Father Joseph Phosephir, Palas Co-ordinator

Supervisors and Teacher

Thank you