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Introduction
The Timbaktu Collective is a grassroots non-profit organisation which works towards the sustainable development of marginalised people across 172 villages in the drought-prone and ecologically challenged Anantapuramu District in Andhra Pradesh. The Collective, which was established in 1990, currently partners with 20,763 families through its various thematic programmes. Our mission is to enable marginalised sections of the population, such as small and marginal farmers, landless labourers, children, people with disabilities, women, Dalits and other disadvantaged castes and classes – to get organised, enhance their livelihood resources, work towards social justice and gender equity in order to lead life in a meaningful and joyous manner. The values dear to the Collective are the celebration of life, gender equity, and faith in people, their wisdom, and their excellence.
With community participation and ownership as the underlying themes, the Collective develops and implements the following programmes:
- Chiguru[1]: child rights and alternative education
- Timbaktu Organic: organic farming and marketing among small holder farmers
- Swasakthi: alternative banking for rural women via thrift and credit, legal aid and counselling
- Militha: enhancing rights and livelihoods of People with Disabilities
- Gramasiri: expanding livelihoods of landless labourers through animal husbandry
- Kalpavalli: Natural Resource Management and ecological restoration of common waste lands
The Chiguru programme implements two projects:
- The Nature School (‘PrakruthiBadi’ in Telugu): a semi-residential, alternative primary school (class 1 to 5) for underprivileged and disadvantaged children. The Nature School is located within ‘Timbaktu’, a 32-acre agro-forest habitat and intentional community initiated by the founders of the Collective
- The Children’s Resource Centre: a free, open community centre (with a science lab, a computer terminal, and facilities for various arts, sports and games) for children and youth living in and around Chennekothapalli village
The Nature Schoolis a semi-residential primary school which reaches out to children from underprivileged and/or disadvantaged family backgrounds who are also in need of protection, care and support. The Nature School provides a platform for these children, who usually drop-out or become engaged in child labour, to experience learning in a pressure-free environment while getting sensitised to environmental and ecological issues. The School caters to children from three mandals (sub-divisions) in Anantapuramu in order to prepare them to effectively access the public education system and provide them with the means to determine their own futures. Till date, the Collective’s education programme has directly supported more than 1,500 students to access the public education system.
The Nature School is an officially accredited school as per the provisions of the Right to Education Act (RTE, 2009) with its academic programme adhering to the state syllabus for public schools. In 2016, the Nature School had a student body of 57, of whom 35 were residential students.
This proposal is submitted to Asha for Education (London & Bangalore Chapters) for part-support to the School’s programme and administrative requirements in 2017-18.
Background & History
The Nature School was the Collective’s response to the problematic context for children in the region, along with other compelling factors in the early 1990s such as the widespread prevalence of child labour, high rates of school drop-outs, and the extensive use of corporal punish despite its illegality.
The Collective believes that all children should be entitled to learning and living spaces which nurture them and positively impact their physical, mental and emotional growth. Therefore, the Nature School provides primary education in a safe and protective environment to children from underprivileged and disadvantaged backgrounds, with an emphasis on a happy childhood, access to opportunities, and creative learning from an ecological perspective.
At the Nature School, learning is a continuous process of fun, creativity, experimenting and questioning, without the crippling effects of fear of punishment, of authority, of judgment or of failure. The school gives children a unique opportunity to make learning a hands-on experience, with classes being held both inside the classroom and across various spaces in Timbaktu. The medium of instruction at the Nature School is Telugu, with academic sessions on science, social studies, mathematics, environmental studies and additional language classes in English. The progress of each child is monitored through a comprehensive assessment mechanism, which is used for discussions with parents/guardians once every four months.
Unlike other schools in the region, the Nature School lays equal emphasis on academics and extracurricular activities such as art and craft, sports, games, theatre. The children have their own community garden, which they take pride in maintaining. The residential students at the Nature School are housed in large student dorms, while all the students have access to nutritious, wholesome, and organic food prepared at the school kitchen. The Nature School has partnerships with local hospitals and regular health check-ups are undertaken.
The Nature School issupervised by the Chairperson, and is implemented by a six-member team of qualified and committed teachers along with a host of support staff. Admission to the Nature School is accepted after conducting a rigorous needs assessment, with students being identified through a field survey conducted by the teaching staff in partnership with staff members of the Collective and members of our various partner cooperatives.
The Nature School was established by the Collective in 1992, and was run in parallel with the ‘Timbaktu School’ (established in 1993), which catered to residential students (class 1-7, and later, class 1-10). In addition, the Collective ran five village-level evening schools to provide supplementary educational support to public school students and drop-outs. The Nature School and Timbaktu School were not formally recognised; the students followed the state syllabus and appeared for relevant examinations as private candidates. In 2012, the Nature School was shifted to the Timbaktu, with the operations of the Timbaktu School being brought under its fold. It was decided to close down the village-level schools due to our assessment that it would be more efficient to run a single, high-quality school instead of managing multiple schools.
The Collective continuously monitors the relevance and efficacy of its interventions, with close attention being made to changes in the external environment, particularly in relation to funding from foreign and Indian donors and the government’s education policy. The RTE Act of 2009 was a major catalyst for change. For the first time, the state guaranteed that children in the age group of 6-14 were entitled to free and compulsory public education up to the elementary school level. The RTE also mandatorily required that all schools, regardless of their source of funding, be formally recognised on the basis of meeting stringent norms and standards pertaining to a maximum Pupil-Teacher Ratio, minimum academic qualifications of teachers, the prohibition of corporal punishment or mental harassment, and the development and use of a comprehensive, multi-dimensional curriculum. The Collective, on April 4, 2014, received official sanction to run the Nature School as a recognised private school (class 1 to 5) as per the provisions of the RTE Act.
Project Summary
The objective of the project is to enable 50 children to attend the Nature School in 2017-18, and have access: to quality education and age-and-ability appropriate academic inputs, to healthy and nutritious food, to timely health care services, and opportunities for life skill enhancement, play, celebration, creative engagement and cultural expression. The over-arching aim of the project is to continue to support the education and well-being of children who otherwise would not be able to go to school in order to prepare them to access the public education system from class 6 onwards.
The main activities proposed in the project are as follows:
- Conducting academic sessions (class 1 to class 5)
- Organizing learning visits to the Children’s Resource Centre.
- The provision of healthy and nutritious food
- Maintenance of high standards of health and hygiene
5, 6, 7 Supporting a range of extra-curricular activities (art and craft, dance, theatre, sports, games, film screenings)
8 Organizing events and festivals
9 Annual Excursion
10To promote ecological understanding and awareness through gardening, seed collection, seed dibbling etc
11Hosting Quarterly Parent Teacher Conferences (PTCs)
Description of Activities
1. Academic Sessions
The Nature School will conduct age and ability appropriate academic sessions in Telugu, Mathematics, Environmental Sciences (which includes elements of social and physical sciences), English and additional classes in Hindi for class 5 students. Classes will be held only in the first half of the day, with the students being required to attend 3 classes each day from Monday to Saturday. There will be 250 days of class a year.
Classes will be conducted in classes and outdoors, with the emphasis on understanding concepts instead of rote learning. Therefore, the teachers will use the text books only as teaching aids and guidelines, ensuring that no child is left behind and that each child is able to fulfill their individual aspirations and potential. Whenever possible, learning and teaching will be put into the context of their immediate environment. Considering that we want the children to study in a pressure-free environment, we will not promote competition between students in terms of publicizing marks and scores. However, we understand and appreciate the need for a comprehensive mechanism to track the performance of students in order to deploy time and resources effective. Therefore, we will use our in-house Student Assessment System and conduct Summative Assessment Tests (as required by the RTE) to monitor students.
With regard to academics, starting this year, we will extensively focus on English language learning among our students. Considering the lack of high-quality training in English among our teaching staff, we will make use of volunteers from India and abroad to provide teaching support. In addition, we will expand the use of ICT tools and Audio Visual material to supplement class room teaching.
Specialized support and mentoring will be provided to the students of Class 5, who will be required to write competitive examinations to attend class 6 in the local, mandal-level Model School (a high-quality public school modeled on the KendriyaVidyalaya schools). While students can still attend regular public schools or the Kasturba School (a mandal-level public school for girls) if they pass out of class 5, we want to try our best to ensure that as many of our students can attend the Model School. In addition, students will also be supported to gain admission into the district-level JawaharNavodaya (a quality, district-level, public, residential school). These students, particularly in the latter half of the academic year, will be trained on writing the entrance examination and provided with copies of practice tests and question papers from the previous year.
Activity: purchase of textbooks, worksheets, stationary, school bags etc at INR 1000 per child.
Total Cost: Rs. 50,000
Support requested from Asha: INR 25,000
2. Learning Visits to the Children’s Resource Centre
The Collective’s Children’s Resource Centre (CRC) in Chennekothapalli has a range of facilities – a library, computer terminal, science lab, materials for conducting art and craft sessions –used by the students of the Nature School. Children will be encouraged to borrow books from the library (individual reading lists will be maintained), be provided training on usage of computer applications, introduced to the ‘Khan Academy’ online learning repository (individual profiles will be created and monitored), conduct science experiments, and provided with opportunities to participate in various art and craft material. Two visits are planned each month to the CRC, with a total of 22 visits being organized in the academic year.
Activity: arranging transport for 22 visits to the CRC (located 7km away) at Rs.600 per trip
Total Cost: INR 13,200
Support requested from Asha: INR 6,000
3. Provision of healthy and nutritious food
The children attending the Nature School come from nutritionally deprived backgrounds and/or are not provided with a balanced diet at home. Therefore, special effort will be taken to provide them with healthy and nutritious food during their stay in the school. All the students will be provided with a mid-day meal and juice, while residential students will also be provided with breakfast and dinner. Fresh and organic vegetables, fruits, greens, millets, rice, pulses, and milk will be used in food preparation along with free-range eggs, chicken and milk. An annual calendar (with a dynamic menu) will be created and the assistance of a trained nutritionist will be taken on a volunteer basis to ensure that high quality food planning, preparation and intake.
Sub-activity 1: purchase of ingredients to prepare food for 35 residential students at Rs. 75 (300 days)
Total Cost: INR 7,87,500
Support requested from Asha: INR 2,62,500
Sub-activity 2: purchase of ingredients to prepare food for 15 day-scholar students at Rs. 25 (250 days)
Total Cost: INR 93,750
Support requested from Asha: INR 37,500
4. Maintenance of high standards of health and hygiene
The health and hygiene of students will be supervised and monitored on a daily basis. Adequate individual stock of soaps, hair oil, dental care products, and dental care products will be maintained for each residential student, with these items being bought in the weekly Sunday market in Penukonda town. With regard to student health, our teachers are equipped to administer basic first aid, homeopathy and home remedies. With regard to medication and hospitalization, students will be taken to either the local Primary Health Centre or specialized hospitals in Anantapuramu town (50km away) or Bangalore (165km away) depending on the nature of the illness/health issue. Quarterly group health check-ups of the residential students will be conducted either in Dharmavaram town (20 km away) or Anantapuramu. During this academic year, a pilot effort will be undertaken to elicit pro-bono services from volunteer doctors and health practitioners to conduct the health camps in Timbaktu itself. In addition, we will track student health during their stay in the Nature School by maintaining a database of individual students’ medical reports and reports (which will be maintained in strict confidentiality and a copy of which will be provided to them when they leave the Nature School).
Sub-activity 1: Purchase of toiletries for 35 residential students at INR 300 x 11 months
Total Cost: INR 77,000
Support requested from Asha: INR 35,000
Sub-activity 2: Medication, consultation and hospital charges for 35 residential students at INR 2,500
Total Cost t: INR 87,500
Support requested from Asha: INR 43,750
5,6,7. Supporting a range of extra-curricular activities (art and craft, dance, theatre, sports, games)
The second half of each school day at the Nature School is devoted to developing the creativity, self-expression and innovative capacity of students. Our students are provided with a range of material and training support to undertake various activities in art and craft (origami, papier-mâché, pottery, painting, sketching, tailoring, nail and thread work, toy making etc.), with the allocation of 90 minutes on every school for this purpose. In addition, the children are given a one-hour time slot on each school day to participate in sports such as cricket, badminton, kho-kho and kabaddi alongside various board games. We will also be providing our students with the opportunity to engage in cultural expression, with regular trainings being provided in theatre, music and local dance forms such as Kolattam and Chakkabajana.
Ahead of the academic year, we will be undertaking a survey of our facilities for these sports and board games with the intention of replenishing out stock of equipment.
Sub-activity:Arts and Crafts – external resource person fee at INR 900 x 5 days x 11 months
Total Cost: INR 49,500
Support requested from Asha: INR 22,500
Sub-activity: Performance Arts – external resource person fee at INR 900 x 5 days x 11 months
Total Cost: INR 49,500
Support requested from Asha: INR 22,500
7. Organizing events and festivals
The Collective considers events and festivals as importance avenues for fun, learning and celebration. Hosting events and festivals also serves to increase a sense of bonding and team-work among students. Popular festivals like Sankranti (the harvest festival), Ugadi (the Telugu New Year), Ganesh Chaturthi, Eid al-Fitr, Bakrid and Christmas and days of national significance such as the Independence Day and the Republic Day are celebrated at the Nature School. In addition, our children take part in special events such as the International Children’s Day, Sports Day and Science Day. The children will take an active part in organizing these events and celebrations, thus giving them the opportunity for collective planning, design and responsibility. Besides, these celebrations provide the children with a platform for cultural expression in the form of songs, dances and theatre plays.
Finally, residential students will attend special film screenings which are organized for them every Saturday night, held at the ‘Hexagon’ training centre. Over the course of the year, the children have seen movies such as the Narnia Trilogy, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the Jungle Book, Ice Age I, and Dr. Doolittle, with attention being taken to ensure that Telugu-dubbed versions of these movies are screened.
Activity: Arranging transport, logistics and equipment for 12 events at INR 5000 per event
Total Cost: INR 60,000
Support requested from Asha: INR 25,000
8. Ecological understanding and awareness