PRE – FUNDING ASSESSMENT REPORT
22nd July,2005
Project Details:
Name and Nature of the Project:Vidyapeeth – is one of the educational projects under parent organization Literacy India – providing opportunity for basic education to the children from underprivileged community.
Amount of fund requested: Rs.300,000/- per year to sponsor 100 children for the current academic year.
Total annual budget of the project: Rs. 1,800,000/- projected for 600 children for 2005 - 2006
Location (Town/ City, State): Gurgaon, Border of Haryana and Delhi, Haryana
Date(s) of visit:15th of July, 2005
Project Coordinator Name: Mrs. Indranni Singh, Secretary and founder member of the organization
Project Coordinator Contact Information (Address, Email, Phone, Fax):
Ms. Indranni Singh
J- 1365, Palam Vihar,
Gurgaon- 122017
Haryana.
Tel No. 91-0124-5070692 / 5071223 Cell: 09810049692
Email:
Status during time of visit: The project was started in 2000 with nursery class and now it has become a full fledge school up to grade V – For Vibha IL is a new applicant.
Pre-visit Preparation:
The documents studied prior to the visit:
Project Proposal: Yes
Reference letter: No
Project correspondence: Yes
NTT: Yes
Financial requirements (may be a part of the proposal): Yes
Previous Project Visit reports: NA
Previous quarterly reports: NA
Previous Vibha Payments with dates: NA
Project Analysis Spreadsheet: No
Visit to:
Transportation Used: Mumbai – Delhi to & fro by Air
IndiaInternationalCenter - Vidyapeeth by a hired car
Objective of the visit:
- To study the profile of the project
- To study the input, output and impact of the project on target group.
- To study the worthiness of the project in terms of association with Vibha
Methodology Used:
- Observing the organization activities in progress during site visit.
- Interaction with beneficiaries, staff and stakeholders during site visit.
-Study of the records and files at project location and head office.
- Explanation on financials of last year and projected budget by the project accountant
Observation and Process Evaluation:
Since, Ms Indranni was not available due to her hospitalization, Ms. Alka who is in charge of academic activities and Mr. Tondon who has worked on budget were given responsibility to furnish all information required by me. However, Ms. Indranni kept herself in constant touch with me and sounded very worried about outcome of my visit.
Situational Analyses for Vidyapeeth: According to Ms.Alka who is associated with Vidyapeeth for last three years, in 1996, Ms. Indraani got motivated to provide basic education to the children of construction workers and labors migrated from U.P. Bihar and Rajasthan, Who would have been otherwise pushed into income generation activities at their tender age.Looking at the differences in age group of children and their educational need, India Literacyhas come out with five kinds of educational projects.
Pathshala: Pathshala is a open school for the children who missed out their schooling and now they are over age for entry into formal education. The basic need of reading-writing skill is catered through this activity. At present, there are two children admitted in Vidhyapeeth from Pathshala. Pathshala teachers also help Vidhyapeeth students through extra coaching. From last year, adult wing has been started with enrolment of 35 adults. This project could not be visited as it takes place in different location.
Gurukul: Under this project, IL claims integration of 36 pathshala children in Govt. schools in last 9 years with help of individual donors. However, the records or any documents pertaining to this were not available.
Shiksharth:According to Ms. Alka, once in a year under this project, IL becomes happening place with music,drama and art & craft workshop. With help of National School of Drama, the IL children get opportunity to learn dramatics and give stage performance. This has attracted many dropouts to come back to schooling.The photographs shown were physical evidence of this activity. Very few paper craft articles were also shown which were in very bad shape ! ! !
Karigari: It is a vocational training project, where IL claims to have placed over 300 students under employment. However, no documents were available.
(Please note: Ms. Alka was hesitant to give answers to questions on above activities as she preferred to talk about only Vidyapeeth project)
Vidyapeeth: This project was started 4 years back with 5 children in nursery class and at present there are 477 children studying in this school. Assuming they will admit 600 children by end of this month, they have requested Vibha to sponsor 100 children.
Vidyapeeth runs in a rented premises which is only ground story structure having seven small rooms. It runs in two shifts 7 AM to 11 AM and 11 AM to 2 PM. With great difficulty, Ms. Alka could manage to give statistics on students per grade. As this was nowhere in official record so she had to ask all the teachers the no. of students they have in their class and then calculate. The following table indicates the number of beneficiaries.
GRADE / NO. OF BOYS / NO. OF GIRLSL.K.G.
U.K.G. / 107 / 99
I. / 66 / 46
II / 32 / 23
III / 25 / 14
IV / 27 / 18
V / 14 / 6
Total / 271 / 206
HERE, DID NOT GET THE NUMBERS SEPERATELY FOR L.K.G. AND U.K.G. !
The Vth grade runs only in morning shift.
She also could not manage to give no. of students per shift. She wanted to work out but looking at her struggling with poorly maintained registers I did not insist and that made her very happy. This was quite surprising, as beginning of new academic year the records are always in good shape.
The academic activities take place from Monday to Friday and Saturday is observed as a sports day for two hrs.
TOTAL NO. OF STUDENTS = 477
The classes were too small to accommodate number of studentsit has. The structure of the premises also appeared to be poorly maintained. The fees are charged according to the parents’ capacity to pay which varies from Rs. 15/- to Rs. 50 /- per month. The day to day activities are designed according to N.C.E.R.T. syllabus and quarterly exams are conducted to evaluate the students’ performance. The text books and notebooks given to the students and evaluation sheets were shown. Ms. Alka who has 12 years of experience in teaching and being education officer in private school, appeared to be working hard to bring up educational standard of the school. She has introduced the system of teaching English throughthe books specially designed for learning English through Hindi. Except one, all the teachers are having minimum qualification of 12th grade. One of them is B.A.B.Ed. The whole atmosphere looked like of a typical school. Though, IL claims to have non-formal education methods adopted, there was no sign of it.
IL intends to set up its own school up to 10th gradeand has identified a piece of land for which approximate budget worked out is 50 lacs. On asking Ms. Alka what is the idea of creating parallel institution and not collaborating with existing systems. She emphasised on quality education which is missing in Government schools and gave examples of some of the children who are shifted to Vidyapeethfrom Govt. schools. One can see the feeling of pride in her saying. With pleasure, she said that how nearby Govt. school authority is angry with Vidyapeeth for snatching away their students.! This indicated the unhealthy competition IL has entered into. IL is also trying hard to get premises on rent from Haryana State Govt run schools lying vacant but till now it has not got any response. Ms. Alka feels very strongly about having their own school and not integrating the children in Govt. schools. To me, her justifications on quality education provided by Vidyapeeth which she claims to be far better than Govt. schools are not acceptable. Except, Shiksharth activities which is once in a year, the physical structure, quality of teaching, facilities for children, cleanliness, the administration and management system within the organization do not look to be no different from any Govt. or corporation run schools.
Their mid-day meal includes 4 biscuits per child per day. Medical expenses include first-aid box anddoctor’s fees in case of emergency. Last year the children were taken on picnic but no records are maintained for that. According to Ms. Alka, all last years reports and records are discarded to create space for new ones !
Networking: Except with NSD for Shiksharth and financial partnership with IndiaSponsor Foundation IL do not have any other networking for Vidyapeeth project. Once, Coca Cola India had given them 97,000/- for awareness program.
Meeting with the project accountant and proposed budget: Very reluctantly, Mr. Tondon gave information on rent, donations, amount of fees collected last year and how the budget for this year is worked out. He opened up only when he was told that if IL expects Vibha to look in to IL’s needs, he has to reveal all required information to review the proposal meaningfully.
According to him, the rent of the school premises which also includes surrounding garden and office space and computer learning space is Rs. 5500/- per month. The whole plot belongs to a family of five brothers and now there is dispute going on among them on ownership of this property. There was only one register having records of expenditure made under different heads (same as given in proposed budget) where entry on each expenses are made date wise. There were no files of vouchers, bills or any other supporting documents on these expenses. Last year Rs. 55000/- were received from fees whichcontributed 5 % of the total budget. IL has taken loan from Ms. Indraani and contributions from individual donors were main source of funds for last year.
On discussing the proposed budget, he said, considering the total expenses of Vidyapeeth for last year, they have worked out the cost for 600 children and then per child. This year, India Sponsor Foundation has promised for Rs. 6,00,000/- and IL has already received 3,00,000/- out of that.
(PLEASE KINDLY SEE THE BUDGET ATTACHED HEREWITH. WE NEED MORE INFORMATION AND CLARIFICATIONS UNDER MOST OF THE HEADS)
For an example, cost of one set of uniform is Rs. 166.66 sofor 100 children it should be 16,600/-
According to Mr. Tondon, Rs. 1200/- coated for mid-day meal is per child per month for rice and dal. This works out to be Rs. 60 per child per day (20 working days) ! Even if it is for 100 children per month, then Rs. 12 per child per month is too less.
Assessment of Vidyapeeth as an organization in tabular form:
(Disclaimer: These are semi-quantitative/quantitative measures from subjective assessment and might not reflect the performance of the organization accurately. Please view it in that spirit.)
Scoring pattern: 1 – if it is rarely a feature of the organization
2 – if it is occasionally the case
3 – if it is often a feature of the organization
4 - if it always reflects the organization
Indicators / ScoreClear Focus / 2
Clear plans for how it wants to achieve its vision / 2
Transparency and strong values that shape the work culture of the org. / 1
Projects that are effective and follow good practice / 2
Strong leadership / 1
Clear line of decision making and accountability / 2
Good system of financial control and administration / 2
Good relationships with other organizations / 2
Openness to learn to reflect and a desire to improve / Don’t know
Average score: 1.75
Here 0 to 1 points determines BAD organization
1.1 to 2 points determines GOOD organization
2.1 to 3 points determine VERY GOOD organization
3.1 to 4 points determines EXCELLENT organization
The Performance Assessment of Existing Projects:
(Disclaimer: These are semi-quantitative/quantitative measures from subjective assessment and might not reflect the performance of the organization accurately. Please view it in that spirit.)
Scoring pattern: 1 – if it is rarely a feature of the project performance
2 – if it is occasionally the case
3 – if it is often a feature of the project performance
4 – if it is always reflected in the project
INPUTS / Score1. Making effective use of materials, equipments, facilities and infrastructure. / 1
2. Effective use of human resources : staff , volunteer and stakeholders / 1
3. Effective use of funds / 2
ACTIVITIES
1. Creating, maintaining and making effective use of planned activities in order to meet the clients’ needs, interest and capabilities. / 1
2. Making effective use of community resources / 1
OUTPUTS
1. Effective number of services regarding the project / 1
2. Effective number of clients who are served through the project directly / 3
3. Effective number of clients who are addressed indirectly / 1
OUTCOMES
1. The visible number of clients benefited. / 4
2. The visible growth in number of beneficiaries. / 4
3. The actual visible impacts/benefits/changes for the beneficiaries during or after the project which are expressed in terms of knowledge and skills, behavior and betterment of life. / 1
4. Over a period of time whether the project is making a difference for the community and society at large / 2
Average Score = 1.8
Here, 0 to 1 score determines POOR performance
1.1 to 2 score determines GOOD performance
2.1 to 3 score determines VERYGOOD performance
3.1 to 4 score determines EXCELLENT performance
.COMMENTS: I COULD NOT GET FULL AND PROPER INFORMATION MAY BE I DID NOT MEET RIGHT PEOPLE.
The intention seems to be very good but due to lack of professionalism, effective team spirit and loose planning and implementation the project reflects its weakness more than its strengths. Off course, in spite of these loop holes, for these 477 children something is better than nothing
Based on what I could gather from Ms. Alka and Mr. Tondon and my general observation, I feel
1)Do we want to encourage the idea of creating a parallel institution ignoring existing one as it is a waste of national resources, time and energy. Instead of that we should encourage the projects which works with collaboration with Govt. to strengthen the existing one and with low investment can reach out to more number of beneficiaries.
2)As of now IL does not show any capabilities to create quality impact. The children were looking so dull and there was no enthusiasm or alertness in their body language or facial expression. Even the staff did not show any creativity or efficiency in pulling up the children’s interest.
3)Administration/management within the organization did not seem to be well defined and no system in place. No documents available on past activities indicating any qualitative achievement.
4)Vidyapeeth wants the total no. of children 600 on roll for which there is no space available. In fact they should stop taking new children.
5)Only growth in number of children & theater activities are appreciable.
6)The project seems to be having no scope for participation from the parents. No involvement of community or beneficiaries in any project stunts the growth of the organization.
7)How come in absence of Ms. Indraani, the other staff was not in a position to reveal information ?
Even if we want to consider and give a try we need to clarify following aspects of the project.
1)Some of the teachers are also involved in other projects under IL so need to clarify their salary
2)If owners of the premises take sudden decision of selling the property then what?
3)From where rest of the required funds are going to come?
4)Are they open to learn effective administration and management in running the school efficiently for better impact?
5)How four hrs. a day is enough to complete formal syllabus? As these children need more time and repeated efforts from the teachers.
6)Sports, drawing, art & craft, story telling, indoor games, group songs, puzzles etc should be part of day to day activities as school is the only platform for these kinds of experience for these children.
7)Close monitoring may be required in initial stages.