Agragati School Visit Report (Asha for Education) – 28 th Nov, 2017

(By Dr Padmanava Sen, AfE Bangalore volunteer and AfE fellowship coordinator – padmanava.sen@gmail.com – 28 November 2017)

Summary of visit:

I reached Kashmuli, WB around 8 am. After breakfast and an initial discussion with Headmaster, I went to the classes of Agragati, a private primary school.

I spent around 3 hours interacting with students. I visited the land obtained for the new school and checked the status of new

campus. Then I had lunch followed by discussions with teachers. I left around 3 pm to catch the KGP- HWH local train via Kharagpur.

Useful links

Asha for Education page: http://ashanet.org/project/?pid=1127

The previous site visit report (October 2015): https://ashadocserver.s3.amazonaws.com/1127_2016_10_16Sitevisit.docx

Detailed Visit Report:

The school is located in Kashmuli, paschim Midnapore, West Bengal. I informed Agragati teacher Bhootnath Jana about my plans, 3 days before the visit. I also talked to Uttam Dey of INSPIRATION and Asha project steward Jayati Marshall. On 28 th

November 2017, I reached Kashmuli, West Bengal from Kharagpur around 8-00 am (using local buses in Midnapore - Digha route, 80 min from Khargapur Kousalya more). The region is mostly agricultural and some villagers sustain on physical labor work in nearby towns (din-mazdoori).

I was received by Bhootnath Jana and the schools in 100 meter from the Kashmuli bus stand (after Lalat). There I met other teachers of the school and had an initial discussion with headmaster Subimal Panda about the background of the current school. Mr Subimal Panda is a retired teacher who taught for 35 years in Government school at Lalat. He became the headmaster in January 2017 and his son is an ex-volunteer of Asha Cleveland. After breakfast, I started interacting with the students. I have spent 30-40 minutes in each of Class 1 to 4. I spent 10-15 minute each in preparatory and the Zero class (lowest).

I followed these regular routines in each class (1 to 4) –

Asked them to introduce themselves. Sometimes to write their names on the board in Bengali or English depending on the class.

Asked about their subjects and what subject they love or hate. Bengali/English – checked vocabulary/sentence skills/ speaking skills/reading

ability depending on the class. I mostly walked around with Class 4 Bengali book and told every class to read that. For Bengali reading, I was a bit cautious about compound letters (Juktakhar).

Playing a word game (Antakshari) in English to check the vocabulary/spelling of whole class. In this game, the next word should start with the last letter of previous word (e.g. Tree> Elephant > Tea > Apple > Egg). The next student needs to tell spelling of the previous word and then say her/his word.

Math – tables, simple operations and quick questions of operations (to test practical arithmetical skills)

General knowledge, simple geography and science questions In some classes, I asked about their villages and their elder brothers/sisters (their

class, school etc)

When I walked around the classes, I also took pictures. I told the teachers to be in other classes to make it less formal. Overall, I felt the students are in better academic status than Government school students. Surprisingly, the Class 1 and 2 students are better than most Asha schools I visited by a good margin. That margin reduced at higher classes. I felt that the teachers are very dedicated to make sure no students are left behind. The academic standings of students are similar. Their paintings/artworks were very impressive. Most of the classes are decorated by the paintings by students of that class.

Snapshot of my observations –

Class 1 (12 girls and 9 boys present)o Bengali – Everyone can read the readings of Class 1. Most of them can

read the passages from Class 4 Bengali book. Decent speed.o English – They know basic words (like colors, animals, fruits etc). They

can’t read sentences and they know spelling of very few words.o Math – They know tables 1-10 and some know upto 20 & 25. They can do

multiplication for single digits. Class 2 (5 girls and 8 boys present)

o Bengali – Everyone can read the passages from Class 4 Bengali book with a decent speed.

o English – Their vocabulary is better than Class 1 and they know more spellings. I tried the word game and some kids could make words (not all).

o Math – They know tables 1-10 except 1. Some know upto 20 & 25. They can do multiplication for two digits (xx by xx).

Class 3 (3 girls and 7 boys present)o Bengali – Everyone can read the passages from Class 4 Bengali book.

One kid has some reading issue (her mother tongue was Urdu).o English – They have decent vocabulary. They can write their names and

most spellings are accurate.o Math – They know tables 1-12. They know multiplication for double digits. o In this class, the students come from various villages – Mustafapur (4),

Maninathpur (2), Gangasagar, Kashmuli, Jhuriabelda, Pharichak, Bhadua. Some villages are far (>3 km) and they come by the van. They do not go to nearby Govt or private schools in their village for the better quality of education.

o Elder sisters of some students are studying in class 9 (four of them), class 10 or doing a nursing course. Elder brothers are studying in different higher classes of nearby schools – Class 7/8/9/10/12. One elder brother has done graduation. They want to go beyond their elders.

Class 4 (3 girls and 9 boys present)o Bengali – Everyone is superb in reading.o English – Impressive vocabulary. They have ideas of phonics and can

read unknown words. 5 students stood out – 2 of them have great English knowledge and can construct good sentences.

o Math – They know tables 1-20. o Knowledge of history, geography and science was good.

Preparatory class (6 girls and 11 boys present) o Everyone knows ABCD. With pictures, they can say some words.o Tables up to 10.o Recited some poems in Bengali

Class zero (3 girls and 6 boys present) o They can identify ABCD. o They can do simple additions o 3 of them joined recently and behind class.

The books are chosen for the classes by the panel of teachers. Most teachers are old timers with this school. They get sample books following Government syllabus and then they choose the best among the samples. I saw the sample books for next academic session (Jan – Dec).

Class 1 students

Class 2 students

Me (Padmanava Sen) posing with Class 2 students

Two different poses of Class 3 students

Class 4 students

Paintings by Class 4 students

Class 4 students with headmaster (Mr Panda)

Class 4 students with me (Padmanava Sen)

Preparatory Class students

Class zero students

Then we went to see the new campus. The diggings are done already. They got the metal rods to start the construction work. By year end, they wanted to complete the structure (U shaped) and they want to start the next session in the campus. The old school does not have a place for games (the small area with trees are not Agragati’s land). After coming back, I saw the kids eating the lunch -chicken (they get chicken

once a month; on the occasion of my visit, that day was chosen). Overall, their meal list was good and they have a dedicated cook for the school. I also talked to two parents before my lunch. Both of them mentioned they send their kids to this school because they are given extra attention and they learn more. Government schools have very bad teacher to student ratio and teachers get less school time due to their other official commitments.

The new campus area

Kids eating lunch around 1 pm (a bit late due to my sessions)

Then I spent some time with the teachers and the discussions are summarized below.

There are 7 teachers (6 classes, one extra to cover for others) who stay till noon and 3 teachers come for afternoon. Apart from that, there is one part time teacher and one teacher for drawing. Most teachers teach the same subjects across classes.

Current teachers (all present in the short meeting)o Mr Subimal Panda – headmaster, 35 years teaching experience, since

2017. Almost every teacher mentioned that after he joined this year, they got more confidence.

o Mr Sukanta Mahapatra – since 2011, morningo Mr Bhootnath Jana – since 2007, morningo Mr Tapas Mahapatra – since 2007, morningo Mr Uttam Bera – since 2013, morningo Ms Khukurani Das – since 2007,morningo Ms Bandana Chakrabarty – since 2013, morningo Ms Champa Manna – since 2016, eveningo Ms Sulata Samal – since 2007, eveningo Ms Tumpa Senapati – since 2016,eveningo Mr Robindra Bera – since 2014, drawing teachero Ms Lakhipriya Das – since 2017, part time

Apart from teachers, they have a cook (Malati Jana, since 2013) and a van driver.

I mentioned what I noticed in my interactions with kids. I also referred them with simple word games for vocabulary building with correct spelling across the higher classes.

I talked in details how the girls’ ratio can be increased in the upcoming intakes. On that day, I saw 32 girls and 50 boys. I told them to make plans how they can incentivize during admissions to reach a 50-50 ratio. One of the reasons cited are the tendency of some families to spend less for the girl child and send them to nearby government schools. We discussed about the need of quality of education among girls to make sure their parents never push them to drop out for bad results at Class 10.

Mr Panda how they can meet the RTE requirements once the new campus is done. Also he mentioned the status of FCRA prior for Agragati. They are in the process of having a PAN for the organization and then they can apply.

Teachers - before and after saying “E”

Flash mob after telling students to join

Me (Padmanava Sen) before leaving for bus

But their bright smiles stayed in my mind…..