Rajshekar Patil is a government school teacher working at the Hunasanahalli Government Primary School. This March he had the unique opportunity few in his profession can dream of.

A six-week long trip to the US where he taught at some of the schools and came back highly enlightened!
That was possible due to the intervention of Sikshana Charitable Trust which has been working with the government to improve the performance of government schools in the State. Sponsoring the trip of one teacher every year to some faraway place is just one of its programmes.

Since it started its activities almost five years ago with a handful of schools in the outskirts of Bangalore city, Sikshana under the leadership of E S Ramamurthy, has grown considerably. Today 50 schools with 10,000 students are covered under its scheme. Very soon, this number will cross 150 schools as the trust plans to adopt all the schools in Kanakapura taluk.

"This will be our first major attempt at scaling up. It will tell us if our model is workable. However, we need funds to do this. Around Rs 80 lakh will help us do the job for three years in Kanakapura," says Ramamurthy, adding that the Trust was planning to do an audit very soon.

He is confident that the audit will prove how their intervention has helped boost performances in these schools up by at least 20 per cent; in some cases assessment has shown up to 50 per cent improvement.

Someone cares!

What Sikshana does is simple. There are no high-funda techniques applied. No attempts to change the system. "We do not have any prescription nor are we here to hand out dole. We merely facilitate solutions to problems faced at the school by motivating the staff and management, and the students. We make them spell out the help they need and then we allot the money required, or equipment required," notes Ramamurthy.

As he points out, all it needs often is for the staff to know that somebody cares! "We have seen such a transformation in the attitudes of the teachers and headmasters once they saw that what happened at the school mattered to someone," adds Prasanna Raghavendra, COO.

“We have even seen how our presence gave an impetus to the women in a village to launch protests against alcoholism, or to keep the school clean, things which for some reason, didn't matter earlier!”

Ramamurthy cites an example of a family that withdrew their daughter from school as they wanted to marry her off. When asked for a reason, it was that they had no funds to teach her through high school! "But they had Rs 50,000 from land mortgaged for her marriage! I asked them that and they had no answers. Basically, there is no one to talk and make these people think. We need social reengineering alongside what we are doing."

Various programmes

Shiksana offers 150 scholarships in the 50 schools at present. Three of the best students are selected by the school who receive Rs 150 every month to help complete high school. "This is to make sure there are no drop-outs after seventh, a common phenomena given that expenses increase," says Ramamurthy. Unlike popularly believed, education is not totally free in the government schools, and especially so in the aided schools. Books, uniforms and the 'compulsory' tuitions can cost over 150 Rs every month!

The Trust also holds motivational competitions for students with a rolling shield presented to the best school. Recently, 20 kids were taken on a trip to Delhi which was quite an event. "Simple things like taking a group to a book shop and asking them to pick any book they want and buying it can work wonders. We provide them with paper to practice writing. It is amazing to see the interest it generates when we encourage them to write anything on the paper. We provide the answer sheets for students to write the exam. They are required to bring their own papers otherwise," Ramamurthy explains.

Temporary teachers are recruited where there is a need. Computers have been provided. "But rather than leave it in a corner unused or used for the wrong reasons, we encourage the teachers to use them as a teaching tool. If they seek a software, we provide it, but again, we do not prescribe anything," he adds. Lesson planning using the computer has been taken up in eight schools. Now, how many private schools in the city can boast of that?
The Trust believes it has helped bring about a reverse migration from private schools. Ultimately, one of its goals is to bring about decentralisation of the process of delivery of education.

Some of the IT companies have come forth to support the scheme. The Rotary club has also been supporting the activities of Sikshana in Kanakapura.

Whether it was that they no more had to shell out money to do experiments or conduct exams, or simply that they knew that somebody cared, teachers are to a large extent motivated and active and no more lethargic. "You hold hope, they will work. Education is ultimately about having a dedicated teacher, motivated student and a tree! Infrastructure doesn't make good schools, motivation and hope does," sums up Ramamurthy.

You can accept or reject the government's plea of lack of funds or not, but the fact remains that the funds that reach the schools are way below requirement. On the positive side, the government has not been hampering the efforts by NGOs like Sikshana to do their bit. Ramamurthy is appreciative of this fact.

Coming back to the immediate need for funds and volunteers who can spend two hours a week in doing work like developing content, or translating material from Net, etc. "We need to model the system and study why it works. If we can have 1,000 such schools across three States, we will be making a forceful statement," he says.

Considering that it has taken a mere Rs 300 per child per year to achieve this transformation, surely a growing economy can afford to contribute a little more for the education of the nation’s underprivileged?

For those who wish to pitch in, the contact number is 9972039890. Or visit website www.sikshana.org or blogspot sikshana.blogspot.com