IF’s project partner, the Pravaham Trust, works to improve educational opportunities for Dalit children through it's Program for Education and Awareness Building (PEAB). This supports year 10 coaching for students and new Village Education Centres (VECs) where primary-aged students are supervised to do their homework. Dalits (or "untouchables") constitute around 17% of India’s population and are among the most marginalised communities in India. The original objective of the project was to establish a program of coaching for Year 10 and 12 Dalit students to improve their chances of completing school successfully and their access to higher education. The project was later expanded to establish a VECs in eight Dalit villages.

IF has supported PEAB for over four years and the results have been encouraging. In 2009, three of the 22 students attending the projects’ coaching sessions achieved over 80% in their final Year 10 exams, an unprecedented result for Dalit students in Madhurantakam. All of the other students passed, some with strong results. These students will continue to be mentored so that they do well in their next big challenge: the Year 12 exams.

Currently, around 190 children attend classes each evening at the VECs, which provide a supervised quiet space for primary aged children to complete their homework. While the parents of the Year 10 students are supportive of the project, it is less clear how Dalit parents feel about the VECs. A monitoring and evaluation trip is to be undertaken in January 2010 to consult the communities involved about their priorities. This will assist IF to decide on the future of the project.

Context

Economic, cultural and social discrimination against Dalits (formerly referred to as “untouchables”) remains entrenched and is well documented. In 2005 constitutional amendments made education a right for all children up to the elementary grade (8 years of schooling). There is a growing awareness among Dalit communities about the need for, and relevance of, educating their children as the most critical intervention for social mobility and economic improvement. Most Dalit children attend schools set up by the government. These public schools have been “evacuated” by parents who can afford to send their children to private schools and the public system is becoming a ghetto for disadvantaged groups, particularly Dalits (75% of all students).

The situation in these schools is highly disadvantageous to the Dalit children and includes: lack of teachers in maths, English, and science; teachers being engaged in non-teaching activities; lack of sufficient support from teachers for first generation students. Combined with lack of financial and other support from home to meet the demands of school (due to parents low literacy), Dailt students face considerable disadvantages, particularly when they have to compete with students from private schools from private schools coming from educated families.

The project area - Madhurantakum - has a high population of Dalits, the majority of whom work in rice mills in the area. The work is irregular, unsafe and insecure, low paid and changing hours.

Partner: the Pravaham Trust
Partner since: 2006
Project Manager: Pat Duggan
Liaison Officer: Annie Namala
Management Committee Representative: Stefan Knollmayer

The Project

The project was conceived by Mr Dayalan, who worked previously with the Tamil Nadu Social Action Movement in Madhurantakum. Its purpose is to enhance opportunities for learning for Dalit students by establishing a program of coaching for year 10 and Year 12 students to improve their chances of completing high school successfully and their access to higher education. However, it was apparent by November 2006 that it would take longer to develop the coaching program and for the program to gain acceptance by school administrators.

In order to gain momentum, Dayalan, in consultation with the Pravaham Trust, decided to go ahead and establish VECs in a range of Dalit villages in Madhurantakam. The Centres operate every evening for two to three hours and between 40 and 60 students attending each school every evening. Given the relatively low qualification of the tutors, attendance is mainly primary school students. Children told IF that the schools were a much more conducive place to study than at home, where there was often no electricity and too many distractions from other family members.

Funding: $AUD19,700 over 4 years

Successes

2009 saw 3 of the 22 Year 10 (Standard IX) students attending the project’s examination coaching sessions achieved over 80% in their final Year 10 exams. This is an unprecedented result for Dalit students in Madhurantakam. A further 5 students passed strongly (over 60%). Only 2 of the 22 failed subjects (one English, one maths) and have now re-sat these exams and passed.

A weekend camp for these students was held in December at the Pravaham Trust’s compound in Vellore. Pending a follow on career camp, which could not be organised before the exams, the project team arranged for several half day sessions on “doing exams”, conducted by teachers from a very successful school outside Madhurantakum.

The success of this first group has stimulated demand in the Year 10 coaching, for which parents pay a nominal fee. Class numbers have, however, been kept to 30 – the maximum number the team feels it can manage well. Coaching classes for this Year 10 group are now under way. Mr Chezhiyan, a retired (Dalit) high school principal, is keen to continue mentoring the successful Year 10 students so that they do well in their next big challenge: Year 12 exams, for matriculation. He is well supported in the coaching effort by two volunteer teachers, who were once on Mr Chezhiyan’s staff.

There establishment of the Village Education Centres is progressing well. Currently, around 190 children attend classes each evening at the eight VECs which provide a supervised quiet space for primary age children to complete their homework.

Challenges

With the current funding coming to an end in July 2010, it is time to pause and reflect. IF Project Manager, Pat Duggan writes:

Given our experience, and the community’s, what level of support is appropriate for IF, and what should it focus on? It is increasingly clear, for instance, that the community values the coaching classes for Year 10 students. It is less clear that the community feels the same way about the VECs. It is this component which is has worried us most. While five of the eight VECs are now housed in village buildings (two more than last year), and while 190 children attend them, there are no tangible signs of community interest in building their long term viability. Parents’ committees and youth groups formed around some VECs need considerable investment of effort to build them into dynamic and representative community organisations. We would also like to see the Project Committee – established last year – to start “taking charge” of planning and allocating IF resources for the project. This is a long term undertaking. The VEC tutors need skills development too, and monthly sessions for this have recommenced: what quality of tutors is appropriate for evening schools? The big question for us is: What is the community’s priority for our funding? How can we best meet this priority?

Lessons Learned

In the case of Dayalan working with the Madhurantakam community it has been found that:

• Plenty of time is needed to build genuine community ownership and ongoing dialogue is critical.
• An “obviously” good idea might just not be seen as such by the community we work with and after more dialogue, it may be clear that an alternative approach is better
• The slower than expected implementation reflects an important message in community development: no matter how well a person knows a community, the challenges to implementing community development projects are often underestimated.
  

If you would like more information please contact the IF project manager Pat Duggan at indigo.foundation@bigpond.com.