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Dear Readers
Thank you for your interest in KUTUMB TRUST. KUTUMB is a small organization working in some of the most economically backward areas of Patna. To fetch heavy amounts of money to run the TRUST is neither possible, nor is it our aim.
We started KUTUMB with a bridge course class having 30 students. However, this small – scale contribution towards education was negligible. We wanted to have a concrete proposal for low cost education to propagate primary education in a state like Bihar where literacy is low mainly due to poverty.
After many brainstorming sessions with like-minded individuals, KUTUMB TRUST finally evolved a very low cost and high yield project and named it as the Home School Project. The idea was to make every educated home a school for spreading education and to create Educational-entrepreneurs who can teach students and collect some tuition fee themselves to earn money. The experiment started in August 2003.
Satya Kamla Prakalp
In the year 2007-2008 we have spread our work in Anisabad-Phulwarisharief area in ward nos.10&11. There we have established about fifty home school classes and two non-formal education centres for elderly illiterate girls. One stitching class has also been started with the help of JSS, ADRI giving practical and theoretical lessons to forty girls in two batches. The work in this area has been specifically started in the memory of our late trustee Satyadeo Prasad and his late wife Kamla Prasad calling the initiative as Satya Kamla Prakalp. The younger son of late Satyadeo prasad, Shri Prem Swaroop has readily accepted the offer to become a trustee and he has actively supported all our activities.
Bringing About Change
Due to the uniqueness of the concept, acceptability of the Home School project was slow. Initially we worked with about 100 potential teachers. Despite many barriers, essentially financial, we persisted on teaching and training these home schoolteachers and found that the women folk were able to gain knowledge and start home schools with the help of the TRUST. Though we could not retain many of the teachers with KUTUMB due to lack of honorarium, we found that most of them continued their centres on a small scale.
We introduced random evaluation of students in the year 2004-05. This amounted to indirect evaluation of teachers as well. The inefficient teachers were easily identified and they started leaving us on their own. On an average we were getting reports from about 200 teachers regularly on monthly basis. The teachers were teaching nearly 2000 students.
Some new teachers regularly approached us and we were able to give the experiment a better shape in the year 2005-06. There was less addition of new teachers, as we wanted quality. Only a few old teachers left us on account of honorarium. The number of home schoolteachers rose to 250 in the year 2005-06.
In 2006-07, we started focussing on ward nos. 61,62,63 and 64 of Patnacity area. We are trying to make these wards fully literate. During our interaction with the community it came to our notice that very many elderly boys and girls who were illiterate and were above 10-12 years of age felt embarrassed learning in formal schools along with much younger boys and girls. So, in the year 2006-07 we started a few non-formal education centres for elderly illiterate girls along with 250 home school centres. In these education centres, we are imparting free education and also providing them teaching-learning materials free so that they are motivated to read.
Vocational training is a must for economic betterment of any area. The educated and uneducated girls and ladies may be equally a part of the training. From 2006-07 we are trying to impart vocational training to girls and ladies of ward nos. 61, 62, 63 and 64 in different fields with the help of a few other organizations.
As of June 2008, there are more than 250 teachers in our network in Patnacity area. Including all, we are teaching more than 3000 students this year. Students per teacher vary; good teachers having more students than the ordinary ones. We are also running ten education centres mainly for elderly illiterate girls in ward nos. 61, 62, 63 and 64 of Patnacity area. There are some boys also in these education centres but their number has been kept low. These children can never go to formal classes due to age factor and if they are not taught, they will remain illiterate throughout their life. If they are educated, a would be family can become literate. We wish to have at least fifty such centres in our working area of Patnacity and Anisabad in near future.
We are running six capacity building classes for our home school teachers as well as teachers of non-formal education centres. In these classes the teachers are prepared for better and better teaching up to class five.
The Home School Project is a scientifically developed project. If implemented with devotion it can give very good results and can be replicated without much difficulty. We hope to replicate this model across Bihar State.
I invite you to join and help contribute to the movement !
Best Wishes
Rabindra Kumar