Trip to Nayakanahatti

Asha Bangalore wanted to evaluate the tuition centers run by Chaitanya near Nayakanahatti in Chitradurga district of Karnataka (http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=657). We decided that we would make a detailed evaluation like the one Rajni did for the Chandranagar School. Mounesh and Siddanagowda who had earlier taught in the Chandranagar School were to conduct the evaluations in all the Chaitanya centers in the next two month and submit a detailed report for each center. Anand Rao and I had gone along with them to Chaitanya.

We left Bangalore at around 900 hours on Monday and reached Nayakanahatti at around 1500 hours. We took a bus from majestic bus station to Challakere which left at 900 and then took a private bus from Challakere to Nayakanahatti. Chaitanya has an office close to the bus stand and they run a computer center there along with a tailoring center. We met Ramesh who co-ordinates Chaitanya’s work. They use the same premises for also conducting the evening tuition centers. On Monday evening we visited another 4 centers. In Channabaseyanahatti, which probably a couple of kilometers away from Nayakanahatti, there are kind of two villages old and new and there is a tuition center in each one of them. Both cater to the same government primary school. The tuition centers are run by Bosiah P and Tippeswamy. Tippeswamy is a graduate (BA Kannada major) and tends to his farms. His living conditions appeared very basic as his house was very close to the center. The centers run from 1730 to 1930 and in both these places it runs in the community halls in the villages. The electricity comes after 1800 and it seems it is quite regular (there are huge wind farms in Chitradurga and apparently they generate 400 MW which is sufficient for the district). There were more than 25 students in each center. We next went to Gowdgere, which is about a kilometer from Channabaseyanahatti. Here the center is run in a house which kind of tiny and cramped. Ms. Chamundeshwari is the teacher there. She was making the students recite the tables. The school is quite close to the village and I don’t know why they cannot have the tuitions in the school itself, unless there is not electrical connection to the school. We then went to Matturhatti which was a 20 minute motorcycle ride from Gowdgere. Here the center is run in a temple and there are almost 90 students attending! Probably half of the school is going to this tuition center. Prakash is the teacher and he seems to be doing a reasonable job handling 90 of them together. Chaitanya acknowledged that they need an additional teacher there.

We wanted to go to the schools also and so on Tuesday morning I went to the schools with Mounesh and Siddenagowda. The interaction between the tuition centers and the schools seem minimal. In fact in Channabaseyanahatti the HM (who is new) did not even know that such centers existed. The school has around 240 students and 5 teachers. Out of which only 2 were present. The others were supposedly on leave. We heard from the HM that the previous HM had some problems with the SDMC (so what is new). Most of the families are telugu speaking and all are Scheduled Tribes it seems (nayaks to be specific). Also the schools performance in KSQE was not great. They said it was less than 40 but seemed reluctant to give out the exact number and I did not insist. The HM feels that the language is an issue with the students being Telugu speaking but the school being a Kannada school. The school in Gowdgere has 180 students with 4 teachers but again only 2 were present. I am not sure if the teacher absenteeism is a chronic problem but could not find out from the Chaitanya teachers either.

The tuition centers can only perform supporting role and might not be beneficial at all if no effective schooling is happening for the children during the day. For now the centers are quite cut off from the school and its related issues. I think it would be worthwhile for the volunteer teachers appointed in the centers (all are local to the villages) to play a role in interacting with the school, its teachers and SDMC. I talked to Ramesh about this and he seems very skeptical about the role of SDMC. Considering that he himself is a government school teacher I am not surprised. I have asked Mounesh and Siddenagowda to keep a tab on the attendance of the teachers at school during their two month stay. Let us see what it shows.