School Daze

Thursday, 21 January 2010

This morning I went to Dhared daycare center, a school in a small rural village bordering Palampur. It was about a 30-minute hike away from my house, and I mean it was a true hike, requiring a bit of trekking up the side of a mountain. Nothing serious, mind you, but let’s just say that the average couch potato would have some trouble getting to Dhared. In this part of my program, I will be exploring the different institutions and projects in Palampur to familiarize myself with their function. Ignorance is not bliss, and only by familiarizing myself with how this city works will I be able to make a positive impact.

To make sure that I’m not a complete idiot, Atul has asked me to write up short “reports” about what I see and learn on these de facto orientations. Since I like to multitask, simplify and consolidate, and just because I am generally lazy, here is the report I wrote, so you can also be enlightened by my orientation:

“The daycare, or aanganwari, at Dhared is a small, three-room concrete building perched on the side of a hill overlooking Palampur and the surrounding hills. It is simply decorated with mottos and slogans in both Hindi and English, as well as some handprints of the children who attend it.

“This school is a GPS, a Government Primary School, similar to public school in the United States. The government of Himachal Pradesh pays for the building’s construction and maintenance, teacher salaries, facilities, infrastructure and other basic expenses. It does not pay for textbooks or uniforms; these have to be provided by the student. In addition, the families sending their child to the school are required to pay a nominal fee of about 7 rupees per month (less than 20 cents) to cover additional expenses. Since the state government receives all of its funds from the Indian federal government, it is the central government that is the ultimate source of funding for GPS’s.

“The school teaches first through fifth grades, and the children are between four and fourteen years old. Instruction at the school is done in Hindi. At Dhared, four subjects are taught: Hindi, English, mathematics and environmental studies. That last subject consists of teaching the children basic hygiene and giving them an understanding of how everything is recycled in the environment. That way, they learn that anything they put into the environment comes back to them, and they must take care of it if it is going to take care of them. The other subjects are self-explanatory, but it is understood that English lessons must receive extra effort if the children are going to succeed in the world, since it is the lingua franca of the world.

“The syllabus determines the structure of the lessons and it regulates the children’s progress through each grade. It is provided to Dhared and other GPS’s by the state Board of Education, located in Dharmsala. Each syllabus is a list of lessons that the students are expected to master by the end of the school year. The list is contained in the government-sponsored textbooks, and at the end of these books is a set of exercises that will determine a student’s aptitude. For example, the grade 5 English textbook is a list of poems, stories and reading in English that each highlight a portion of the English language that the student is to learn. The pace of the lessons is determined by the teacher at each site. Regardless of how the lessons are carried out, the exercises is the ultimate determinant of the student’s understanding of the language.

“Each week, the students at the school work to lean that week’s subject, review it and complete the assigned exercises. Minimum passing grade for the exercises is 35%, and the average score is 50%. This is much lower than the 50% minimum and 80% average in most American educational institutions, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect upon the quality of either institution. If the student fails to pass the exercises at the end of the year, they are required to repeat the lessons until they can pass it. Only after passing are they able to proceed to the next class and lesson.

“The daycare also acts as a health clinic for the whole community. Medicines, drugs and vaccines are distributed from there, and it is likely to be the first place somebody in the community goes when they are sick or injured. In addition, the daycare provides prenatal care for women in the community.

“One of the most important aspects of the daycare is the meal program. In 2004, the Indian government passed a resolution stating that all primary school students are required to provide one hot meal per day to all of its students, and the government is also responsible for paying for it. To do so, it contracts out to local farmers. Local, state and nationally-owned farms do exist in India, but their purpose is mainly agricultural research, not widespread distribution. Local farmers have contracts with the government to sell them a fixed quantity of food products at a fixed price, which is negotiated by the government yearly. Usually, this quantity is lower than a farm’s total production, and the price is lower than market value. The reason why these contracts continue to be renewed is because it is a source of stable, renewable business for local farmers; it is a guaranteed consumer than fluctuates much less than outside markets. If local agricultural production diminishes and the government is unable to provide schools with the predetermined quantity, they school is allowed to purchase extra food at outside markets, with government reimbursement to follow. As such, the daily meal program at GPS’s requires a much balancing. All in all, Dhared is a wonderful example of Indian GPS’s, and it provides a very important service to rural communities.”

After Dhared, I went to talk to the principal of the local girl’s college in Palampur. Harmit, the representative from Global Student Consultants, wants me to do most of my work there, because there is a lot of opportunity for students in future programs and he wants to develop the connection between MSU, GSC and the college. Ramdev, the principal, had already learned that my main interest is food and nutrition, and he was ready to present me with several areas in which I could work.

For one, the canteen at the college is insufficient to provide adequate food for the 800+ girls and the 1200+ students at a neighboring school. It only serves chai and samosas, a fried pastry filled with a spiced potato mixture. Besides the canteen, there are only two nearby places where students can buy lunch, and their selections aren’t much better.

Furthermore, the cook at the canteen is an independent contractor who doesn’t listen to the principal at all. It was suggested to him many different times, as subtlety as possible, that he should step outside of his comfort zone a bit to respond to the needs of the hungry student body. These requests were promptly ignored.

So, Harmit has big plans for me. First, he wants me to spend a couple of weeks familiarizing myself with the institutions in the area. This includes the girl’s college, Kayakalp (the health center), the hostel that provides food and lodging for 40-50 students, and the daycare center. Then, my next project is to get to know the current diets of and nutritional habits of the students. With that information, I can help with nutrition and food classes for both the college and the community to improve their eating habits.

Finally, what Harmit really wants me to do is expand the eating options of the students by opening up a small snack shop near the school that features American baked goods. Think about that for a second. This semester, an American student with limited experience in the food industry and no business experience will attempt to open up an American bakery in a foreign country that will serve 2000+ plus people per day, many of them vegetarians who won’t consume baked goods with eggs.

I’m freaking out! Ok, not really, but the possibilities are quite exciting. There are a lot of variables to consider, and this won’t be happening overnight. Over the next couple of weeks, and of course throughout the semester, I will be doing my best to explore the possibility of starting up a mini-restaurant for the first time in a foreign country. I don’t know if this is a dream come true, but it it’s pretty damn close.