By Rashmi Verma and group

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TITLE OF THE CASE STUDY : School of Sunpura Village

PURPOSE OF THE CASE-STUDY : To study the facilities available and the prevailing problems in the school.

INFORMATIONS ABOUT THE SCHOOL

NAME OF THE SCHOOL : Government Primary School, Sunpura

STARTED IN : 1953

BUILDING WAS ESTABLISHED IN : 1966

TIMING : The school is run in 2 shifts —

Middle Section (6th-8th ) : 07:00-2:00 p.m. Primary Section (1st - 5th) : 12:30-05:00 p.m.

(Timings of the classes are kept as decided in PTA) NUMBER OF TEACHERS: In Primary Section : 7
 * 1) Mr. Brahmswaroop Saxena - Head Master
 * 2) Mrs. Sumanlata Bhadoria
 * 3) Mrs. Anjana Chaurasia
 * 4) Mrs. Madhavi Jain
 * 5) Mr. Surendra Rathod
 * 6) Mr. Dinesh Gupta - CRC (Janshikshak) *
 * 7) Mr. Deepak Sharma - (Tehseel Nirvachan) *

* These 2 teachers work in Vidhisha and are not available for teaching work.

In Middle Section: 5
 * 1) Mr. Manmohan Singh – Head Teacher
 * 2) Mrs Mamta
 * 3) Mrs. Sarita Bhargav
 * 4) Mr. Ghanshyam Sharma

(One male teacher was absent) NUMBERS OF STUDENTS

In Primary Section: 271

In Middle Section : 125

NUMBER OF CLASSROOMS: Total Number of Rooms in the Building : 9

Out of which:

7 are used as classrooms, 1 small room for Primary’s I-lead Master’s (Mr. Brahmswaroop Saxena’s) office & 1 small room is used as storeroom for the purpose of Mid-Day Meal.
 * 6th & 7th class ‘s students are seated together in the same classroom.)
 * One of the rooms is partitioned by using almirahs & cupboards used to keep the office documents. The bigger one is used as classroom & the smaller one as the Middle Section‘s Head Master‘s (Mr. Manmohan Singh‘s) Office.

PARENTS-TEACHERS ASSOCIATION (PTA): There is a PTA in the school which is active. The present timing of the school is decided in the PTA meeting. GOVERNMENT FUNDS, GRANTS, INCENTIVES & SCHOLARSHIPS Funds & Grants :
 * 1) Under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan, the school gets a sum of Rs.2000/- & Rs. 1000/- on account of school development and TLM grants respectively.
 * 2) Under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the government gives Rs 2/ student to the school.

Scholarships :
 * 1) Government gives scholarship to SC students : Rs 30 / month for girls and Rs 20 / month for boys. Presently 29 girls & 24 boys, in the Primary Section, are getting scholarships.
 * 2) The Shram Vibhag of Government has launched a new scheme this year under which the daughters of laborers will get scholarships.

Incentives :

A number of incentives such as free Uniforms & Textbooks (every year), Stationary (pencil, rubber) are provided to students.

MID-DAY MEAL PROGRAMME

Under the Mid-Day Meal programme, the government provides meal to the students of Primary Sections.

For this, it has prescribed a menu, including green vegetables, different for each day and it gives Rs 2/ student for providing the meal to the students. This scheme was started in August 07. The school has kept 5 women of the village for cooking food for about 100— 150 students daily. They are paid Rs 500/ month for this.

PROBLEMS IN THE MID-DAY MEAL
 * 1) The estimate for each child’s meal should be Rs 3 instead of Rs 2 as-
 * 2) According to the government’s order, estimated cost of Vegetable = Rs 5/Kg & pulses = Rs 25/Kg. This is not manageable these days.
 * 3) The wood for fuel costs Rs 200/ Quintal & cow-dung cakes costs Rs 60/100 pieces.
 * 4) It involves at least 2 teachers to supervise the meal as there are around 100-150 students for the meal daily.

FACILITIES IN THE SCHOOL
 * 1) School have map of world, India, M.P and Vidisha district and other charts of Mathematics, English Alphabets, etc.
 * 2) The school gives many incentives as mentioned earlier.
 * 3) The source of drinking water is tap water which comes from Grunt village through the pipelines. The school has got bored 4 times for the hand-pump but still it does not give water properly.
 * 4) Presently, the school has 2 common toilets and 4-5 new are under construction.
 * 5) Each classroom has blackboards.
 * 6) Teachers of school are well qualfled as they have graduate & above degrees & the teachers are professionally qualified.
 * 7) The school gets inspected regularly.
 * 8) There is PTA in the school.

PROBLEM OF THE SCHOOL
 * 1) No adequate amount of classrooms.
 * 2) No furniture for sitting of students.
 * 3) No proper black-board. There are black-boards for the use of teachers but it does not have black-board at the ground level for the use of children.
 * 4) Lack of teachers.
 * 5)  The strength of some of the classes is very large which can have adverse impact on classroom transactions.
 * 6) The school does not have a library. On its name, they have a rack of books which are never read by the students.
 * 7) No boundary wall of the school.
 * 8) No playground.
 * 9) No separate toilet for girls.
 * 10) No electricity supply in the school.
 * 11) In this competitive world, the school does not have a computer & do not give computer education to the students.
 * 12) Mid-Day meal Programme can not be carried out smoothly.

VIEW OF HEAD MASTER (PRIMARY SECTION): According to Mr. Brahmswaroop Saxena Sir, When asked about the opening of 9th and 10th classes in the school, he said that government is planning to open it but it will take time.
 * The government should pay attention to the schools and the facilities in the remote areas. There is electricity in the village but not in school.
 * The girls can do much better if they are provided facilities and chance.

VIEW OF A TEACHER (PRIMARY SECTION):

According to Mrs. Sumanlata Bhadoria Madam,
 * Pre-primary classes should also be opened here. This will have 2 benefits. It will prepare the child for schooling and also it will help many of the girls who have to look after their siblings.
 * 20 yrs ago, the strength of girls was only 20-22 but now the condition has changed. This has happened because of the efforts of the I-lead Master and teachers who have talked to the villagers, encouraged them to send their children to schools.
 * Whenever a child remains absent for a long duration we used to go to their home, meet his/her parents to identify the cause.

CONCLUSION: By conducting this case study, Ifound that there are many problems prevailing in the school. The school faces several adverse situations in order to maintain itself in my view the reasons of problems are:
 * 1) The remoteness of the school.
 * 2) The illiteracy of the villagers.
 * 3) Unavailability of transportation.
 * 4) Earning as primary aim for villagers.
 * 5) Concept of ‘More Children More Earning’.
 * 6) Poor financial condition of the family as most of the villagers does not have their land for cultivation and thus work as laborers.
 * 7) Careless attitude of the government.

SUGGESTIONS From this case study, I found that there are many problems prevailing in the school. So, to improve the standard of education in the school some measures should be taken before the conditions get more adverse. Following are some suggestions:
 * 1) Increase the number of classrooms.
 * 2) The school must be extended to secondary school.
 * 3) The government should pay an immediate attention not just to this school but to all such schools in the villages & remote areas.
 * 4) The government must revise the Mid-Day Meal Programme and the estimated cost of the meal per student.
 * 5) The Head-Master must forward applications to higher authorities for the facility of electricity and furniture in the school.
 * 6) More teachers must be appointed in the school.

TOOLS/ TECHNIQUES USED Mr. Brahmswaroop Saxena Sir, M: 9993160061 Mrs. Sumanlata Bhadoria Madam, M: 9301205406
 * 1) Observation
 * 2) Interview
 * Head Master (Primary Section)
 * Teacher (Primary Section)