ITDA Paderu and KR Puram Visit

As the schools are closed for summer vacations, the visit to ITDAs this time focused more on the sanitation issues, I wanted to check whether toilets in the ITDAs are being maintained during off season or not. Also, based on the school strength, whether enough number of toilets are there for the students or not. The report of the same would be shared with district and state level functionaries, so that corrective action is taken before schools open in June'12.

In ITDA Paderu (12-13th May) , I also checked the status of computer installations in KGBVs. Most of the KGBVs are undergoing construction work for the additional classrooms. The focus on sanitation is relatively low and running water is a major issue in most of the KGBVs.The observation is depicted through the photographs below:


ITDA KR Puram has no KGBVs, the focus of the visit was solely on toilets here. The good part about this ITDA is that it has running water in all the schools I visited. I also came across an absurd toilet construction in one of the schools. The ppt (link) and pics are attached :)

The good part about this job...

The ping pong balls

The district officials can also be termed as the ping pong balls, just like in table tennis, they can be called at any point of time to the State level Office for a game of data-data, sometimes even twice/thrice in a month! In an ideal world, they were  supposed to move in the field, implement schemes and report back issues to the State Office. It was the job of the State Office to plan and weed out inefficiency through this ideal reporting/feedback system but this rarely happened! Instead, it made them their bunnies, calling them at their whims and fancies. Now, the main job of ping pong balls is to remain in the district office, play with files and God only knows from where they get the data. Throughout the year, the cycle of monthly review meetings - > giving target - > collecting data - > reviewing some other target in the subsequent meeting!! - > collecting additional data goes on and on...

Learnings

An image I captured 2 years back

Calendar

Have added my official calendar on both my blog and facebook page :)

How to subtract

After giving a small question on subtraction to one of the kids, I asked him to do the same using wooden sticks. He took his time, and did it successfully :)

Incompetent Maths Teachers

In ITDA Sundipenta, Kotalcheru villagel, Atmakur mandal, I taught the Kgbv students how to do basic set theory. The maths teacher was incompetent (a common observation in tribal areas) so i had to intervene, but at the end of the class it was TOTALLY worth it! 

Similiarly, one more incompetent teacher in a different mandal from the same ITDA