Minutes of Asha Seattle meeting on 09/05/07 Venue : RTC LWSD No 414, Morton Johnson Room, Redmond, WA Attendees: Satyajit Nath, Kavitha Golconda, Chandra, Ameya Sirpotdar, Theresa Giloi, Marina Giloi, Srijan, Ken, Shailesh Delhi Govt 10% school reservation clause  - Presented by Marina and Theresa Giloi Established in 2002 and has been funded by Asha Delhi and Munich with 2005. Located at Delhi they identify students covered under the government's 10% clause eligible for placement in private schools, advocate for parents and students to ensure placement. This project's budget has already been approved, but at the time there were still some questions posed at the meeting. The answers to these questions have been received from Asha Delhi. Marina & Theresa gave a brief intro to the project that was approved earlier and discussed the answers to the questions raised at that time: Question and Answers § What are the qualifications of the 6 paid supervisors? They have college degrees and have worked previous in schools/elsewhere. § What is the total number of seats reserved? For the 361 private schools, the number was 5700 @ 20% reservation, but now this has changed to 10% reservation, so it'll be about half. This total is across all grade levels, but they are focusing their effort on the lower levels since they are most effective w/ younger kids. They monitor the kids – make sure they are integrated into the classroom. So far they do not have enough children to fill the quota. We don't know why - need to ask them (attendees came up with possible reasons this could be so). § What is the male/female ratio? 50:50. § Does the law apply only to primary schools? No, to all. But the program is most successful with younger kids, hence the focus on primary schools. Chapter and Project Coordinator Updates – Srijan & Shailesh § Srijan updated everyone on Sidamma's talk about her work with the Irula tribe and her experience. § Shailesh said they are working on building a unified backend for finance & coordination information. Parijat Academy - Presented by Satyajit Nath and Rukmani Gopalan Parijat Academy - a school for underprivileged children  established in 2003. Located at Pamohi P.O. Garchuk, Guwahati, Assam they provide primary education for underprivileged children just outside Guwahati with classes from Nursery through Class 7. School needs funds for teacher salaries and to construct pucca classrooms. Asha-DC will most likely approve the funds for teacher salaries. Requesting Asha-Seattle to approve construction of pucca classrooms. Satyajit presented Parijat Academy's proposal for expansion of school for underprivileged children to class 8 and construction of pucca classrooms for 6th, 7th, 8th and kindergarten. § Ask of approx $15000 for construction of the 4 classrooms for one year, with a request for recurring maintenance of 5% of fixed cost for subsequent years. Asha DC and Atlanta are involved with funding teachers' salaries. § School is in the flood plains area – hence the desperate need for pucca classrooms. § Uttam Teron runs the school – involved with Montessori education earlier. § 7th grade kids waiting on school expansion to 8th grade; Assam govt won't approve expansion until the classroom is built. § Land for the classrooms is donated. § Parijat also plans to start vocational programs – these are not funded yet. § Their FCRA clearance was one-time - Asha Darshan ( an Asha supported project in the region) has agreed to route funds to them in the meantime (till they get their own). Questions and Answers § How are the 15 teachers divided? More children and hence more teachers in nursery, kg and lower classes; 1 teacher for the higher classes. § What is the number of children? 192 children, 15 teachers (was 54 children & 9 teachers last year). § Why the big growth in the last year? How do they plan to cope with such growth? Will find out § Are there any other nearby schools? 2 govt schools in the vicinity; Class 1 to 4 only – no high schools around. School covers 7 villages. Also the govt schools have high teacher absenteeism. § Can they not work with govt schools for Class 1 to 4 and use their existing infrastructure? Will find out; however, govt schools are only class 1 to 4, so not sure what they can provide. There will be more overhead with a dual approach – one for class 1 to 4 and another for class 5 onwards (inhouse). Also their teaching techniques are very different (refer #10, page 2 of proposal). § Is site visit information available? Done in April 2006 – will present it at next meeting along with answers to the questions raised. § What is the drop rate & the reasons for it? Will find out. § Is there a food program and who funds it? Will find out.

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