Sikshana and again the question of Public-Private Partnerships
Kadrenahalli Govt. school
Visit made on 4 April 2006 by Prasanna (98455-18382) and Aradhana (98455-37269)
Contact info: Mr.Srinivasamurthy, Principal
The visit was made in connection with Sikshana (www.sikshana.org), which is supporting a number of government schools in this area as well as Kanakapura. This school boasts a board that says it is adopted by Sivasri trust (Sikshana’s trust). The school closes for summer on April 10th, but because exams were over, the kids had stopped coming, so we could not attend any class. However we talked to 2 teachers Ms. Vidhyadhare (maths teacher) and Ms. Rukamma (incharge of 1st standard kids), in the absence of the principal Mr.Srinivasamurthy.
The school is housed in a two-storey building and has 426 kids and 11 teachers. School timings are 9:30-3:30pm with a mid-day meal provided under the akshara daasoha scheme. The school has classes from 1st – 7th grade and is kannada medium.
Typically all govt schools in Bangalore receive free textbooks (but not notebooks), a set of uniform and food (under the mid-day meal scheme), and teachers’ salaries from the government. For any other purpose, the school fends for itself through donors. This school got some land donated from a donor, and is constructing a building there to house the increasing number of kids, especially the small ones in 1st and 2nd grade. While the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan (SSA) will help with the construction cost, the building (and land) has to be registered under the govt’s name when complete. The SSA has also provided some teacher training and some resource material from time to time (although this school sported a SSA poster that gives timelines of SSA’s goals). The toilet in the present building was constructed with donors’ help and water is from School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC). There is no playground and the kids use the playground nearby once a week. The school has only indoor games. There is supposedly a cupboard full of books that the kids check out; we didn’t get to see it, we just took their word for it. ISKCON had recently sent in a boxful of books which hadn’t been put in circulation when we visited due to the exams. 6th and 7th grade students pay a fee of Rs. 25/year, while it’s free for everybody else. SC/ST families receive Rs. 150/year/kid to send them to school. The school has depended on donors’ support for any field trips, annual/sports day functions.
Sikshana has helped provide notebooks, printed exam question papers, exam answer sheets, 2 computers and some computer training as well as contributed to the library.
The only contact of the school authorities with the government is through the Block education officer (BEO) who inspects the school and its results. All govt schools have to pass the kids at least up to the 7th grade and some till the 10th. We didn’t get to see the school results despite requests, but were told that it was one of the best in the area.
Aradhana’s viewpoint: I have been volunteering with AID Bay area since 1997 and the past 2 years in Bangalore. Volunteering at a couple of tuition centers in the Bangalore slums has been an eye-opener about the state of education in India. While lack of proper infrastructure (we’re talking blackboards, chalks, textbooks here) on the one hand can really affect the education being provided, on the other there is the lack of teacher’s interest, totally meaningless textbooks and methods of teaching that make schooling such a shore for kids. We’re talking about 7th, 8th grade kids who can’t do simple addition and subtraction, history books with totally uninteresting information, and of course boring English lessons taught to kids who grew up in a kannada medium environment (thus ensuring that they will never generate the enthusiasm to learn English!).
In the absence of govt. intervention, these govt. schools have a need to approach other donors for providing quality education to the kids all of whom are from economically backward backgrounds. We can very well say that these schools need to make the govt. accountable, but we all know that’s a long process and we cannot expect the schools to not do anything in the meantime. Sikshana’s role is that of a donor presently, providing the infrastructure that these schools lack, but that is also a need of the hour. Teacher training is needed, especially for interested teachers who are keen on providing quality and meaningful education. Prasanna and I would like to visit the schools (probably with other Bangalore vols as well) once they reopen on May 29th to get a better feel about the needs of these schools and how AID can help.
Prasanna’s viewpoint:
The first thing that put me off was the board put up at the entrance as mentioned by Aradhana. The School is put up by the government and some trust which gets its donation from some people claims to “adopt” the same.
This is a typical case of the so-called “Public Private Partnerships” (PPPs). With it comes the Classic Dialectic of the PPPs that confront us. On the one hand we have the so called “Right to Education” which makes Education a fundamental right of every citizen of the nation and this should make the government accountable and take the complete ownership of the schools run by it. But as Aradhana points out that it is a long process and till that time we cant expect the school to not to do anything and hence we are forced to promote such initiatives like Shikshana with the tag line “At least so many kids get blackboards, notebooks, textbooks etc., etc.,” Similar dilemmas are arising in the health sector as well with some people actively promoting the “take-over” (in other words “adopt”) of the Government run Primary Health Centers with the tag line that “at least so many people are getting the services at these centers”. I would be drawing a lot of parallels with the health sector to explain some of the points
While I don’t totally reject the above tag lines there are some fundamental problems associated with it
a) There is no question of empowerment and exercising of Rights in the private sphere. Here I bracket anything other than Government (public) as private. So it would include charitable organizations, NGOs, missionary institutions and of course purely private. So in a private either it is “collect user fees and deliver” (since they work on the concept of return of investment or at least break even) or it would be “collect donations and charitably deliver”(non-profit sector, read Shikshana). So either it is the paying capability in the former case or the benevolent nature of the organization that will to some extent ensure the service delivery (not assured always though) and hence no scope for the concept of “Right to Education” as Rights have no place in the private sphere. One more hypothetical question is that if the non-profits like Shikshanas were to not receive donations then they would also have to fall into the “User fees” option. This has happened to many of the missionary institutions. So what happens finally is that “Education is only for those who can pay” and hence whither “Right to Education”
b) One of the fundamental reasons for poor service delivery of public systems is the increasing disconnect between the Public and the Public Systems. There is no public left in the Public systems. It is a vicious circle. First the govt. systems don’t deliver and the public are totally indifferent and turn to private for service. This makes the Government think that anyway the public are not using so why should it run the systems and actively privatizes it (again I will use the broadest term of private) and hence the disconnect increases. Finally nobody is held accountable for anything. The government is very happy to palm its hands off in the name of PPP and the general public cant question the private as it is either money driven or charity driven, if it delivers it is good and lucky, if it doesn’t deliver then bad luck u cant question them. So what this means is that organizations like Shikshana increase the disconnect between the Government and public by insulating and isolating the Government from the public. So the Government doesn’t feel the heat and pressure of the public’s anger over the lack of the facilities that it provides for fundamental rights like Education and Health.
So one hypercritical question that needs to be asked is what is AID doing with supporting organizations like Shikshana which would insulate the Government from public accountability?
Is it a feel-good factor driven by the tag lines that at least so many children have got so many facilities as I mentioned before? But I thought we as AID have outgrown the “charitable” behaviour ( partly because of the middle class and upper middle class baggage that we carry)
Or is it because it fits into the “tangible” Black Box model of Inputs and “tangible” outputs? Our chapter has given so much money (input) and so many black boards, notebooks have been supplied (“tangible”, “measurable” outputs). Organizations with such initiatives can always get support as this fits into the category of the “Charitable” people and corporates which are looking for specific “Black box” type of initiatives. If this is the case then how has AID been different from the Rotaries and the corporate donors? If we are again catering to the same spectrum that these can do then what is the value-addition that is happening because of AID’s involvement [we, who understand the bigger people’s struggles which fight for more government accountability (a la Vimukthi, Narmada or a PHM)]. Of course, we didn’t get a chance to talk to Shikshana directly and we are not privy beforehand to the interaction that has happened between Shikshana and AID but from the inputs we have collected I cant see any value-addition. The school is so insulated from all the stuff that they didn’t even know that AID was involved somewhere. If there is no value addition then why is AID diluting its energies when there are enough and more people to do such things?
Or is it because it is easier to project to our donors? I think we as AID have earned enough credibility to be driven by such factors. If it is really so, then we should now learn to say “No” to such donors
So then as Aradhana points out should we remain silent till the government responds and let these children suffer since the government systems are not delivering or encourage a PPP like Shikshana, which would isolate the government from the public pressure ( I am also aware that it is easier for “haves” like us to take a strict ideological position) . One possible midway answer to this dilemma is that no doubt shikshana’s work is important (This is similar to a patient coming to the PHC adopted by an NGO with a snake bite to alleviate his immediate pain but at the same time the NGO should also mobilize the people against the government if the medicines to be given by the government is not supplied by it and not go back to its donor for buying of medicines) but AID should be able to bring in the value addition of impressing upon Shikshanas to also fight for the people’s rights in education in parallel with the service delivery that they are doing to alleviate the immediate pain of the people. In fact this should be made a condition for further support to them or a specific time frame (say 3 months) to be given to them so that this sort of value addition happens and if the NGO does not have enough time for doing the value addition then we need to take some hard decisions. Otherwise Shikshanas can continuously be on the artificial respiration provided by organizations and donors like AID and then the government on its side not feeling the public pressure goes on systematically undermining the public systems.
Some further reading on the PPPs:
Sainath’s articles:
http://www.counterpunch.org/sainath04122006.html
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2006/01/04/stories/2006010406091000.htm
PHM statement of PPP
http://lists.kabissa.org/lists/archives/public/pha-exchange/msg02582.html
Visit made on 4 April 2006 by Prasanna (98455-18382) and Aradhana (98455-37269)
Contact info: Mr.Srinivasamurthy, Principal
The visit was made in connection with Sikshana (www.sikshana.org), which is supporting a number of government schools in this area as well as Kanakapura. This school boasts a board that says it is adopted by Sivasri trust (Sikshana’s trust). The school closes for summer on April 10th, but because exams were over, the kids had stopped coming, so we could not attend any class. However we talked to 2 teachers Ms. Vidhyadhare (maths teacher) and Ms. Rukamma (incharge of 1st standard kids), in the absence of the principal Mr.Srinivasamurthy.
The school is housed in a two-storey building and has 426 kids and 11 teachers. School timings are 9:30-3:30pm with a mid-day meal provided under the akshara daasoha scheme. The school has classes from 1st – 7th grade and is kannada medium.
Typically all govt schools in Bangalore receive free textbooks (but not notebooks), a set of uniform and food (under the mid-day meal scheme), and teachers’ salaries from the government. For any other purpose, the school fends for itself through donors. This school got some land donated from a donor, and is constructing a building there to house the increasing number of kids, especially the small ones in 1st and 2nd grade. While the Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan (SSA) will help with the construction cost, the building (and land) has to be registered under the govt’s name when complete. The SSA has also provided some teacher training and some resource material from time to time (although this school sported a SSA poster that gives timelines of SSA’s goals). The toilet in the present building was constructed with donors’ help and water is from School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC). There is no playground and the kids use the playground nearby once a week. The school has only indoor games. There is supposedly a cupboard full of books that the kids check out; we didn’t get to see it, we just took their word for it. ISKCON had recently sent in a boxful of books which hadn’t been put in circulation when we visited due to the exams. 6th and 7th grade students pay a fee of Rs. 25/year, while it’s free for everybody else. SC/ST families receive Rs. 150/year/kid to send them to school. The school has depended on donors’ support for any field trips, annual/sports day functions.
Sikshana has helped provide notebooks, printed exam question papers, exam answer sheets, 2 computers and some computer training as well as contributed to the library.
The only contact of the school authorities with the government is through the Block education officer (BEO) who inspects the school and its results. All govt schools have to pass the kids at least up to the 7th grade and some till the 10th. We didn’t get to see the school results despite requests, but were told that it was one of the best in the area.
Aradhana’s viewpoint: I have been volunteering with AID Bay area since 1997 and the past 2 years in Bangalore. Volunteering at a couple of tuition centers in the Bangalore slums has been an eye-opener about the state of education in India. While lack of proper infrastructure (we’re talking blackboards, chalks, textbooks here) on the one hand can really affect the education being provided, on the other there is the lack of teacher’s interest, totally meaningless textbooks and methods of teaching that make schooling such a shore for kids. We’re talking about 7th, 8th grade kids who can’t do simple addition and subtraction, history books with totally uninteresting information, and of course boring English lessons taught to kids who grew up in a kannada medium environment (thus ensuring that they will never generate the enthusiasm to learn English!).
In the absence of govt. intervention, these govt. schools have a need to approach other donors for providing quality education to the kids all of whom are from economically backward backgrounds. We can very well say that these schools need to make the govt. accountable, but we all know that’s a long process and we cannot expect the schools to not do anything in the meantime. Sikshana’s role is that of a donor presently, providing the infrastructure that these schools lack, but that is also a need of the hour. Teacher training is needed, especially for interested teachers who are keen on providing quality and meaningful education. Prasanna and I would like to visit the schools (probably with other Bangalore vols as well) once they reopen on May 29th to get a better feel about the needs of these schools and how AID can help.
Prasanna’s viewpoint:
The first thing that put me off was the board put up at the entrance as mentioned by Aradhana. The School is put up by the government and some trust which gets its donation from some people claims to “adopt” the same.
This is a typical case of the so-called “Public Private Partnerships” (PPPs). With it comes the Classic Dialectic of the PPPs that confront us. On the one hand we have the so called “Right to Education” which makes Education a fundamental right of every citizen of the nation and this should make the government accountable and take the complete ownership of the schools run by it. But as Aradhana points out that it is a long process and till that time we cant expect the school to not to do anything and hence we are forced to promote such initiatives like Shikshana with the tag line “At least so many kids get blackboards, notebooks, textbooks etc., etc.,” Similar dilemmas are arising in the health sector as well with some people actively promoting the “take-over” (in other words “adopt”) of the Government run Primary Health Centers with the tag line that “at least so many people are getting the services at these centers”. I would be drawing a lot of parallels with the health sector to explain some of the points
While I don’t totally reject the above tag lines there are some fundamental problems associated with it
a) There is no question of empowerment and exercising of Rights in the private sphere. Here I bracket anything other than Government (public) as private. So it would include charitable organizations, NGOs, missionary institutions and of course purely private. So in a private either it is “collect user fees and deliver” (since they work on the concept of return of investment or at least break even) or it would be “collect donations and charitably deliver”(non-profit sector, read Shikshana). So either it is the paying capability in the former case or the benevolent nature of the organization that will to some extent ensure the service delivery (not assured always though) and hence no scope for the concept of “Right to Education” as Rights have no place in the private sphere. One more hypothetical question is that if the non-profits like Shikshanas were to not receive donations then they would also have to fall into the “User fees” option. This has happened to many of the missionary institutions. So what happens finally is that “Education is only for those who can pay” and hence whither “Right to Education”
b) One of the fundamental reasons for poor service delivery of public systems is the increasing disconnect between the Public and the Public Systems. There is no public left in the Public systems. It is a vicious circle. First the govt. systems don’t deliver and the public are totally indifferent and turn to private for service. This makes the Government think that anyway the public are not using so why should it run the systems and actively privatizes it (again I will use the broadest term of private) and hence the disconnect increases. Finally nobody is held accountable for anything. The government is very happy to palm its hands off in the name of PPP and the general public cant question the private as it is either money driven or charity driven, if it delivers it is good and lucky, if it doesn’t deliver then bad luck u cant question them. So what this means is that organizations like Shikshana increase the disconnect between the Government and public by insulating and isolating the Government from the public. So the Government doesn’t feel the heat and pressure of the public’s anger over the lack of the facilities that it provides for fundamental rights like Education and Health.
So one hypercritical question that needs to be asked is what is AID doing with supporting organizations like Shikshana which would insulate the Government from public accountability?
Is it a feel-good factor driven by the tag lines that at least so many children have got so many facilities as I mentioned before? But I thought we as AID have outgrown the “charitable” behaviour ( partly because of the middle class and upper middle class baggage that we carry)
Or is it because it fits into the “tangible” Black Box model of Inputs and “tangible” outputs? Our chapter has given so much money (input) and so many black boards, notebooks have been supplied (“tangible”, “measurable” outputs). Organizations with such initiatives can always get support as this fits into the category of the “Charitable” people and corporates which are looking for specific “Black box” type of initiatives. If this is the case then how has AID been different from the Rotaries and the corporate donors? If we are again catering to the same spectrum that these can do then what is the value-addition that is happening because of AID’s involvement [we, who understand the bigger people’s struggles which fight for more government accountability (a la Vimukthi, Narmada or a PHM)]. Of course, we didn’t get a chance to talk to Shikshana directly and we are not privy beforehand to the interaction that has happened between Shikshana and AID but from the inputs we have collected I cant see any value-addition. The school is so insulated from all the stuff that they didn’t even know that AID was involved somewhere. If there is no value addition then why is AID diluting its energies when there are enough and more people to do such things?
Or is it because it is easier to project to our donors? I think we as AID have earned enough credibility to be driven by such factors. If it is really so, then we should now learn to say “No” to such donors
So then as Aradhana points out should we remain silent till the government responds and let these children suffer since the government systems are not delivering or encourage a PPP like Shikshana, which would isolate the government from the public pressure ( I am also aware that it is easier for “haves” like us to take a strict ideological position) . One possible midway answer to this dilemma is that no doubt shikshana’s work is important (This is similar to a patient coming to the PHC adopted by an NGO with a snake bite to alleviate his immediate pain but at the same time the NGO should also mobilize the people against the government if the medicines to be given by the government is not supplied by it and not go back to its donor for buying of medicines) but AID should be able to bring in the value addition of impressing upon Shikshanas to also fight for the people’s rights in education in parallel with the service delivery that they are doing to alleviate the immediate pain of the people. In fact this should be made a condition for further support to them or a specific time frame (say 3 months) to be given to them so that this sort of value addition happens and if the NGO does not have enough time for doing the value addition then we need to take some hard decisions. Otherwise Shikshanas can continuously be on the artificial respiration provided by organizations and donors like AID and then the government on its side not feeling the public pressure goes on systematically undermining the public systems.
Some further reading on the PPPs:
Sainath’s articles:
http://www.counterpunch.org/sainath04122006.html
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2006/01/04/stories/2006010406091000.htm
PHM statement of PPP
http://lists.kabissa.org/lists/archives/public/pha-exchange/msg02582.html
posted by Prasanna Saligram @ 11:51 PM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home