Completion Report of Activities Under Operation New Hope January 1997 to December 2000 With support from Operation DayWork Denmark Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) PO Box 4 194101 Leh, Ladakh, india secmol@vsnl.comCompletion Report of Activities under Operation New Hope January 1997 to June 2000 Contents Introduction wssensissussiinenenennmenenereensenees 7 What is SECMOL? a What is Operation New Hope? ... Centralised Residential School in Changthang... Educational Outreach Resource Centre .. Coma akuw Publication & Information Media... Academic Reform «so... 10 Village Education Committee Mobilisation (VEC) sacs. 13 Planning, Administration and Staff Development 15 Activism 16 Impact of a large grant on small organisation Expanding impact of NH. Article about ONH in Outlook Magazine... 1 18b Income and Expenditure Chans..Completion Report of Activities under Operation New Hope Introduction ‘The co-operation between SECMOL, the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh and the Danish Operation Day Work (OD) began in 1996 after SECMOL's initiative in government primary school reform-Operation New Hope (ONH) was nominated for OD support for that year. What is SECMOL? SECMOL was formed in 1988 by a small group of young people most of whom had just returned from higher studies, Being victims of the education system ourselves, our main amotivation was to do something that would prevent other Ladakhi students from: suffering the same traumatic schooling as we had. Haying seen the world outside Ladakh we were convinced that Ladakhi students were not mentally retarded and therefore need not be put to shame repeatedly with 95% of the students failing in the all- important matriculation exams every year. The problem, we suspected, lay elsewhere in the system, though in the beginning we weren't sure where In the beginning we wanted to help the failing students with special coaching classes and we wanted to rehabilitate those who had failed and dropped out, by training them in ‘vocational arts and crafts. ‘We struggled with courses like free tuition for L0th class and training for dropouts for about two or three years, but then realised that such help is good only for the individuals, ‘and does not do anything to change the system that produces failures yeur after year. It Was then that we realised that things won't change in the long run until we went to the roots and changed the system itself, Meanwhile through numerous formal and informal discussions with ether young people and based on our own childhood experiences we diagnosed following as the root causes of the problem. * Abrupt change of medium of instruction from one non-Ladakhi language (Urdu up to class 8) to another (English for classes 9 and 10), without adequate preparation and without any use of mother tongue. * Use of text books, even in early primary elasses, showing unknown culture and Environment full of examples like ships, oceans, coconut trees and monsoon rains. ‘These alien examples in alien languages only confused the children living in mountains above 11,000 feet. Lack of training for the teachers. The teachers could not be solely blamed for the problems. Most teachers received no training after their appointment, just after their ‘own matriculation from a similar school. * Onttop of this, the administrative system was so designed that all the teachers are routinely rotated to different areas every 1Wo years, away from their homes, Irregularities in the system of transfer always left the teachers mentally disturbed and demoralised.‘+ On the other hand the teachers received little or no support from the parents as community participation was minimal. It was indeed not surprising that the effect of all these factors was very school results. ible in the ‘Therefore {rom 1991 we started working to reform the government school system, starting with primary schools, In 1994 a programme called Operation New Hope (ONH) was launched with 33 schools tially. When the first government of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council ‘was formed in late1995, they adopted ONH as the Council’s official policy on education. With their support and the OD grant, ONH was extended to all the nearly 270 schools in the district. What is Operation New Hope? Operation New Hope (ONH) was started in 1994 to overhaul the primary education system in the Government schools of Ladakh. The ONH movement has three arms working together: ‘The Government, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the village communities. ONE Aims and Objectives: To organise the village communities for active constructive participation jn the running of the schools through formation of Village Education Committees (VEC). * To introduce a child-centered, activity-based and locally-relevant approach wo early primary education, ‘+ To train the teachers in creative teaching methods in order to make schooling less painful and more joyful for children, + To produce Ladakhi versions of primary text books and teaching materials in order to make them more relevant and meaningful to Ladakhi children, * To use the above factors to revive the interest, strengthen the confidence, and enhance the dedication of our Government school teachers. Early years of ONL Before OD support SECMOL had initiated the ONH movement in Leh District but at a much smaller scale and almost without external funding. Although small experiments were made in some schools since 1991, Operation New Hope as a reform movement \was started only in 1994. In the early years, the movement was mainly sustained with small collections from the village communities and Yoluntary efforts of students. The two main activities before OD support were: a, Village campaigns to organise the community to take ownership of their government schools. These Were carried out by student volunteers and hence did not need much funding. b, Intensive Residential training for teachers. These were supported by collections from the villagers. Fach village would raise Rs 500 for the basic expenses on training of their teachers by SECMOL.‘The Operation DayWork Grant The OD grant came just at a time when we had exhausted the possi ies of local contributions and voluntary efforts. Whereas active villages had made their own contributions for joining the ONH education reform movement, there were others where the awareness level was not as high. Morcoyer many things were beyond such small funds, for example curriculum development, publication of textbooks, establishing, Resource Centres and models of school management and construction in remote areas. Under the OD grant the following main acti ies were carried out, which are reported in detail later; Solar Heated Residential School in Changthang Educational Outreach Resource Centre in Leh. Publication and Information Media 4, Academic Reform and Village Education Committees Administration and Staff DevelopmentSolar Heated Residential School in Changthang “The initial proposal was to modify around 100 primary school buildings into solar schools so that the schools can be ran in the winters, thereby freeing the children for agricultural activities in the summer season. Inpractice there was a big variation in this project. Firstly since funds were not enough tocover all the schools in Ladakh, so we together with the government of the LAHDC decided to take up the Changthang region intensively. This region is supposed to be climatically the harshest and educationally most disadvantaged region in entire Ladakh, We held a series of discussions with the people of the region. They exhibited ‘tremendous enthusiasm in collaborating in any projects to reform their ailing educational situation. They agreed to contribute free labour in any construction activity ‘and to form a local committee to manage any projects. During these discussions with the people we noticed that the real problems in education for their children was not at the primary level but after the primary school, After ‘primary schooling, the children had to be away from home without proper guardianship, in bigger villages that had middle or high schools. Finding and affording boarding and lodging in these villages deterred the parents from sending their children for education. Therefore there was a high dropout rate especially among girl children. ‘The villages in the Changthang region were so small and so scattered that it was not Viable to open middie or high schools. The few higher schools that were around were acutely short of staff, resources and even children. ‘We thought that the best use of the funds would be if the project becomes an advocacy point for a lasting change in policy for other regions also. On the other hand the villagers and their leaders assured us that they could convince the government to add solariums to the primary schools from the goverment fund and that, where they needed our help most wats with the post-primary schooling. ‘Therefore, in consultation with DanChurchAid, the people of Changthang and the Hill Council. Government, we redesigned the proposal to build a solar heated residential school where all the human and material resources of all the five non-functional schools would be pooled together, The school was to be & unique project with the following features: a) SECMOL would mobilise the people, design the school and arrange funds for all the cost of purchased material and skilled labour. b) Villagers would contribute the unskilled labour in turns, family by family and village by village. ©) Villagers would allow the downgrading of their middle and high schools to primary level. A step that is totally contrary to the present national trend of villagers demanding blind upgradation of their schools, and politicians doing so blindly to please their vote banks. 4) Hill Council would take the policy decision to centralise the schools and poo! all the human and material resources of the five schools into this school. 6©) Hill Council would contribute all expenses on food, clothing and furniture forall the Students in the residential hostel, f) The School when finished would ‘oper winters and close for vacations in the planting and harvest time, Otherwise the schools are open in the summers when there are so many life skills to learn at home and at the farm, and then they close for ‘months in the winter when here is no activity inthe village and the time is just right for indoor academic school activities. 8) Unlike other schools, which are managed departmentally, this school will be managed by a Management Board comprising members of the Hill Council, ‘community and SECMOL apart from the department. The work started in early 1997, mainly with village campaigns to evolve a consensus ‘among all the people, A local construction committee was set up to work under 4 bigger Tegional School Commitiee, which had represeniatives from each village. The Committee has been meeting quarterly for the last four years Sonam Wangchuk and Karen Helbig, a German Architecture student worked en the solar design of the school buildings. The building uses locally available mud and stones ‘and has extra thick walls to conserve the solar heat. The building is partly buried in the round to save it from the notorious cold winds of Changthang and to gain from the ‘warmth of the earth. Due to these features the construction took longer than expected, The work on the school went on for four years. Every family in all the villages had Contributed about four weeks of voluntary labour amounting 0 about Rs. 1,400,000, HE the Dalai Lama was to inaugurate the building in August 2000, but because of his inability to fly to Changthang Lalok on health grounds, it was postponed. Finally Dr, Faroog Abdullah, Chief Minister of 1&K State inaugurated the school in September 2001. Problems, challenges and learning Initially there was some confusion and suspicion among the people, especially about losing their middle and high schools. At some points some villages changed their ‘hind and opted out, but again on assurance from us and the Hill Council they joined in. One village, Chushul. after initially agreeing to join, withdrew and they continue to be out of the programme to this date. However of late we have heard that now thet the school fs actually ready and running, some families from that village also want Join after paying for the voluntary labour that others contributed, {P2000 the funds from OD unexpectedly finished and we were informed by DCA thatno more funds on buildings would be possible. The sehoo! had just been finished but the hostels were just halfway, For a time it seemed like'a erieis but the Hill Council came forward with Rs.1,250,000 to bear the cost of the second hostel 3 In 2000 again the term of the Hill Council was over and there were to be new lections. So we worked hard to convene a special executive committee meeting of the outgoing government to put all decisions on paper formally so that any future governments would honour it. This meeting was the last meeting of the Hill Council, held on their last day in office. Luckily the same government came back wih a landslide vietory and we never faced the problem, but we were prepared.wT Foundation sione ceremony it 187 wih ‘The process started wih several meetings and seminars withthe ‘Thupstan Chhewang, the head ofthe Ladakh people of Crangshang region. Autonomous Ht Development Council. E f ee eoades Se Consiruction of fhe solar-heated residential CConstuction ofthe schoo building, win voluntary iabour by vilagers hostels for students ‘South face of the solar-heatad school at the time of inauguration Students and community members celebrate the ruts ‘Inauguration of he completed schoo! building in Sepiember 2001 of thelr hard work by Dr Faroog Abdullah, Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmr Stale,Educational Outreach Resource Centre This programme involved the building ofa Resource Centre with meeting and training facilities for teachers and students. Originally it was to be located in Leh City but our ‘application for a suitable land in Leh took a very long time in the goverment, We learnt that a piece of land of adequate size was available only out of the main city arex, near the airport. So after lot of thought we decided that if it were not going to be easily accessible, then the purpose of the Centre would be defeated, in which case rather than seattering our facilities, we should locate the Centre at our Phey Campus, Another advantage was that we could combine the building project with an existing building project earlier supported by a German organisation, to get a much bigger facility than either would have accomplished on their own. ‘The building has about 39 rooms and halls and includes a training hall that can seat up to 200 people. The building covers a floor area of 20,000 square feet. The major portion of this project was finished by August 1998. The Resource Centre building was inaugurated in August 98 by the HH Dalai Lama, Pleased with this project and other Activities of SECMOL the Dalai Lama made a special donation of Rs, 150,000 1 the organisation (delails under the VEC section). Soon, the centre was very busy with many residential courses happening in it. In the years 1999- 2000, we held five batches of 12- day imtensive residential training courses for about 500 teachers, eight batches of 4-day intensive residential training for 550 Village Education Committee members and five batches of 20-days residential summer camps for about 300 youth, In addition many ‘meetings and workshops were held for our own staff as well as other NGOs. The design of the building is such that it requires no heating even in Ladakhi winters. In January 2001, the coldest month, we conducted a month-long residential training for about 40 teachers and we used no heating throughout the whole course. From 2001 some other NGOs have started renting the facility for their own training Courses at nominal cost. We look forward to more and more such activities in order 10 make the project self-sustaining, A Smaller Centre in Leh In the year 2000 we finally got a small patch of land at a good location in Leh, from the government. So we decided to build a small portion of the Resource Centre in Leh town, which would also provide us the much-needed office space in Leh. This well-designed solar heated mud building has about 2000 square feet of floor space and cost around Rs, 500,000. This comes to about Rs. 250/sq ft. compared to goVernment rates of Rs. 500 to Rs, 600/sq fl, It has a seminar hall, a meeting hall and four small offices plus a kitchen and stores.ine mesource Gentre at SEGMUL Campus, Phey Resource Cente Building in 2000, wih solar-heating ‘View ftom across the indus River ofthe whole campus, wtere ‘greenhouses in place for winter, everthing is solar electri, saace heating, water iting ooking His Holiness speaking to an audience of teachers, students, \VEGS ang other SECMOL mombers at the inauguraton, Once this solar-eated resource centre was completed, we ware able to do \warkshops and tranings through the Laéakni winters without burning anything for heat, when temperatures go down to minus 254C. This photo sof a Vilage Equcation Commitee training in February. Lataki-style archtecture and woodwork ‘combine wih fuly solar design BaPublication & Information Media One of the major problems of the children in Ladakh was that the schoolbooks had no ‘elation to their lives. Before ONH, children in the trans-Himalayan mountains of Laclakh used to use the same books that were meant for tropical India with examples of ¢lephant, fan, ship and train and studies about coconut plantations, Monsoon rains ete, ‘To reform this we set up a small desktop publishing facility at the Resource Centre in Fhey and produced and printed 8 textbooks for classes Ist, 2nd and 3rd, We also printed four storybooks, work sheets for pre-primary and many charts, posters and games for the children. All of these books depict Ladakhi children, culture and environment that the students can identify with and retain their confidence and interest. Of late some of the private schools and the Army schools network has also shown interest in using some Of these books in their schools. The storybooks have been produced bilingually in Ladakhi and English so that the books can also sellin the open market for Ladakhis and tourists. The sale of these books in the market is being handled by our sister concem Melong Publications and the funds raised from the sale of all these books is being kept Separately asa revolving fund so that more books for Ladakhi children ean be published continuously in future also, Apart from publication of books for the children a major objective of this section has been public education and awareness about educational issues. In 1999 we Started an educational newspaper Ladags Rewai Odzer. ‘The ‘newspaper is published bi-monthly in {wo languages English and Ladskhi bilingually. The newspaper is sent free of cost to all the villages and schools in Ladakh: iti also kept available at some shops in the market, ‘The limitation with the newspaper was that it was useful only for people who are literate in Ladakhi or English. Since a sizeable portion ofthe village population isiliterate the Publication and Media section started producing a video version of the Ladags Rewai Odzer, So far seven educational awareness video documentaries have been produced for the remote villages. These films are yery basic in their sophistication since our staff haye been learning the film making skills on the job without any professional training. Luckily there is also no special demand for sophistication among the village public. Yet we have observed that these films are a great crowd-puller whenever they are screened 4 village, For them seeing the leaders they respect and seeing for example the Dalai Lama talking to them directly about education has been very powerful ‘Apart from producing these print and electronic material for public education our staff have earried out extensive video and photo documentation of al the activites carried Gutin the field of education in Ladakh in the last few years. OF late other NGOs like the SCF have started using this archive.VN rupucatons ‘ONH Books are tsed in all Goverment schools of Leh Distret ‘and some private schools too. ONH's Ladakr-relevant hooks are ‘8 popular among children tat it caught the eye of a ‘hotogapher to make the above postcard. (eno! by i Suabury, 1 Shr Kalacnakra Society) Toaldan Rinpoche, abbot of Phyang Monastary and Minster for Leda aflars in te J8k Government, releasing one ol our books ata functic, Villagers buying books and posters ats schoo! festival ‘Vilage womn reading the bingual ONH newspaper, Rewal Oder # Rights Our b monthly educational newspaper in Ladakh and English '82 too for advocacy and for spreading models of success among vitages. Below right: Scme ol the educational postare producad under ONH 'Betowe Uncer ONH we produced 8 textbooks for st, nd ard 31a ‘lass; worksheets for pre-primary schoa, 7 educational awareness. fms, and four ilustated blingualstory-books,Academic Reform Academic reform in the schools has always been a major portion of the whole project. This involved ‘Training and exposure tours for teachers, Follow-up support to the teachers in field. ‘Training and exposure for the officials in the education department, Curriculum development and production of textbooks and teaching/learning material, Over 700 teachers and officials from the government education department were given intensive 12-day training in eight batches. Apart from giving courses in Ladakh, another thing that has proven very effective is taking teachers and education officials on tours to see successful models of education reform in other parts of India. We have taken about 100 teachers and officials to see Lok Jumbish in Rajasthan; Rishi Valley Rural Education Centre and satellite schools in Andhra Pradesh; and the Nali-Kali reforms in the Mysore government schools, along with other smaller programs. A group of headmasters and officials was also taken for a training at the National Centre for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). ONH trained teachers Batch No. trained Da ny th Batch. 92 teachers Oct 1996 3 Sth Batch 87 teachers Oct 1996 3. 6th Batch 46 Fu officials May 1997 4. Tih Batch 61 teachers April 1999 5 8th Batch 73 teachers May 1999 6 9th Batch 67 teachers June 1999 i 10th Batch 107 teachers Dee. 1999 8 Tith Batch 39 pilot teachers March 2000 Total 572 participants ‘The main components in these teacher trainings were: * Change the attitide and approach towards teaching, from “chalk, talk and stick” to cchild-centred, joyful and meaningful leaning. + Todevelop an understanding of the educational problems in Ladakh and their role in the solution. * Use of games, songs, stories, field trips, and low cost teaching aids. + English language development 10Expanding impact of ONH Over the years there has been a lot of interest in ONH reforms from various regions with similar cultures and educational issues, such as Kargil, Zangskar, and Spiti. Despite requests, we felt we were not able to spread our work far out of Leh district when we have a limited staff and there is still so much to be done here. However, we felt that if the main initiative came from the region itself, then we could collaborate anc support them. This has finally happened in Kargil, where the Kargil Development Project (KDP) began replicating ONH in 15 pilot schools of Kargil in 2000. KDP has sought active involvement and experience sharing from SECMOL., especially in training of teachers and VECs. SECMOL staff have gone there to train their pilot ieachers, they have sent their VECs, teachers and officials to SECMOL trainings at Phey, and Kargil education officials have also been included on our exposure tours outside Ladakh. Meanwhile, several other Himalayan regions outside J&K have shown interest in our culturally appropriate ONH textbooks. Apart from such direct involvement, we have also been networking with other NGOs within Ladakh on educational advocacy as well as national networks like the NAFRE (National Alliance on the Fundamental Right to Education) and attending sub- Continent-wide education conferences. Recenily we have begun receiving national attention, first in one national ‘newsmagazine called Outlook, and upcoming in another called The Week. We hope that ‘we can someday be a model of effective and relevant universal schoo! that other ‘groups can come to share our experience and take inspiration as we have gone to others in the past, but there is still much work to be done.+ ‘Training in the contents of various primary class subjects like Environmental Studies, Mathematics, and Languages, LEARN Survey Report ‘Two years ago, Save the Children Leh initiated a survey of the educational status in Ladakh. The research was called Ladakh Educational Advocacy and Research Network (LEARN). Following is an excerpt from their report, which pertains to SECMOL!s teacher training courses. “The common elements in the three training courses organised by DIET, NCERT and SECMOL were: ‘© Making classes more active and joyful (¢ How to avoid rote learning from syllabus ‘¢ How to encourage shy and show children ‘© How to encourage children with disabilities © Child psychology © Child to chid learning ‘© Disciplining without physical punishment ‘According to the teachers who attended the training organised by all the three agencies the training organised by SECMOL were singled out, as it concentrated more on teaching through, local examples. In that sense these training were found to be relevant and useful.” “TRAINING STRATEGY: Teaching is beth a science and an art. It isa science asit is based principles of learning and it ‘anart as the employment of the principles depends on the person employing it ‘The current study found out that the teachers that have received training have found them relevant and useful This is especially n case of traning organised by SEGMOL that were directed at making learing joyful and that was based on local context and examples: It needs to-be pointed out that the training organised by SECMOL staried as a non-governmertal effort that was adopied by the formal system as a regular exercise. Also, the resource persons used by SECMOL were local and the fearing materials developed were local to Ladakh. The government has given the responsibilty of training the teacher up to primary level to SECNOL. This is definitely a recognition of the efforts put in by SECMOL, bul it alae implies that by this move the government has created a parallel structure to ts own, that is, DIET. ifthe DIETis nol functioning up to the expectation, then measures should be taken to improve and, strorathen it. A parallel structure is costly option ast involves investment in two institutions for the same work.” Follow-up After the training the teachers were given some basic materials to apply the new methods in their classrooms. As a part of the government collaboration in ONH, a team of five resource persons was deputed by the government education department, to what ‘was called the ONH Cell. This team conducted follow-up visits to the schools to support the teachers on the spot uBooks and teaching/earning material The team, along with other SECMOL staff and experts engaged from time to time Worked on development of teaching/learning material, including textbooks, storybooks, and games and charts Around eight textbooks and four supplementary bilingual Ladakhi/English storybooks ‘were produced by the team in this section, along with a set of pre-primary materials and many posters Pilot Schools In 1999 it was observed that many schools were falling buck to the old methods, as there were no models (0 follow. Therefore in a meeting of the Hill Couneil and. SECMOL it was decided that we establish 12 pilot schools which would set an example {or the rest of the schools. Subsequently 30 teachers were given a special training and Were taken on a studly tour to various school models in different parts of India, After that the pilot schools have led the way for the other schools, Although there have been some problems with the education department in co-ordinating the planned further training for these teachers, Challenges, problems and learning While itis true that under Operation New Hope there has been extraordinary and Unprecedented collaboration and co-operation between the govemmient department, ‘SECMOL and village communities, there have been lot of difficulties also. Some {eachers and officials in the department have always seen the whole reform process as nuisance and interference in their domuin. On the other hand there-have also been frictions due to the generally slow pace and lack of continuity in leadership and lack of efficient management in the Education Department.reacner training ~s ‘Asample of activities in ONH Teacher Training workshops, which emphasize chld-contred, ‘acti asad, and m-cost teaching metrods land aids (a) making paper masks; (b) making loth dolls and puppets; fe) madaling with locally-found day; and (a) examining crestures found in the losal steam. Bofors ONH, most Ladakhi teachers had no training whatsoever, ator only ton years af thelr own schooling in the king of schools we now try to reform. (e) Hasdmastors role-playing in 3 workshop on iscpline without violence. (f) Every moming af the training steris wth insopection abou the day to come. (a) The closing function ofthe trainings is an important too! for educating te public about new methods, as wal a for ‘advocacy, a inporant offcias lke the Dstrict Commissioner (sight) vst the exhibition, (h) A group of rainees prouly snowing off ner cercates.Fao baal eeean,,.| woking net) ( letso9 ona work with thee. Thee ry moter Her nati frna ‘This ekcto game might be commonplace in & westem primary school buts fairy radcal in Ladakh, where unt ONH almost no attontion wea given fo cid development but only to miemorising ‘and copying. In this picture. Vilage Education Commitee ‘membars and pecents join i dung a schoo visit, to Beller Lnderetand and support the new methods. Under ONH we Tolevant to Lacakh, with ‘simple: Engleh than the previous textbooks, which carr from ‘Dei. though mather-tongue subject textbooks are nat yet able option for several polical ae cultural reasons, teas Tet the chien lear the necessary foreign langage early and ‘trough famlior images. This page is rom the second hal of Class 2 Engish, (Other methods the teacrers sam in ONH are education through ‘games. an, crama, puppetry, song and dance, ote Above: Chien stagea puppet show, ‘Leaming indian gecgraphy through a map-game made by the teachers in. an ONH training Tofoliow up en the ONH training. a team of resource parsons, themselves primary teachers, vist schodls regularly to (above) ‘ahve furier training, hep teachers solve problems, and devise more methods, an (Fight) © cortinualy ‘neract with enldren themselves. 12bAcademic Reform: Hands-on learning and Community involvement ‘As an example of hands-on learning, ONH academic Fesource-persons Nelp teachers organise Maths Festivals, where students measure everything from Weight to nose-length and parents land community members get to ee that practical education isnot lust nore fun but more elective, CChileren sol the refreshments and ‘make change, ad it becomes a ‘community event \We take VEC mambors to a00 schools in other vilages ‘ccasionaly for inspiration and «ross-polination Working In close co-ordination, The sleesing Corvmites of (ONH comprises the chairman and afficials of the Hil Council Goverment, community members, and NGOs ike SECMOL Models made by students ut of eal clay are deployed proudly in the’ One VEC member who. ‘sasmity rade miniature versions ofa the Faditonal farming tools Tor his local schoolVillage Education Committees (VEC) Organising and empowering the villagers to raise a sense of community ownership of the government schools and to ensure accountability became one of the most important and effective components in the ONH. ‘We started with students’ educational campaigns in the villages, sensitising people about the importance of VECs. Once that was done people elected VEC members and office bearers. ‘Training for VECs Since 1997, SECMOL organised 10 batches of intensive residential training for about 1000 VEC office bearers. List of VEC Trainings Block No. of trained VECs | Month & Year 1 | Nubra 7 3.97 2._| _ Durbuk 46 3.97 3_|_Nyoma 85 3.97 4. | Khalsi 122 3.97 Leh 95 [ 3.97, Khalsi 66 698 7._|_Durbuk 10-98 8._| Pitot school VECs 63 4.2000 9._| Village headmen/Gobas 35 2.2000 10, | Khalsi 36 5.2000 11, | _Nyoma & Sham 0 6-200 12. | Nubra 101 6-200 13._| Leh & KDP Kargil 61 6-200 ta. | KbP Kargil 8 6-2000 ‘Total 969 Members Follow-up Afier the training, with the help of the trained members, we organised intensive educational campaigns in their villages. These second-phase campaigns helped raise ‘educational awareness among the people and gave status and credibility to the newly trained VEC leaders, In 1997, at our request there was even a month-long village education campaign by all the Councillors of the Hill Council BVillage Education Festivals By 1999 we felt the need for more intensive workshops/training for all the villagers, not Just the members of the VEC. Since common villagers might not be atiracted by the name training or werkshop we turned them into Village Education Festivals. Our team would go to a village on a very well announced evening and screen an educational film ‘made by our media section. For the night they would all stay in the village and the next day there would be a gathering of all the villagers to the Education Festival. Each family would bring food and tea. Our team would start with a ‘photo exhibition on education and then start with presentations about importance of community participation in ‘education, followed by a quiz and prizes, songs and dances. The day would end with a lucky draw where the winner from all those who bought a ticket for Rs.10, wins a prize. ‘The income from the draw is handed over to the VEC members in public. The VECs have been very active in rising their own funds for their schools. Although a few VECs were very successful on this front even from the beginning, fund-raising became almost a tradition after HH. the Dalai Lama’s contribution, In 1998 at the time of the inauguration of the Resource Centre at Phey Campus, H.H. the Dalai Lama made a special contribution of Rs. 150,000 to SECMOL for its educational work. We decided that the best way to leverage this money would be to share it with each VEC, as Precious sced money to inspire villagers (0 step forward with their own contributions. According to our VEC team, the 40 villages that have sent reports have collected around Rs. 500,000 on this basis for their own schools (other villages are yet to send their reports), Problems, Challenges and Learning Since the VEC concept is still new, many villages keep going up and down in the effectiveness of their VECs. One year, one village becomes a star model for the others but then another year due to various reasons like the change of members or non co- operation from the department, they would be down and another village would become ‘# model village. This we hope will happen less and less as the concept of VECs becomes more mainstream.faye Euucation Lommittee (VEC) Formation Inthe frst phase of VEC formation, SECMOL student valu fers _Afler such campaigns, vilagers elect thelr VEC members. The went on pretminery cenpaigns in tha tid to mobilise vilagers to _commite mst be at aast one thi women and Irlode at eet form VECs, two students ‘Mor the VECS ate formed thoy as inviod to SECMOL Comper t Ria harave tn) cael taniocuen Siena ee title ed rpc ry Saat fatneneen ep prentonsl cao aoe ae ee Botowe in one trsining. all the members ‘fom ore village wore women, Iitally ade | erent rent Td > ‘The raining involves lt of group discussion, brainsiorming and role-play as mwthode of problem solving and planning. The closing function of such trainings. plays an important role in advecacy and oboying, with eminent politica and roligious leaders invited a interact with the vilage leaders. iaSawer wu “ melee murane eco etme tee (VEU) Mobilisation ‘Above: VECS are expected to support and vist the schoo! regulary ‘Left: Many VECs have repaired tir schools, h were long ngleced by the govemmect ‘Below: Our VEC team often has o cross high asses in wintery weatherPlanning, Administration and Staff Development SECMOL activities are planned by all the staff. We have monthly daylong meetings where each team reports on work done and then gives its plan, and the entire staff gives relevant input on the plan. Time is also kept for the issues that come up. In addition, we have quarterly meetings that are like two- or three-day workshops for visioning @ Jonger-term plan and general directions and needs. Such meetings and workshops also facilitate continuous evaluation of our activities, and allow frequent fine-tuning of the plans. Since 70% of SECMOL staff are part-time students with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. but limited skills, staff development workshops and courses are important. We have ‘organised several longer and shorter courses with foreign, local and other Indian resource persons. However. we still feel that there is need for much more such training and workshops, despite the heavy time demands.Planning, Administration and Staff Development ‘Staff have monthly ard quarterly meeiings io share and evaluate ‘Once the plans are agreed on, each team arranges ther actives the work done and ta plan the caming months, Dh a large group wall chart Resource persons irom outside Visto give workshops. Here, Sonam Dove, @ Ladalhi art:photographer, loads a small Professor Kuldip Kumar, from the National Inttule of Educational Planning and Administration, leads a workshop on Action Research, workshop on techniques of photograpty for our feld saft. smert Consultants from the UK have led two change management and visining workshops for the staff of SECNOL and ONH 15aActivism In addition to the planned activities by the various teams, SECMOL also seizes every available opportunity to influence policy, expose violations, etc. When something urgently needs attention or is a flagrant violation, Sonam Wangchuk sends out what our staff has begun to call ‘hot letters’ to the relevant authorities, with copies to other authorities. (Some of these can be seen in Rewai Odzer. the ONH newspaper.) One such letter exposed the misdeeds and ‘irregular’ (i.e. corrupt) purchases of the Chief Education Officer. Another pointed out that if the politicians had ‘been sending their own children to the government schools, then conditions would never be like they are now, and proceeded to list in detail the violations in certain Lch schools. There have been several such letters, and although they may earn us a few enemies, they generate a lot of discussion and warn the authorities that somebody is in fact watching them, Wealso use the Rewai Odzer newspaper for watchdogging as well as praising and promoting positive examples. This year we organised a major demonstration rally in Leh town dubbed “Ladakh Educational Failure Day” to hightigh« the plight of students, 87% of whom fail the important 10th class exam. This was to remind and show the political leaders that education is a pressing issue in the public’s mind. Twenty other NGOs and student ‘groups participated fully, and it was student and community representatives rather than SECMOL personnel who presented their demands to the authorities. They demanded an i ission to probe the causes of the failure, and the Hill Council government agreed (o this demand in a special meeting called by them. We hope these measures will be helpful for the first ONH batches, which will face the same exam in three years. 16“Ladakh Educational Failure Day” Thisyear again the Toth Cass exam resus were dsm, wh ely 16% of student paseng To ensure tat pital leaders Reap education high ont agenda, SECMOL ‘oortnaied VECs, oeal organisations an feng students o stage & protest merch ‘wen the resus Came out Wheat primary leva, ONH undertakes cect torvrtion, at secondary evel, public pressure onthe goverment ean make the diflerence. The frst atchos of ON students wil foe the 10h exam by 2003, "Marching up through the town centre to demane an enquiry ceommizsion fo probe the causes of the high faire rae, A street play by students t raise awareness about systomc problems 1 education and the need for community voice Student representatives presenting their demar o old an enquiry ommiesion within three months 16aImpact of a large grant on a small organisation For us the award of OD grant has always been a mixed feeling of an honour as well asa big challenge. Moreover, we did not have any experience in handling such scale of funds or activities. Yet we knew that this was the only way certain things that needed substantial resources, could be changed. ‘The first year of the implementation of the grant went rather smoothly, but in the subsequent years we did face challenges of various kinds, that at times threatened the very existence of the organisation and the movement. By the second year our team of ‘around 10 staff started feeling overburdened and overworked due to the pressure to meet difficult targets. Quite justly some of them also started expecting better salaries as we now had this ‘big grant’. But on the management side our biggest dilemma was that the ‘big grant’ was to last only 3 t0 5 years and after that we would have to operate in the same cost effective and voluntary Ways, as before. Therefore for the long-ierm Sustainability of the movement we decided to continue on smaller salaries, as we could not spoil ourselves with remuneration that we would not be able to keep up later. This, along with the tremendous work burden and the family pressure to eam more, caused Some of our aetive colleagues to leave the organisation in 1988. For a short period there ‘was confusion in the organisation but soon other students and volunteers quickly filled up the gap and once again the organisation was stable, strong and progressing. ‘Through out these years we faced some opposition from a small group of teachers who have been very unhappy with the reform process. This is understandable because for fory odd years they have been used to not teaching seriously and in many cases not ‘tending schools at all and still getting their pay cheques. Then there were others who had joined the education department because it was the most neglected and unsupervised department and hence they could have the freedom to do their own business ete. while earning a free salary, With the reform process and especially with the people taking ownership of their schools, such teachers saw their dreams being shattered. Hence they tried to do their best to oppose the reforms, but since majority of teachers could see the benefits of the process and since the government as well as the Public was on our side they have not been able not damage the movement much. Looking back, today we still hold the same mixed feelings about the Operation DayWork grant. We have been able to accomplish some very important things that we could never have done without such a grant, yet atthe same time there are things like the development of voluntary zeal, spirit and commitment among the people, staff and students that could best develop without such grants. 0Operation New Hope - Income (Jan. 1997 to June 2000) Bank Interest Rs. 180,290Administration Rs. 3,670,689 Teachers & VEC training Rs. 2700699.44 Vehicles (Purchase, fuel & Maintenance) Rs. 2,363,469.7 Rs. 3,895,664 Publication & Media Miscellaneous Rs. 1,045,103 Cash in hand Rs. 32,384.00 Phey Resource Centre Re. 5,288,537.2