VOLUNTARY HEALTH ASSOCIATION OF TRIPURA Yearly Report on Ratanmani Vidyalaya for the Period of January to December 2005 Background: As one of the components of Khoj project this school was started as non formal education centre in April 1994 with 40 dropout / non-school going children in a broken and unserviceable room of forest office in Baishnabpur village under Rupaichari block of South district of Tripura.This is a hilly forest area. Entire block is inhabited by tribal population. This area is bordering the Chittagong hill tract of Bangladesh. In 1994 after selection of 10 panchayats surrounding the Baishnabpur village as target area of Khoj project, we did the baseline survey on health, education and income status of the people. After analysis of the survey data and discussion with the community we decided that the main objective of the project would be the promotion of education with health and income generation as other components. Accordingly the curriculum for the non formal education centre was selected with the aim that the students would complete the course of class I to V within three year period. Other extra curricular things were also introduced, like the children working as village health messengers, development of plant nursery and cultural activities. With the permission of the Director of School Education, Government of Tripura, our students appeared in the final examination of class V in a Government school in 1997 and the first batch of 19 students passed class V which was first such incidence in the history of that area. After that in each year one batch of children passed class V from our Khoj non-formal education centre. Gradually it took the shape of a primary school and the residential facility for the children, who were coming from other far away villages, was also arranged. In the year 2000, our school received the recognition from Government of Tripura and known as Ratanmani Vidyalay. Since then the school is following the government's norm in school curriculum, but has certain extra-curricular things. The main philosophy behind the running of the school is that the children should not be detached or isolated from the activities of their normal life. They are divided in groups and work for developing the plant nursery, rearing animals, developing horticultural garden and cleaning the project campus. This year number of school students is 182 in five classes. 174 of them are from tribal community. Support from ASHA for Education : The ASHA for Education supported this school from January to December 2005 with the food for 18 hostel children, honorarium for 3 teachers and a cook and some educational materials. This was very precious support for the students of this remote rural area. The School Curriculum We are following the curriculum of Tripura Board of Secondary Education, Government of Tripura. Class Routine of Ratanmani Vidyalay 7.00 to 8.00 to 8.45 to 9.25 to 10.05 to 10.35 to 11.00 to 11.35 to 12.10 to 8.00 am 8.45 am 9.25 am 10.05 am 10.35 am 11.00 am 11.35 am 12.10 p.m. 1.00 p.m. Class-I Prayer and cleaning of school room and surroundings Arithmetics English Bengali Midday meal Song/ Dance/ recitation etc. Physical Exercise Sports Class II -DO- Bengali Arithmetics English -DO- Health Education -DO- Sports Class III -DO- Arithmetics Bengali English -DO- (1-3) Cultural Science Social Study Sports Class -DO- Bengali Arith- English -DO- Activity Science Social Sports IV Class -DO- English metics Arithmetics Bengali -DO- (4-6) General Social Study Science Sports V Knowledge Study (4-6)
Percentage of attendance of the students in last one year (January December 2005) Class Remarks (Average) Class- I 95% Class- II 90% Class- III 80% Class-IV 89% Class-V 91% The causes of attendance less than 100% are Distance of the villages from the school Hostel has limited accommodation for the students Student of Ratanmani Vidyalaya during prayer During rainy season the village roads are block due to overflow of the hilly streams. Extracurricular Activities of the students The students are divided in five groups, viz Ratanmani, Netaji Subhas, Gandhiji, Laxmiby and Mother Teresa group. The following extra curricular activities are done by the students. Role of health messengers : The Children (students) who are coming every day from their hamlets to the school, inform the project centre about the illness, like diarrhoea, fever, fracture etc or any death or new birth in their areas. Teachers are asking the children about this information during prayer time so that if there is any out break of waterborne disease or malaria, we can instantly go there and provide the emergency treatment and organize awareness activities. School Health Activity : Regular classes on health education for all the students are conducted by the teachers who are specially trained for this by VHAT. Arrangement of regular health cheek up is there in the school. As the worm infestation is very common in the area, anti-helminth medicine is given to all the children at least once in a year. Cultural Activities : Students are practicing song in Bengali and Tribal language, dance, recitation, puppet show and other folk media. Sports, games, physical exercise and yoga : Indoor games, sports, physical exercise and yoga practice is the regular routine work of the school children specially of those who are staying in the school hostel. Horticultural Activity Students develop the various local species of fruit plants e,g, jackfruit, mango, bannana, pineapple, guava, custard apple, papaya etc. and some commercial plant species. Through out the year we are getting some fruits from the garden which help to maintain the nutrition in the school food as well as generate some income by selling the fruits like banana, guava, jackfruit etc. in the local market. The students motivated their parents to plant the fruit plant in their land. Many of the families have taken the seedlings from our nursery and planted them. The improved species of guava, jackfruit, pineapple in our nursery are very popular in the locality. Animal rearing This is a part and parcel of the life of the rural tribal communities. For promotion of income of local communities we had organized training on goat and pig rearing for the interested village
youths. We also started our goat and sheep rearing centre in the school complex with aim that the children would remain familiar with this kind of activities and help their families in this work. Usually in our society it is observed that when a child becomes literate she/he becomes isolated from this type of work. But we communicate the message to the children that animal rearing, doing the agricultural work, developing the garden, helping in the kitchen are part of one's life. The parents are also happy that with the school study their children are helping them. Special coaching for the children who lag behind The teachers take extra efforts to help the children who are lagging behind. They arrange extra tuition for them so that within short time they may be capable to reach to the desired level. Animal rearing in Khoj Project A view of the class room of Ratanmani Vidyalaya Internal Management of the Project: Different Management Committees are in function to help the school and the hostel, which are as follows: A. Hostel Management Committee for Ratanmani Vidyalay: Members: 1. Shri Akhiya Mog President 2. Shri Chandan Bhattacharjee- Secretary 3. Smt. Pinki Banik Member 4. Shri Hayram Tripura - Member 5. Shri Nayan Tripura - Member 6. Shri Birendra Deb Member 7. Shri Manindra Tripura Member
8. Shri Kapiram Tripura Member 9. Shri Aamani Kumar Tripura Member The meeting of this committee is organized twice in a year to fix up the rules and regulation of the hostel. Last meeting of the committee was held on 16 th December 2005. B. Mother Teresa Association Committee for Ratanmani Vidyalay: Members: 1. Smt. Shipra Mog Chairperson 2. Shri Chandan Bhattacharjee Secretary 3. Smt. Pinki Banik Member 4. Smt. Santa Laxmi Tripura Member 5. Smt. Prava Tripura Member 6. Shri Dhanalaxmi Tripura Member 7. Shri Harapati Tripura Member This committee is formed with the representatives from the mothers of the school children and school headmaster. The main activity is to supervise the food given to the children. This committee has regular organized meeting in each month. C. School Development Committee for Ratanmani Vidyalay: Members: 1. Shri Hay Ram Tripura 2. Shri Kapi Ram tripura 3. Shri Jita Kr. Tripura 4. Shri Purna Kr. Deb 5. Shri Birendra Deb 6. Shri Nayan Chandra Das 7. Shri Debashis Das 8. Shri Nagendra Tripura 9. Shri Chandan Bhattacharjee This committee was formed as per Government rule and met twice a year. Annual Examination Result of School Students: Among the 182 students in five classes, three students of Class I and Class II could note score the required pass marks. Totally 179 students passed the examination. All the 26 students of Class V successfully passed the examination and admitted to High School in Sabroom and other places. Annual Festival in Ratanmani Vidyalay: This function is solely own festival of students, guardians, community and the staff of this school. This annual festival is a dream of the students and staff for which they were awaiting for the whole year. About 200 parents and guardians were present with 200 students of the school. At 11.00 a.m. on 29 th December 2005 the festival started with the selection of the Chairperson for this function. Mr. Birendra Deb, Member of the Hostel committee and a member of local village council presided over the function. Mr. Kopi Ram Tripura, a guardian and teacher of a government school in Kaliballav para was the special guest. The inaugural song by the students of Ratanmani Vidyalaya was followed by the inaugural speech by Mr. Chandan Bhattacharjee, Headmaster of the school. He presented the successes and the constraints of running the school. He expressed his gratitude to the government of
Tripura, to local community, to ASHA for education and to the Hostel and School Development Committee for various co-operations without which running the school was absolutely impossible. He also mentioned that the ex-students of this school are doing good result after going to the high school. Then he invited the guardians to take part in the discussion. Three of the guardians proposed some points to be included in the hostel routine regarding food and timings of giving the morning and midday meal. They also requested the headmaster to apply to the Inspector of school for providing free books for the students. After that Dr. Sreelekha Ray, Executive Director of Voluntary Health Association of Tripura (VHAT) in her speech mentioned that the dream, which she and her other colleagues were dreamt in 1994, has now become a reality. Many of tribal children completed their primary education and went for higher education. Some of them completed the Madhyamik course (Class-X) and hundreds of them are now studying in the school. She declared that this year totally 80 children will be included in the hostel and number of the day scholars will also be increased. Though VHAT in running this school with the minimum financial support, yet the study standard will not be let to down. She told It is worth mention that the teachers of this school are working with very nominal remuneration which is in reality very much insufficient. But VHAT has no ability to increase that. If the community can contribute then only the Organisation will be able to increase a little of it. After the speech of Dr. Sreelekha Ray the students performed one by one, many of the items like recitation, drama, role-play, tribal dances, many songs in tribal languages and in Bengali. The whole day was full of low sweet murmur of the children around the school campus. They were enjoying their own creation. It was a wonderful experience. At the end of the day all the parents, guardians and students enjoyed the food/lunch together and realized the power of being a part of a great performance which moves toward a future full of enthusiasm and hope. CONSTRAINTS 1) Entire catchment area of the school is hilly with no motorable road. Population is scattered in small hamlets. In last year only 42 seats were there in the hostel. From January 2005 we could increase the number of seat upto 60. Nevertheless, many students need the hostel accommodation as they are coming everyday from far away places. Moreover, many children did not get admission in the school, because without hostel it was not possible for them to attend the class every day. 2) Due to lack of financial support, upliftment and expansion of hostel and school building was not possible. 3) Community demand was there for up-gradation of the school up to class X (high school). But due to lack of support it was not possible. 4) Increase of teachers' honorarium was not also possible. Future Plan of Action i) As per demand from the community, we like to increase the number of the students upto 300 in the next year. ii) If the financial support is available we have planned to construct new house for expansion of the hostel so that we may take more girl students in our hostel. iii) We have planned to start class VI in the next year if the expansion of schoolroom is possible. LIST OF THE STUDENT : Class-I 1. Sabita Tripura 25. Sundhari Tripura 2. Khudiram Tripura 26. Biran Tripura 3. Bimal Tripura 27. Kajal Tripura 4. Amal Tripura 28. Dharanjoy Tripura 5. Gopimala Tripura 29. Subasnanda Tripura 6. Punidhan Tripura 30.. Roybadhan Tripura 7. Phadani Tripura 31.. Biplap Tripura 8. Namita Tripura 32. Khajandra Tripura 9. Bavandra Tripura 33. Chandi Tripura
10. Rati Mohan Tripura 34. Purnamala Tripura 11. Ruthi Mala Tripura 35. Jitandra Tripura 12. Anil Tripura 36. Mithun Tripura 13. Kalpana Tripura 37. Rajeshari Tripura 14. Joya Tripura 38. Adhiram Tripura 15. Apra Mog 39. Ajnana Tripura 16. Kabita Tripura 40. Joyanta Tripura 17. Makrai Mog 41. Rajendra Tripura 18. Malanti Tripura 42. Puranjoy Tripura 19. Kasta Laxmi Tripura 43. Raja Tripura 20. Bimal Tripura 44. Harandra Tripura 21. Joshna Tripura 45. Tapan Mohan Tripura 22. Dinesh Tripura 46. Mahi Ch. Tripura 23. Usharani Tripura 47. Gobirat Tripura 24. Tapan Tripura 48. Yogesh Jamatia Class-II 1. Mahandra Tripura 23. Gupta Mohan Tripura 2. Lafila Tripura 24. Madhuri Tripura 3. Jata Laxmi Tripura 25. Renumala Tripura 4. Nabin Kr. Tripura 26. Jaga Laxmi Tripura 5. Tapan Kr. Tripura 27. Jafia mala Tripura 6. Biran Kr. Tripura 28. Krajeni Mog 7. Chacing Mog 29. Nithai Mog 8. Keyalruchai Mog 30. Bapan Das 9. Babu Mog 31. Maha Laxmi Tripura 10. Tulu Mala Tripura 32. Goyal Nanda Tripura 11. Chiran Mala Tripura 33. Karna Ranjan Tripura 12. Rajendra Tripura 34. Hindu Ranjan Tripura 13. Kiran Tripura 35. Dharmendra Tripura 14. Hiran Tripura 36. Namita Mog 15. Rakesh Tripura 37. Uggyajai Mog 16. Nainga Mog 38. Dipa Mohan Tripura 17. Ratan Mala Tripura 39. Ajoy Tripura 18. Milan Tripura 40. Jyoti Mohan Tripura 19. Ajjali Tripura 41. Sangha Laxmi Tripura 20. Krishna Tripura 42. Babul Tripura 21. Labroy Mog 43. Sanjoy Tripura 22. Sachin Tripura 44. Falendra Tripura Class-III 1. Hapesh Tripura 15. Laxmi Rani Tripura 2. Chandra Laxmi Tripura 16. Madhya Rani Tripura 3. Subrata Deb 17. Phani Kishor Tripura 4. Bimal Kanti Tripura 18. Charandhan Tripura 5. Samir Tripura 19. Rita Das 6. Partharong Tripura 20. Santi Mala Tripura 7. Memanta Tripura 21. Tapan Kr Tripura 8. Tri Kr. Tripura 22. Sabita Tripura 9. Rajendra Tripura 23. Rajendra Tripura
10. Sabita Tripura 24. Partha Kr. Tripura 11. Danchan Mala Tripura 25. Doungya Mog 12. Sanjib Das 26. Mongaldhar Tripura 13. Kiran Mala Tripura 27. Manta Mohan Tripura 14. Babita Laxmi Tripura 28. Joysree Chowdhury Class-IV 1. Sapan Tripura 19. Nemrow Mog 2. Gobinda Tripura 20. Angkra Mog 3. Chayafru Mog 21. Mani Bhusan Tripura 4. Hira Pati Tripura 22. Chelafru Mog 5. Pravati Tripura 23. Chainga Mog 6. Sonaya Tripura 24. Nisha Laxmi Tripura 7. Sakrai Mog 25. Ratan Tripura 8. Malya Dewn Tripura 26. Jaganath Das 9. Biran Kr. Tripura 27. Pabir Lodh 10. Ranjan Kr. Tripura 28. Rupa Laxmi Tripura 11. Usa Rani Tripura 29. Anna Laxmi Tripura 12. Pradip Tripura 30. Jyoti Mohan Tripura 13. Purna Charan Tripura 31. Anta Mohan Tripura 14. Krachu Mog 32. Sova Nanda Tripura 15. Mrachathai Mog 33. Kankya Mog 16. Mrayai Mog 34. Indra Laxmi Tripura 17. Tapashi Tripura 35. Kabita Tripura 18. Prantosh Tripura 36. Biranjoy Tripura Class-V 1. Dhanasing Tripura 14. Omapati Tripura 2. Parimal Tripura 15. Tri-Sankar Tripura 3. Chaya Deb 16. Phatindra Tripura 4. Ranjan Kishor Tripura 17. Geeta Mala Tripura 5. Snach Kr. Tripura 18. Snow Mog 6. Malati Mog 19. Rupali Debnath 7. Piranmala Tripura 20. Ulafru Mog 8. Rajib Tripura 21. Tapas Biswas 9. Bishu Kr. Tripura 22. Annapati Tripura 10. Santi Kr. Tripura 23. Kuchungti Tripura 11. Kartic Das 24. Nartha Laxmi Tripura 12. Nagendra Tripura 25. Deba Mohan Tripura 13. Dahurai Tripura 26. Know Mog. My document / AJIT-VHAT Dir. Ratanmani-2005-
1. Headmaster Mr. Chandan Bhattacharjee during inaugural speech. 2. Part of the gathering of Children and guardians of Ratanmani Vidyalaya during annual festival. 3. Dr. Sreelekha Ray, Executive Director of VHAT with some of the parents. 4. Dance by the students of Ratanmani Vidyalaya 5. Song by the students of Ratanmani Vidyalaya 6. A student is reciting a poem.