Blog 6 – A meeting to plan for our month’s work

Pam and Wendy and I meet with Sekar to plan for what has to be done if the school –No Name Playcentre- is to open during our month’s visit. By the way Wendy has suggested Little Monkeys- as in Jumping on the Bed I suppose. I like the suggestion of activity and liveliness. I think of one of our first pupils in Barbara Jennings playcentre, Manjula the Ayah’s son who was to very strongly left-handed, and whom Jane called ‘ Scallywag’ for his impishness.

Meeting turns out after all to include 3 more RCOs – rural community officers- so lots of opportunities for them to talk over each other in loud and heavily –accented English and Tamil. More than once Pam has to cover her ears and shout Stop- I cannot hear what you are saying! In a very productive meeting lasting an hour and a half we decide to convene a meeting tomorrow Saturday for all the SHGs- Self Help Groups- in Kavanur, the next village along (name?) and Seeteramanpet. We rough out an agenda for what we need to cover and because Sekar has worked with the SHG model for so many years with great success, he keeps suggesting that we discuss everything with the villagers – participatory model at grassroots. From this larger group of people we will appoint a sub-group who will take responsibility for managing the school – rather like school governing bodies do in England. But the larger umbrella group or Federation will be informed regularly by the sub-group of how the school is going.

We discuss also other practical task e.g connecting the electrics – not too much of a problem once we have a night-watchman, and sinking the bore-well. I put cat among pigeons by saying ‘ We have no money. Who will pay for it?’ Sekar says I will ask CMC and there is general eye-rolling and head-waggling around the room. I translate this as ‘ Ha ha if you think CMC are making a quick decision you have to be having a laugh, Mrs Sharly’ So then I ask if the school could actually open without the well being sunk? Yes they agree it could as there is tap nearby which could be used temporarily. Great I think- no need to give up right now in despair and go home. I ask questions about what will be linked up to the water supply e.g taps or toilets or waste pipes. From looks around the table my total ignorance of all matters sewage and plumbing is matched by that of the RCOs. Still, Sekar will find out.

Other matters to be sorted include locating what materials remain from the old schools i.e furniture and toys. Then we need to commission new stuff pdq from the brilliant carpenters who made equipment for us in 2004. We talk about what we will require in the way of staff, and one of the RCOs at this point suggests that the caretaker /gardener could be a multi-purpose person and also function as the teacher. Queue Pam to turn to me with rolling eyes to mouth something which indicates she thinks he isn’t quite the full shilling. She has been irritated by him belching all through the meeting anyway and Wendy is hiding her snorts of mirth. Cultural difference I think they call it...Anyway, thanks to good old Sekar, who generally can be relied on to have his ‘Thinking Head on’ we decide on one teacher who cannot be paid less than Rs 2000 per month (minimum wage now Rs 80 per day) and that teacher, hopefully, to be assisted by the teacher from the government balwadi next door, who is paid for by the government. A bit of a Cunning Plan I think but just hope it will work- depends on agreement of In Charge person for Balwadi teachers, with whom we hope to meet early next week after Pongal is finished.

Sekar says that he and the RCOs will as a team take responsibility for organising teachers from balwadis to come to the model playcentre for training courses. The idea is that the fees charged for that training will go to pay the costs of the teacher and other running costs of the playcentre. We set aside next Weds 21^st Jan for selecting a teacher. I recount to Wendy and Pam the hilarious time Jenny, Jane and I had when we selected the teachers for the original Barbara Jennings playcentre. How they poured in through the door, the halt and the sick and the elderly, all assuring us that they were up to the job. Still, we did select 6 women that day who all turned out to make excellent teachers and who were great advocates of the Play method of learning. So fingers crossed for this time. The selection will be crucial as this teacher will have to model the method and be able to teach others about it in a confident way- quite a big ask.