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Microfinance plus: first generation literates

 

Ging Ledesma on 13‑09‑2011

Jesu Thomas, Manaveeya/Oikocredit Area Manager, and I are on a visit to the ASA Vidiyal Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Valanadu Kaikatti, India. In June this year, Oikocredit/Manaveeya had approved a loan of INR 50 million (€ 755,730) to expand the school’s classroom facilities and build a hostel for boys and girls.

 

A 45 minute ride covers the 40 or so kilometers from Trichy to Valanadu and we see the school outlined against a backdrop of open fields and distant mountains. We see a row of yellow school buses parked at the opposite end of the schoolyard where we disembark. Mr Solomon Paulraj, school principal, meets us and we get an update on the school’s operations.

 

The four-storey building was built to accommodate 1,000 students. Today, it has 1,497 students and a visit to the classrooms confirms that they are literally overflowing. In some classrooms, we find children working on their schoolwork on the floor. On the top floor, wooden dividers sectioned off a large hall into three classrooms.

 

As Mr Paulraj takes us around the building to visit the computer room, the meditation room and the yoga hall, students are pouring out of their rooms and lining up in the corridors. They are extremely well-behaved; the corridors are quiet as children tuck into their lunch boxes. A boy who finishes his lunch early washes out his lunch box at the cleaning area at the end of the corridor.

 

The school is ASA’s way of thanking the community where it started out in 1986. “The support of people in this and surrounding villages have enabled ASA to grow,” says Mr Senthil Nathan, General Manager of the ASA’s microfinance company, GVMFL. 300 of the school’s student population come from within a 2 km radius of the school. Others come from villages and hamlets as far as 40 kilometers away and make use of one of 14 school buses operated by the school. Monthly fee for the service ranges from INR 250 (€ 3.80) to INR 400 (€ 6) depending on the distance travelled. 80% of the school’s student population are children of farmers, farm and day labourers. Many are first generation literates in their families.

 

“Quality education is an impossible dream for most rural people. Government schools are there but our school’s passing rate for the past five years has been 100%,” says Mr Paulraj with quiet pride. The teachers share this pride in their school. “Quality education at this cost is not available even in the city,” says Ms Kavitha, English teacher at the school for the past four years.

 

“What we charge for one year is what a school in the city charges for one month,” shares Mr Paulraj. Last year, the high fees charged by private schools led the Tamilnadu government to review and prescribe fees for all schools in the state. “Our fees are even lower than what the government prescribes. For example, we only charge INR 1,900 (€ 28.70) per year for lower kindergarten whereas the government sets this at INR 2,400 (€ 36.30), shares Mr. Subbiah, the school’s assistant director. “We were the only school which did not protest against the standard fees set by the government. Other schools appealed to be allowed to charge higher fees.”

 

The school also provides scholarships to students achieving high marks in the state exams and discounts in the school fees to students who stay in the hostel. At the moment, only 80 boys are billeted in the hostel. “We had to turn away the girls because we do not have sufficient separate quarters for them. The expansion of the hostel facilities and the addition of classrooms will enable us to accommodate more children and also become more profitable with increased enrolment. With our present enrolment we have reached breakeven and have made a little profit. With an enrolment of 2,000 we will become more stable financially,” shares Mr Paulraj.

 

The school is determined to bring technology to the rural areas. “I think we are the only school in a rural area where all students from kindergarten up, have an opportunity to work with a computer,” says Ms C. Lalta, the school’s Information Technology instructor.

It is getting late and we have to travel back to Bengaluru. As we say our goodbyes, I ask Mr Paulraj why he chose to take up a remote post when, with his qualifications he could easily have taught in a school in the city. “I see an opportunity for me to make a real contribution here. This school is a dream come true for the parents of many of our students and for the students themselves”. Oikocredit/Manaveeya can take pride in contributing to making dreams a reality in this corner of India.

India, September 13 

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