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WINTER CAMP REPORT

NAME OF WINTER CAMP:AID INDIA START DATE :<01-12-2011> END DATE :<06-12-2011> LOCATION: TRICHY DISTRICT PARTICIPANTS OF THE CAMP: NAME SIDDHARTH DASH GANGAL VARUN PRASHANT GOWTHAM V SRUJAN SURESH BHAGAT ROLL NUMBER ED11B036 CS11B038 ME11B023 AE11B057

REPORT: On the first day(1st Dec) we left for Kannakkudi(a non-ESK village) at around 3 pm from lalgudi.Afterreaching,we took the permission of the village head to carry out the survey on 3rd-5th standard students.The required students were given a basic stanza of a tamil short story to read as well as simple subtraction problems with and without borrowing to solve.The parents were really co-operative towards the survey.They also guided us to the houses of other children belonging to the same group.We came to observe that only 9 of 26 were able to read tamil sentences while 10 were able to sove subtraction problems.We were shocked by these dismal statistics and the wide difference with respect to their urban counterparts.This confirmed that the statistics of EUREKA-AID INDIA were true and less than 50% were able to read tamil and solve maths On the second day we visited an ESK village.We went to the primary section of the government school.We talked and interacted with the 5th standard students and attempted to teach them some Tamil,Maths and English.Formaths we gave them basic problems involving subtraction with/without borrowing,multiplication(2 digit) and division with one digit divisors.We found their Tamil reading satisfactory. We asked them to read out some lessons from the tamil textbook and found their tamil reading skills to be satisfactory.ForEnglish,we asked the children to recite some poems and read some paragraphs from their English textbook.Though the children were able to recognize words,they were unable to spell or pronounce them correctly.In order to inculcate their English and improve their vocabulary,we asked them to play the word builder game.The students greatly enjoyed playing thegame.It also benefited them as they had to spell out each word.They also picked up new words in English.The enthusiasm facilitated the learning process.We felt that there is a need to incorporate the fun factor in education.Overall,we found them better placed compared to their non-eskcounterparts.Afterthat,we visited the ESK tuition centre of that village where 3rd-8th standard students had assembled.The 8th and 7th standard students demonstrated to us some science experiments.We were amazed by their confidence,clarity and skill.The experiments had helped the develop a scientific outlook from an early age.We tried to give them better explanations for the experiments.We then interacted with the 4th standards whose skills were greatly improved as a result of theESK centre.It is avery promising initiative and should be expanded to other villages On the 4th day we reached mettupati a Non ESK village.This village was more developed,larger and decentralized.

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Results were disappointingly low,although we surveyed students of a private school.Only 8 out of the 22 surveyed could read tamil passage seffectively and 5 out of 22 could do basic mathematics.Children and parents were curious about our survey and agreed that the problem needed to be addressed.Statistics were nearly as bad as that of the previous Non-ESK village,so we found that it was not government schools that were to blame for lack of quality education.Awareness of parents was low regarding the quality of education,and many blamed their children as incapableThis was infuriating. On the 5thday,wewnt back to Kannaikudi in order to persuade the parents to write a petition to the local government school principal.However,thepanchayat president told us that due to the poor quality of education in the local school,most students went to the schools in other villages.He then requested us to teach in the village school instead of doing the survey,since it would be a futile exercise.After,this we spent the remainder of the day teaching the children in the village primary school.We were saddened by the fact that only one teacher was managing the entire setup.

OUTCOMES: With the help of AID India, did a survey on the knowledge level of children studying in classes 3 to 5 to identify whether they were able to do basic arithmetic and Tamil reading as expected by the government of a child studying in class 2. Went to a government school near Lalgudi and taught children English, basic mathematics, and Tamil Tried to introduce fun element in English learning through wordbuilder game

PROBLEMS FACED (IF ANY) AND SOLUTIONS IMPLEMENTED: Only 1 person in 4 knew tamil and difficulty in communicating Headmistress of govn. School let only her bright students answer the questions we put to them and discouraged the others from approaching us. Confusion as to what to do..

POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS: The non-Tamil volunteers must be taught some Tamil so that they can play a better role.<If someone is going to do a similar camp in the coming years, what would you like to tell them?>

FURTHER REMARKS:

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