About ‘Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth’- Parivaar’s own High Quality Formal School at Parivaar Ashram premises.

‘Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth’- Parivaar’s own High Quality Formal School at Parivaar Ashram premises. It is currently from Class 1 to Class 8.

Beginning and Raison d’ etre

Parivaar has started its own Formal Day School ‘Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth’ located at the Parivaar Ashram premises from 1st May ’07 as a permanent ancillary institution to the Parivaar Ashram Residential Institution for destitute children so that for the years and decades to come the resident children at Parivaar can attend this School and receive quality education.

The reason why we needed to start a School of our own was that it was central and essential to the scaling up of Parivaar Ashram Residential Institution, i.e. suppose from the earlier level of 300 odd children, if its capacity was to be increased to 1000 and beyond in the following 4-5 years, then we would have faced a big challenge of admitting our resident children in outside quality schools as the capacity in those schools is limited. Those schools are not scaling up in the way as Parivaar Ashram would have scaled up and thus a major constraint would have come up. The only way then, would be to get rid of this external dependency, and have an ancillary institution of our own so that the whole Parivaar Ashram becomes an integrated institution.

Secondly, the quality control would have fully remained under Parivaar’s control. Since Parivaar’s mission of developing bright futures for all its resident children is so critically linked with success in the sphere of education, we wanted to have greater control over it which would not have been possible to that extent had it been left to outside schools. Now we can have better linkage and communication between School teachers and teachers in After-School Tutorship Program. Such coordination plays a very important role in improving the performance of students. Earlier when the children were attending outside schools there could not be much regular communication between School teachers and our Parivaar teachers in ‘After-School Tutorship Program’. But now with the starting of Parivaar’s own School, both programs are under Parivaar and thus a much better coordination is there. Similarly coordination and thought-exchange between resident caretakers and teachers really helps both the sides to understand so many aspects of the children which would have otherwise remain closed to them.

Standard Operating Practices at Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth

At ‘Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth’ (ABV), the quality and standard maintained is high. In the ABV, some Standard Operating Practices are followed with the following features to ensure high quality :

• Even though it is meant for Parivaar’s resident children but still our own children have to undergo admission test to get into it for any particular standard (grade). Failing to do so they are kept in the fast-learning bridge Course that prepares them to make the cut for the School and then admitted into the School.

  
  

• Teachers who teach at the Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth do not teach in the tutorship program. This ensures that teachers both in the School as well as tutorship program are kept under challenge to perform and that there is no academic compromise.

  
  

• A Question Paper Approval Committee approves the question papers set up by the respective course teachers. They check the content of each question paper for parameters like quality, clarity and course-pervasiveness. The Committee then approves the question paper judging the whole content on the above parameters. It may also issue modifications in certain questions if it helps to strengthen it based on the above parameters. The chief purpose of this exercise is to ensure that no sub-quality question papers are administered during the Examinations and the overall standard is always maintained at a robust level.

  
  

• Similarly at the Tutorship Level, monthly internal tests are there.

  
  

• We have weekly meetings of all the teachers wherein they have to submit a ‘Statement of Activity’ undertaken during the period. All these statements as well as the highlights of the meetings are documented and permanently recorded.

  
  

• The whole content and syllabus covered by any teacher during a week is planned and submitted in advance to the School Headmistress and is generally completed within that duration.

  
  

• Fortinghtly meetings between After-School Teachers and School teachers. In such meetings there are also many one-to-one meetings and discussions between a teachers teaching a particular subject to a particular students group, and a ‘After-School Tutorship’ teacher teaching the corresponding subject to the corresponding students group at Parivaar Ashram. This has led to much greater coordination.

  
  

• Fortnightly meetings between School teachers and Residential Caretaking Staff of Parivaar Ashram are conducted which have many one-to-one meetings between teacher of a particular students group and caretaking in-charge (Housebrother / Housemother as they are called at Parivaar Ashram). Since Housebrothers/Housemothers are in role of guardian for the children at Parivaar this helps them to handle the children better, counsel them in issues which need such counseling, and ensure that children are disciplined and focused on their tasks at hand which helps to ensure overall improved academic performance as well as healthy personality growth. Teachers also get to know various non-academic behavioural aspects of a particular child and other relevant and information specific to a particular child which otherwise they would not have come to know. This also helps them to handle the children better in Classroom environment.

  
  

Qualitative & Quantitative targets for Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth for the next 3 years

The Formal School at Parivaar Ashram (Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth) is central and essential for meeting of Parivaar’s overall objectives of making bright futures for all its resident children through education. The results shall both be quantitative and qualitative.

Among the quantitative targets that we have is that Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth (ABV) shall enable scaling up of Parivaar Ashram Residential institution to 800 by December 2011 and to 1000 children in the next 2 years. The School itself shall be upto Class 12 then and all the resident children can in that case study at Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth itself. By 2013 The School shall service 2000 students (1000 resident children and 1000 day-scholar students).

At least 80% of all the students should pass in First Division (60% marks) in the examinations at ABV. But all this is a preparation towards Class 10 examinations (which is the common examination for the whole state and is evaluated at the state-level) in which Parivaar resident children will start appearing in three-years time. Our target is that in Class 10 and Class 12 examinations at least 80% students should secure First Division.

Expansion plan for Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth in the year 2011

Timeline of construction : January 2011 to December 2011

Assumed construction cost during the period of construction is Rs 800 per sq ft

30 Classrooms (each of 440 sq ft ) = 30 *440 *800 = Rs 1,05,60,000

5 Labs and 5 bigger Classrooms (720 sq ft in area) = 10 *720*800 = Rs 57,60,000

Staff Room : 1000 sq ft : 800*1000 = 800,000

General Activity Hall : 900 sq ft : 800*900 = Rs 720,000

Girls Toilets (6 in number, each of 200 sq ft) = 6*800*200 = Rs 960,000
Boys Toilets (6 in number, each of 160 sq ft) = 6*800*160 = Rs 768,000

4 rooms of about 300 sq ft (for miscellaneous purposes like Headmaster’s room, school general office, kitchenette, records &archives room : 4*800*300= Rs 960,000

Staircases (2 staircases from either side will service all 3 storeys) : estimated cost Rs 12 Lacs

3 overhead tanks of 12,000 litre capacity : 3 * Rs 125,000 = Rs 375,00,000.

Grand Total : Rs 2,21,03,000