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Pannaikadu Boys Town & Schools Annual Report 2016/2017

Travelling up from the dusty plains of Dindigul into the Western Ghats, we see the stark evidence of prolonged drought all around us. The shimmery lakes of years past are all dry and becoming covered in the ubiquitous thorn bush. Goats now roam where small boats used to ply their fishing trade. Even up into the hills which are still green, the waterfalls which were so delightfully noisy are still and silent; the main reservoir is a third the size it was last year. There are reports that Tamil Nadu has used approximately 70% of its ground water reserves - several years of good monsoons are desperately needed.

Driving into Pannaikadu Boy Town (PKBT) though, you could be forgiven in thinking there wasn't a drought. The hilly grounds are surrounded by towering, mature trees, shorter coffee bushes and verdant bougainvillea. The site on a small knoll, allowing downhill views on all sides, encompasses 11.5 acres; 2.5 for the actual campus, 6 acres which are planted with coffee bushes and the rest for the playground or currently unused. There are four bungalows to accommodate the boys with another being used to store the coffee beans and agricultural equipment as it is not structurally sound enough for a residence. As the climate is temperate to cool, the windows in the bungalows are glazed rather than covered with mosquito screens and fans aren't necessary. Two buildings; the auditorium/study hall/library and the one housing the computers and guest/TV room have had their roofs replaced with metal ones. The resident tribe of macaque monkeys play havoc with the clay tiles, cracking them when they jump down from the trees and then stealing the broken bits; the metal roofs completely foil them and apparently they just slide right off - a sight I'd love to see. The six acres of coffee bushes are producing less and less – Rs 19,000 last year but only an estimated Rs 15,000 this year. This cash crop is down partly due to the water shortage, partly due to the fact that a good third of the bushes are at least 30 years old and only produce well until about 20 and partly because the trees are throwing too much shade for the bushes to produce properly. The plan is to take out two acres of the old bushes and replant with saplings - which unfortunately will then take at least five years to start producing any beans. In addition approximately 280 mature silver oaks have been identifies for harvesting which will both solve the excessive shade problem and bring in as much as Rs 500,000. These funds will go to the BTS office to be distributed amongst all the residences as needed for repairs and capital expenditures.

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There are mangos and jack fruit for the boys to eat - as long as the monkeys don't get to them first and vegetables grown on the only arable and very small plot on the property. The boys help out on weekends but labour for fertilizing, pruning, pesticide application and harvesting of the coffee comes from the village. The Warden Ilayaraja has been at PKBT for ten years less a short stint at Athoor Boys Town and he lives in separate quarters with his wife Mahalakshmi and five year old son Doni. He is qualified to 10th Standard, with vocational training (ITI) in leatherwork. His wife is a tailor and also the resident computer teacher. The new Assistant Warden Udaiyali has been on the job for less than two months but is a former PKBT boy so is very familiar with both the philosophy and set-up. He is also qualified to 10th Standard and recently completed a two year ITI programme as an electrical linesman - power lines etc.

Ilayaraja is a cheerful fellow and shows immense loyalty to and pride in the residence and "his" boys. Rounding out the live-in staff is the cook Mallika who only started in July. She is the sole guardian of her grandson who also lives at Pannaikadu. The library has approximately 1,200 books in both Tamil and English all worn but still useable. There is a TV with DVDs and most importantly a music system - the Pannaikadu boys typically clean up in the annual Pongal dance competitions, though this year they came in second. The computer room has three units although only two are working; the boys can use the one in the office and it's printer under supervision and that computer is connected to the internet via dongle. Basic instruction covers Word, Excel and PowerPoint; having the computer specialist on-site has to be a big plus.

The boys playground is about 500 m away and quite small given the terrain but it doesn't stop them from playing all sorts of game such as kabbadi, khokho, volleyball and cricket, though the mountain slopes claim many a ball, never to be found again. They have fielded two championship cricket teams at the annual Pongal games in recent years - something to be proud of considering the limitations of their sports field. Bathing and laundry is done outside at two small concrete tanks, considering the climate the boys' fervent desire for a hot water heater makes complete sense. Each residence has an attached toilet and there is another separate toilet block all connected to a septic system. Water is now piped in from the village as both boreholes ran dry sometime ago; potable water is produced with a reverse osmosis (RO) system.

The electrical system experiences fewer power outages other than a scheduled shut down once a month, now that they are on the same power lines as the tourist town of Kodaikanal. In any case the PKBT has both a generator and an uninterrupted power source (UPS) for the office computer. Security is maintained with a CCTV set-up of four cameras. The site is relatively isolated so security is not as much of a concern as is the case in some of the more urban residences. The year started with 47 boys up from the 37 of last year. Ten new boys were admitted from 6th to 9th standard but four have left leaving the tally at 43; one boy for disciplinary problems, two because they were homesick and one boy with serious asthma who wasn't able to cope with the climate in the hills. This number puts them well within the government mandated limit of 50 boys. Forty one are in Standards 6 to 10 and one each in 11 & 12. Seven of last years' boys are now in vocational training at either a polytechnic or ITI (Industrial Training Institute). There are two different secondary schools for the boys to attend. Nineteen boys are sent to the private Nagammal Memorial High School (NMHS) in Thandikudi, some 11 km away and the balance attend the Government Higher Secondary School (GHSS) in Pannaikadu. In both cases the boys take buses which are free and considerably more on schedule now than in years past. The private school goes to 10th standard only so any boys progressing to the higher levels must transfer to the government school for 11 & 12th standard.

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For the past few years, the private school was considered by far the better school academically and the brightest of Pannaikadu students were sent there. The government school had more perks for the students - free uniforms, sweaters for this cooler climate, flip flops, geometry boxes, and school bags; in standard 11 students are given a bicycle and the 12th standards receive a laptop. The quality and timeliness of some of these items is certainly suspect but doesn't negate the value of having them for these students. By contrast, although the government pays the salaries of the teachers at the private school there are no specific benefits for the students. The theory being that if you can afford to pay the minimal cost of sending your child to private school, you can then afford to kit them out with all the necessary accoutrements - a rather specious argument in my opinion. NMHS is in the midst of the village and occupies a former home which was given to them to open the school many years ago. It is a jumble of ramshackle rooms, some large, some small and some doing double duty. Theoretically there is a classroom for each of 6, 7 & 8 standards, and two each for 9 & 10. There is one toilet for the girls and one for the boys; teachers have another one, which is pretty minimal for a student body of 175 along with seven full-time teachers, three part-time specialists and two clerical staff. There are no computers and only one science lab which covers physics, chemistry, biology, botany and zoology. The library has about 1,500 very old books in Tamil and English which can be loaned out to the students as needed. They do have a TV and if they could acquire a DVD player the feeling is they could get copies of the DVDs the government is starting to supply to some of the schools which apparently are designed as aids to the curriculum, especially in English. Fortunately they do have a steady and clean water supply from their own bore well. CCTV security is not yet required for schools this small. Despite these handicaps the school does produce well educated students. I spoke at length with Vairamuthu who is the Science teacher and filling in for the Head Master who is on extended medical leave. He believes part of the reason the school does so well is because they have a very dedicated and motivated group of teachers. All have Masters Degrees in their respective fields as well as their teaching certificates and some also have MPhil degrees. Staff turn-over is very low with a number of the teachers having been at the school for at least 10 years.

The school is on the Tamil Medium syllabus and uses the Advanced Learning Methodology (ALM). Which simply means that 60% of a students' mark for the year comes from the exams and 40% comes from work done throughout the school year - homework, assignments, projects and making mind maps. From standard 6 to 9 the students in both schools, are on the government mandated tri-semester, "all pass, no fail" system. Once in 10th standard, the system changes completely to whole subject studies over the course of the entire year with tests/exams taken weekly, monthly, quarterly and a final exam in March. In order to prepare students for these all important 10th standard exams, NMHS has compulsory extra studies before

regular classes start. The 9th standard students can also avail themselves of this extra study time but it isn't compulsory. Extra classes are also offered during the lunch hour for anyone having specific problems. Both schools report that the vast majority of the students coming into the school at 6th standard from the rural schools are functionally illiterate. It takes a minimum of six months very hard work to get the basics covered and as much as three years to be at the same level as the other students. If they happen to come in at 8th standard as is sometimes the case, it can be extremely challenging and very difficult. The acting HM feels that the PKBT boys do better than average over all and are more disciplined because of the extra tutoring they receive at the residence. They do well at the cultural dances and are always ready to perform for special occasions. They mix well with the other students but not surprisingly do have a certain unity with the other boys from PKBT. There are plans in the works to add Standard 11 and 12 to the school. This may take quite some time as it requires government approval but they are hopeful as the school has a very good reputation. In addition they are looking at the possibility of adding English Medium as this is something more and more parents are asking for but there is a serious shortage of truly qualified teachers. The wish list includes computers of course and they would really like a proper lab which would cost somewhere in the range of ten lakhs (one million rupees) - serious fundraising required.

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The Government Higher Secondary School (GHSS) was not a particularly effective school until recently when a new Head Master was appointed. Sivasubramani moved to Pannaikadu to take up the position from Dindigul where he taught English and the Social Sciences. He strikes me as a very dynamic individual extremely focused on bringing the school up to his - much - higher standards. There are 23 full-time teachers, one part-time and one specialist who teaches the girls, for 288 students. The girls are at a separate school next door from standard 6 to 10 so the school is only co-ed for 11th and 12th standard. At the moment he has 7 vacant clerical or non-teaching positions which are proving difficult to fill as the government pay schedule is minimal. The Head Master runs extra tutoring sessions every morning from 8:30 to 9:30. His intention is to bring the 10th standard marks up to the district average within the next year and to surpass that within the next two.

The campus is quite large with a playing field for volleyball, cricket, kabbadi, khokho and badminton; this year the school hosted the district level competitions. Twenty two class rooms are in use with several others closed due to damage; they have separate labs for the sciences and a computer room with 15 working computers for the 11th and 12th standards only. The library is small with perhaps 500 or 600 books in Tamil and English. They have adequate sanitary facilities for both the boys and girls. One thing they do need quite badly is a RO system for their water supply as an average of 15 student are sick

per month from drinking the unfiltered water from the village bore well. Security is non-existent, CCTV isn't required; there is a wall but the villagers consider the campus to be their property to use as they wish. In addition without a night watchman there is simply no way to stop people from wandering in and out. This attitude is also reflected by the local students' parents who give no support to the school either through donations or in ensuring that their children work hard at school. Some things which this new Head Master hopes to change in time. By contrast the PKBT boys are considered to be quite well disciplined, reasonably well focused on their studies and good at sports and cultural activities - all a result of the work of the Warden at the residence. One area which is not well covered either at PKBT or either of the schools is adolescent development, sex education, AIDS or STDs awareness. Apparently the Health Department comes in twice a year to the Government school to separately lecture the 11th and 12th standard girls and boys, but this seemed to be a rather vague and embarrassed response to my query. Over all Pannaikadu is doing a terrific job - with some areas to be improved as is always the case. These boys are happy, healthy and getting good educations which will allow them to move up out of the poverty levels they have come from. Kimberly Smith Volunteer January 2017. All Project Reports are checked and when necessary amended by JHC Manager. Many youngsters supported by JHC are seeking sponsorship; you may have a relative or friend who might help these youngsters? We need volunteers who might help these children and others in projects JHC supports with their education and spoken English, do you know anyone who might be interested? Want to read news from JHC and India? Then why not follow us at www.facebook.com/JoeHomanCharity or www.joehoman.org.uk. We need friends to spread the news of our work with needy children. To write to your sponsored child, please use email via the charity website, or the following postal address. Child name / PKBT C/o Joe Homan Charity (India) Post Box No 36 Dindigul – 624 001 Tamil Nadu India