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Isha Vidhya Schools Information Docket
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Name of Organization Isha Education
Office Address Isha Vidhya
No. 14, C A Thevar Layout,Kannapiran Mills Road, Udayampalayam
Coimbatore- 641 028.
Ph: 91-422-4272740.
Project Lead Vinod Hari (Project Director - Isha Vidhya)
Tel No: +91-9841048949, 9442228606
Email :[email protected]
Website: www.ishavidhya.org
Legal Status and
Registrations
Public Charitable Trust registered vide Trust Deed no. 102 of
2005 book 4 vol 30, dated 8-4-2005.
Registration under sec 12A(a) of IT Act:C.No.327(398)/2005-06/CIT-III/CBE dated 7-10-2005
Section 80G of IT Act: C.No.327(398)/2008-09/CIT-III/CBE
PAN (Permanent Account Number): AAATI4764K
FCRA Registration: No. 075850261 dated 12th November
2009
Who We Are
Isha Foundation, founded by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, is a non-profit NGO headquartered at
Coimbatore. For the last three decades, Isha has been propagating the science of yoga
throughout the world with the objective of bringing about holistic development that will allow
individuals to realize their true potential.
As a part ofIshas social outreach programs, Isha Vidhya rural schools have been started in
villages (under the umbrella ofIsha Education, established in 2005) to provide high quality
school education to underprivileged rural children who cannot otherwise access or afford it.
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Management
OurBoard of Trustees and Advisory Committee include eminent people who, as independent
appointees, actively participate in the activities of the schools.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES:
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Founder Trustee and Chairperson
Swami Nisarga,M.E, Managing Trustee
Ms. Bharathi Varadaraj, Correspondent- Isha Home School
Mr. Prahlad Kakkar,Advertising Guru
Mr. Deepak Satwalekar, Ex-MD, HDFC Ltd. and HDFC Standard Life Ltd.
Mr. Dorairaj, Senior Advocate
Mr. Sachin Gupta, Head- Legal: ILFS Group
Mr. H.Ramesh, Chairman, TSS Group, Hyderabad
Mr. C.Prabhakar, Director Gopalan Enterprises, Bangalore
ADVISORY COMMITTEE:
Mr. Ravi Venkatesan, Ex-Chairman, Microsoft India
Mr. K. Kumaran, Industrialist
Mr. Armoogum Parsuramen, Former Head, UNESCO India
Mr. D.R.Karthikeyan, Former Director, CBI
Mr. M.P.Vijayakumar, Former Head- Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Tamilnadu
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE:
This committee meets once a month to review and decide on critical policies / decisions
affecting the operations of the Isha Vidhya rural schools.
Mr. Vinod Hari, Project Director Isha Vidhya
Mr. C.P.Vishwanath, Academic Director (MD of Karadi Tales Company)
Mr. Gopi. V, Infrastructure Coordinator
Ms. Diana Price, Academic Coordinator
Mr. J. Balamurugan, IAS, Chairman of the Committee
Mr. K. Sekar, M.Tech, Head- Isha Outreach
Mr. L.K.Narayan, Chartered Accountant, CFO
The core Executive team of the Management Committee consists of the first 4 named above.
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Mr. Vinod Hari, theProject Director of Isha Vidhya, is a B.Tech. (Mech.) from IIT Madras and
holds a PGDM from IIM Bangalore. He is a full-time volunteer overseeing the project overall.All
members of the Management Committee, which comprises the core project team, are
full time volunteers except for C.P.Vishwanath, who is also Managing Director of the
Karadi Tales Company and volunteers part time.
Background
Despite considerable economic progress in India in the last couple of decades, poverty has
continued to pervade rural areas. However, with access to education, youth in rural areas can
be empowered towards wellbeing and contributing to the countrys development.
Unfortunately, children in rural areas have been denied access to a proper education, with
schools lacking basic facilities and teachers being unmotivated and frequently absent. Even
those who eventually make it through twelve years of schooling graduate lacking even basic
skills, making it impossible to seek gainful employment or pursue higher education.
According to Annual Status of Education Report, 2011 survey taken in Tamil Nadu schools - In Std III to
V, 50% children cannot even read beyond Std.1 text. In Std. 8.34% of children cant read beyond Std.2
text, 88% of children in Std V cant do division.
Isha Vidhyas English-medium schools open the door for rural children to successfully pursue
higher studies and gainful employment. The holistic, activity-based approach nurtures childrens
development beyond just academics, ensuring that students realize their full potential and learn
in a joyful manner.
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Mission
Isha Vidhya aims to provide high quality school education to rural children who cannot
otherwise afford it. Isha Vidhya schools
take education beyond literacy and rudimentary skills
strive to make children fluent in English and adept in computer skills
adopt a nurturing approach to education, helping children realize their full potential
actively promote education of female children
increase educational awareness in rural communities
preserve village identities and culture.
equip rural youth with skills to rise above the hopeless situation they often find themselves
in, empowering them to pursue higher studies or gainful employment
Progress So Far & Salient Features
The first Isha Vidhya school was set up in June 2006 in a village called
Sandegoundanpalayam about 30Km from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.
Today there are 8 rural schools in the districts of Coimbatore, Erode, Nagercoil, Tuticorin,
Villipuram, Salem and Cuddalore in Tamilnadu and in Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh.
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The first 7 currently have classes from Kindergarten to Class 8, while the Chittoor school
which was started in June 2012, has from LKG to Class 2.
Infrastructure by way of clean and spacious classrooms, science, maths and computer labs,
digital classroom, library, playground and play equipment, and adequate toilet facilitiesensures no compromise in the quality of facilities provided to the students.
The school infrastructure is funded out of individual and corporate donations. The operating
expenses are partly met through the fees charged and mainly through the sponsorship from
donors towards scholarships and food/ transport subsidies.
The schools have 4050 students, many of whom are first-generation learners and come
from economically backward families.
58% of these children are supported on full scholarships while the remaining pay a nominal
fee. The scholarships cover tuition, notebooks and textbooks.
The scholarships are funded by individual and corporate donations.
Special efforts are made to include the most economically and socially disadvantaged
children, including tribal children and female students.
There are presently 223 teachers and 170 staff in all schools and central office put together.
Day to day operations of the schools are managed by a team that is overseen by a
Management Committee comprised of highly qualified and experienced people. All of these
individuals are full or part-time volunteers who receive no remuneration for their services.
Each school has a Principal who deals with the academic aspects and also the recruitment
and training of teachers, and an Administrator who deals with the administrative aspects. A
group of volunteers assists each school in various ways.
Special methodologies, digital content and educational aids are used to augment the
curriculum, improve grasp of concepts and speed up learning of English.
Children are taught in English to equip them better for the future.
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Students acquire computer skills, have access to library facilities and are taken on field trips.
A nutritious mid-day meal is served with proteins and vegetables. The salt used is fortified
with 11 essential micronutrients. The meal is highly subsidized.
The schools have children living in about 20-25 villages within a radius of upto 15 or in
some cases, even 20 km from the school.
Transportation to and from the school is provided at cost, with deserving children getting
subsidy support from sponsors. Given the distances these children have to travel to school
and concerns of safety, this is a big incentive to get parents to send the children to school.
Annual medical camps monitor students hearing, vision, dental and general health.
Existing Facilities : At present, each school has between 20 to 24 classrooms and a toilet
block with separate toilets for boys and girls. In addition, there is an Admin block which has
the rooms for Principal, Vice Principal, Staff room & Store room. Of the classrooms, 1 is set
aside for the Library, 1 for the Maths lab, 1 for Science Lab, 1 for Computer Aided Learning
lab, 1 for DVD classroom and 2 for V-Sat Digital Classrooms. When fully completed, each
school will have 42 classrooms including all the labs.
School buses owned by the schools augment hired vans for providing necessary transport
to students and teachers.
Curriculum & Methodology
The schools follow the State Board syllabus.
English is the medium of instruction in all schools. The Karadi Path method and Power English
are two methodologies being used to achieve fluency in the language. There is extensive
exposure to edutainment in the English language this makes the children achieve
competency in English, on an average, within 3 years of schooling.
A Math lab is established at each school with several classroom educational aids to teach
children concepts in Maths more effectively and in a practical manner.
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Montessori materials and other classroom educational aids including digital content are
extensively used.
Classroom learning is augmented by field trips. Computer-aided learning is extensively used.
Slow learners are given extra attention with experienced teachers acting as resource teachers
to give special individual attention to them separate from the rest of the class.
Children learn in a stress-free environment. Discipline is enforced without physical punishment
or harsh words, mainly through positive reinforcement.
Basic hygiene is taught by the teachers; given the environments many of these children come
from, it is in school that many learn how to brush their teeth, keep themselves neat and clean,
and even how to use a toilet.
There is lot of focus on recruiting the right teachers, giving them adequate training and keeping
them motivated.
Major Donors Associated in the Past 3 Years:
Some of Isha Vidhyas major corporate donors during the last three years include Infosys
Foundation, Apollo Hospitals Group, LIC of India, Tata Motors, Agility Logistics, SBI Life, Ashok
Leyland, Jayabharatham Furniture Appliances, Cognizant Foundation, Chase Community
Giving, Barclays Capital, EID Parry, Ramaniyam Real Estate, Gaja Advisory Services, Lakhi
Foundation, Seahorse Trust, S.Kumars Nationwide, Asha Foundation, Cognizant Foundation,
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Tamilnadu Foundation, Yatra Foundation, the Indian Diamond industry, HP, IBM, India Infoline,
MyIris.com, Alok Industries, Tamilnadu Newsprint and Paper, ICICI Lombard, ICICI Pru Life,
etc. besides thousands of individual donors.
New Initiative:
Isha Vidhya is also taking a major step in bringing the Isha Vidhya learnings and methodology
into government schools. 31 Govt. schools in Coimbatore, Dharmapuri and Salem Districts have
been adopted to take up various initiatives aimed at improving quality in these schools.
The government of Tamil Nadu is building school infrastructure, but in terms of the capabilities,
we realized that Isha Vidhya has invested and developed a great deal of experience, which can
be translated into methodology, curriculum and teaching environment in government schools.
Since most rural children are still dependent on these schools for their education, this initiative
has been started to provide the badly needed support and upgradation of government school
education.
We plan to first tackle the two fundamental problems present in government schools
1) The very high student teacher ratio affects the effectiveness of the class and inability to
support slow learners, mainly on account of inadequate teachers. By hiring and training
additional teachers who are placed in these Govt. schools, Isha is able to make a big difference
in the quality of learning not only for the slow learners but also for the other children by bringing
the student-teacher ratio to 1:35, thus improving the effectiveness of the other existing classes
as well.
2) Lack of interest and lack of a well-rounded curriculum. Sports, arts and crafts, health,
environmental education, and music not only create an interest in children to attend school, but
are also very essential for the all-round development of the child. Additionally, we are
introducing English language interventions to effectively teach English as a second language in
these schools.
Our Isha Vidhya schools will also serve as demonstration and training centers to aid
government schools in their vicinity. We hope to document and digitize these training sessions
and make them available online, so that teachers will have access to this material more readily.
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We expect the training material to be available online in another year or so to address this
need.
We hope to make this project a robust and workable model in the long run. We realize a lot of
work needs to be done and of course, support is required from the government itself. Dealing
with absenteeism among teachers is another focus area. In our experience, over 80% of
teachers in government schools are extremely keen to do a good job, but the circumstances
frustrate them. We are looking at eliminating these frustrations and providing training to the
teachers. Once the children are motivated and the teachers better equipped, they will naturally
be interested to teach and care for the children.
Interventions in Government Schools have started with
1. Hiring teachers to reduce the student-teacher ratio
2. Hiring teachers for special teaching to slow-learners to mainstream them,
3. English language program intervention
4. Infusing hitherto neglected aspects like sports, yoga, arts and crafts, and health and
hygiene into school life.
5. Basic training teachers to maintain discipline without physical punishment, motivating
children, lesson planning, access and use of classroom educational aids and digital
content,
In future years, we may also look to adding desperately needed infrastructure like toilets,computers, library books, etc.
This is likely to result in several thousands of children benefitting from the transformation that is
achieved by a meaningful education.
Future Plans:
Isha Vidhyas future plans may be broadly classified under three areas:
1. Expansion of exisiting Schools and construction of new schools on the same model
2. Expanding the Government School Interventions
3. Virtual School Project
Existing Schools Expansion & Opening of New Schools:
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Each of the 7 existing schools has up to Class 7 for the academic year starting June 2011,
and a new grade will be added each year as the children progress to the next class.
A new school is starting in in 2012-13 at Aragonda village, Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh,
the first Isha Vidhya school outside Tamilnadu, sponsored by Apollo Hospitals.
Another new school in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu will be ready for the academic year
2013-2014. The complete building for this school is being sponsored by Infosys Foundation.
It is planned to set up several more such schools, at least 1 in each of the 32 district of TN.
Each school will eventually cater to 1200 students.
A new school costs Rs. 5.6 crores (Rs. 56 million or US$ 1.16 million or 0.75mn) and
requires 5 acres of land @ approx. Rs. 50 lakhs ( Rs. 5 million or US$ 0.11 mn or 0.07mn)
Details of the Govt School Interventions and Virtual School Project are given in Annexure 3.
Current Funding Requirements & Estimates
The requirement of funds fall under three categories:
1. Infrastructure for existing Isha Vidhya schools
2. Student Sponsorships
3. Govt. School Intervention
Infrastructure for existing Isha Vidhya schools
The following are the Infrastructure priorities for the 7 existing Isha Vidhya Schools in TN for the
year 2012-13. The aggregate estimate for the same is Rs. 65.45 million ($ 1.36 mn / 0.87 mn).
69 Classrooms with furniture (each Rs. 0.75 mn /$ 15625 / 10000)
7 Toilet Blocks (each Rs. 1.3 mn/$ 27083 / 17333)
Math Lab Material for each school (Rs. 54,000/ $ 1,125/ 720)
Educational Aids for each school (Rs. 120,200 /$ 2,504 / 1,603)
Science Lab Material for each school (Rs. 18,800/ $ 392 / 251)
Sports Eqpt for each school (Rs. 35,000 / $ 729 / 467)
Kitchen Eqpt for each school (Rs. 67,500 / $ 1,406 / 900)
Office Eqpt for each school (Rs. 95,000 / $ 1,979 / 1,267)
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Display Boards & Creative Aids for each school (Rs.3,000 / $ 63 / 40)
Seedling Nursery Matl for each school (Rs.22000 / $ 458 / 293)
Detailed cost break-ups are given in Annexure 4.
Classrooms:
For every additional classroom built in our schools, 40 additional children can be educated. The
well ventilated and spacious classrooms are so designed that the children would love to come
and teachers feel happy to teach in. The labs will allow the curriculum to be supported fully with
practical learning. These will benefit the entire school, which, at full capacity will have 1200
students. The additional classes are to cater to the higher classes upto Class10 and additional
labs for physics, chemistry, math & computer aided learning. No. reqd.: 69
Toilet Blocks:
As the number of students increase, additional toilets are required for boys and girls. A block in
each school is proposed. No. reqd: 7
School Buses:
Many of our children come from considerable distances from the schools with limited access to
public transport. We provide a transport service at cost; which is either through hired vans or
owned school buses. However, even this is unaffordable for some parents, and has been the
reason for some children dropping out of school. In some cases, this has even been a deterrent
to prospective students. If we had our own buses, we would be able to offer this service at a
lower cost which would be more affordable to the students. We would also be able to shorten
their travel time by optimizing routes.
Sports Equipment:
Sports and other extra-curricular activities play a valuable role in socially integrating the tribal
children with our other students. Many of the tribal children excel in physical activities, and their
success in these areas has gained them the respect of their peers, leading to their social
integration. This in turn provides a strong motivation for continuing in school.
Games like Volleyball, throwball, football, tennekoit are proposed to be established.
Office Equipment & Miscellaneous:
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Equipment like photocopier, intercom, Public address system, boards for display of childrens
talent and for teaching, are some of the other requirements.
Kitchen Equipment:
It is proposed to add a vegetable cutting machine to improve cutting efficiency and ensure
timely completion of cooking, along with other balancing equipment including replacement of
cooking vessels and plates due to wear and tear.
Student Sponsorships
Need based scholarships and fee subsidies are provided to deserving students. A
comprehensive allocation process ensures only students truly in need receive scholarships/ fee
subsidies. Sponsors are matched with specific students and receive regular updates including
photos, letters and progress reports. Sponsors are encouraged to support a student for the
entire duration of education at Isha Vidhya. Donors can sponsor a child for any of the following
requirements for the Academic Year 2012-13:
Full Educational Supports (Rs. 20000 / $480 / BPS 300 / child/ Year). This covers all
requirements of the child including tuition, books, notebooks, uniforms, transport &
nutritious noon meals. Requirement: 245
Scholarships (Rs. 10000 / $240 / BPS 150 / child/ Yr.). Even nominal fees are too
much for some rural families. Recognizing this challenge, Isha Vidhya provides
scholarships which cover students tuition, notebooks, textbooks and nutritional health
snacks These would support tuition, books& notebooks, uniforms Requirement: 2000
Food Subsidy sponsorships (Rs. 3000 / $72 / BPS 45 / child/ Yr.). Many of our
children come from families where both parents are daily wagers, who need to leave for
work early. Usually, they cook just once a day and this is the dinner, a portion of which is
kept aside for the children as breakfast and lunch as well. In the absence of any
vegetables, fruit or proteins, the nutritional content of their food is very poor. This
severely impedes the physical and mental growth of the children. By providing at least
one tasty and nutritious meal to these kids, two issues are addressed health of the
children and incentivizing the parent to send their child to school. Requirement: 2580
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Transport Subsidy sponsorships (Rs. 5250 / $130 / BPS 80 / child/ Yr.) Many of our
children struggle to travel to our school due to the absence of low cost, dependable
public transport. Children sometimes come from surrounding villages as far as 5 to 20
km away in our school vans or buses. The transport cost is unaffordable to most
parents. As a result children end up dropping out of our schools or end up going to
poorly run Government schools nearer to their homes. School buses are run by Isha
Vidhya schools on a no-loss-no-profit basis. These provide safe and the most
economical means of transport for the children. Requirement: 150
Govt School Intervention:
The 31 Govt. schools which have been adopted now would require a total of Rs. 15 million per
annum for next 5 years to pay salaries for teachers hired to fill the gaps, provide English
language intervention and extra-curriculars support. Each additional Govt. school adopted
would require an average of Rs. 0.5 mn per annum.
Support Requirements from Donors:
We seek support to complete the necessary infrastructure for the coming year for the 7 Isha
Vidhya Matriculation Schools. Classrooms, blocks and school buses will be named after
sponsors. Sponsorship of students is also welcomed. You may also sponsor a Govt. School or
part thereof.
For online and offline donations and details of addresses, etc. please refer Annexure 5.
For queries related to donations please contact:
Email: [email protected], ph: 91-422-4272740 or 91-9442544458
Donations are eligible for 80G tax benefits in India & 501 in USA. Cheques may be made in
favour of Isha Education and sent to our office address as follows:
Isha Vidhya, 14, CA Theyvar Layout, Kannapiran Mills Road, Udayampalayam,
Coimbatore- 641028. Ph:+91- 0422- 4272740, +91-9442544458.
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Volunteering opportunities:
We also welcome volunteering engagement by individuals and corporate employees, besides
visits to the schools as convenient. Please contact:[email protected]
Main Area Description
Awareness &
Visibility Creation
Introduce friends to Isha Vidhya (Awareness Creation),
Develop content for Newsletter, Blog, Annual Report, Website pages
Design mailers, newsletter, posters, brochures & fund-raising webpages for various campaigns
Website re-design
Document student profiles & transformations
Video films: script, videograph, edit videos about Isha Vidhya.
Help prepare fund-raising proposals
Academics
Collect books, CDs, DVDs other educational aids which families have
but whose children have outgrown the use of Assisting with documentation & digitization of: Methodologies, lesson
plans, training modules. Providing talks/ demos on topics of interest to children (could be any
topic of interest, not just curriculum related) Identifying/helping slow learners (if suitably qualified)
Screen/ evaluate digital content already available for quality
Join as a Teacher
Fund Raising Start fund raising campaigns,
Provide leads and contacts for fund raising
Participate in Marathons for fund raising
Identify and link us to people who can supply materials required inschool at low / free of cost
Govt. School
Intervention Project
Research, Brainstorm & Design curriculum for non-academic areaslike Sports, Arts & Crafts, Health/Nutrition/Hygiene, Environment,Music, etc
Documentation & Digitisation of these
Training module creation for the above and other academic modules
Virtual School
Project
Research and identification of digital content from the netsupplement classroom teaching mapped to curriculum,
Screen / Rate content already available on the net and evaluatesuitability, quality
General Help develop IT systems for donor feedback, accounting, scholarship
management, student info, communications, etc.
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Annexure1 List of Isha Vidhya Schools & their Addresses
Coimbatore SchoolIsha Vidhya Matriculation School
SandegoundenpalayamIkkarai Booluvampatti Post
Coimbatore - 641 109
Nagercoil SchoolIsha Vidhya Matriculation School
Kurandi, TheroorDevakulam Post
Suchindrum - 629 704, Kanya Kumari District
Tuticorin SchoolIsha Vidhya Matriculation School
Kottampuli, Pudukottai PostTuticorin District 628 103
Erode SchoolIsha Vidhya Matriculation School
Perumapalayam, Kanagapuram PostVellodu (Via), Erode District 638 112
Villupuram SchoolIsha Vidhya Agility Matriculation School
Patthiyapettai, Thirunavalur PostVillupuram District 607 204
Cuddalore School
Isha Vidhya Matriculation SchoolMadavappallam, Samiyarpettai Post
Chidambaram Taluk, Cuddalore District 608 801
Salem SchoolIsha Vidhya Ramaniyam Matriculation School
Nangavally, Vanavasi PostMettur Taluk, Salem District 636 457
Chittoor SchoolApollo Isha Vidhya Rural School
Aragonda, Aragonda Main Road,
Chittoor District.Andhra Pradesh.
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Annexure 2: Impact of Isha Vidhya Schools
Educational impact:
Students learning outcomes in certain areas may take years to manifest, and the full benefit of
Isha Vidhya education will only be observable once students have graduated; however, a
number of steps are taken to measure immediate impact and estimate future impact. For the
purpose of measuring impact, the educational objectives of Isha Vidhya can be divided into two
categories:
1. Academic success related to finding gainful employment / pursuing higher education
2. Overall well being beyond academic or job-focused success
For the first point, the academic success of the child here includes the learning of factual
information as well as the development of cognitive skills, intuitive thinking, and a joy for
learning. Measurement of the these happens in the following ways:
1. School assessment of students: students are assessed by their teachers throughout the
term through observation and recording of their performance on: class work, home work,
class participation, projects, quizzes, speeches. Twice a term students from class 1 and up
are formally assessed through exams. Kindergarten students assessment takes place
solely through observation of their performance and participation in class activities,
worksheets and completion of individual activities. These assessments allow for comparison
of performance by a student from one year to the next and for between students within the
same school.
2. Once a year, the Isha Vidhya Academic team conducts a central assessment of students
from class 3 and up. This assessment is curriculum neutral, meaning that its not directly
linked to what may have been covered in class, and tests for overall skills and knowledge
expected at different learning levels. This assessment allows for comparison of student and
school performance from one year to the next and between Isha Vidhya schools.
3. 3rd Party Assessment: from the 2011-12 Academic Year onwards, a curriculum neutral
assessment developed by Education Initiatives (EI) is conducted in all schools from class 3
and up. EI conducts tests in a wide range of schools, and their assessment allows for the
benchmarking of Isha Vidhya student performance relative to students in private and
government schools. Their assessment also provides valuable insight into where directional
adjustments may be needed in the approach of Isha Vidhya academics. This assessment
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which was completed in Dec 2012, showed that Isha Vidhya students performed
substantially better than the Govt school children across the State of TN and also better
than children in other rural Private schools.
4. Assessment of teacher performance: Isha Vidhya Academic team assesses the type and
quality of education delivered by the its school teachers as a means for assessing
anticipated long term educational impact. Teachers are regularly observed against a set of
standards throughout the year and formally assessed once a term. Ongoing training for
teachers is designed and delivered based on the assessment results.
5. Observation and interaction with students: Isha Vidhya Academic team randomly conducts
non-formal interactions with students and classes to assess their cognitive and intuitive
abilities as well as their enthusiasm and involvement in school and learning.
The second objective by and large cannot be formally assessed; however, some quantitative
and qualitative assessment happens through the following means:
1. Medical checkups are conducted once a year to assess students overall health. For
students needing medical attention, guidance and in some cases financial support is
provided to the parents for the childrens follow up treatment.
2. Nutrition related progress of the children as a result of mid-day meals. Extent of prevalence
of mal-nutrition and anaemia are also measured during the annual check-ups.
3. Interaction with students by visitors from other schools and other parts of India has
consistently brought about the feedback that Isha Vidhya students are more enthusiastic,
joyful and healthy looking that similarly aged students in other schools in the surrounding
areas.
Other areas of impact:
Beyond the scope of education, the presence of the Isha Vidhya schools positively impacts the
local communities in a multitude of ways. Quantitatively measurable impacts include increased
land value around the school; paving of roads to and around the school; and laying of telephone
cables, pipes for drinking water & electricity links to homes in the surrounding villages.
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The schools also provide an increasing number of employment opportunities to the local
communities for construction work, teachers, administrators, and other school staff, resulting in
improved economic standing in the local communities.
Qualitative benefits though more difficult to measure are equally valuable and include the
building relations and understanding between people from different economic and social groups,
building awareness and pride in local traditions and culture, and generating good will and
motivation in the local community. These benefits occur in the seamless coming together of
volunteers (from the nearby cities, across India, and the around world), parents and local
community members in supporting Isha Vidhya and in participating in school events. From
before the school is built throughout the years, volunteers, parents and local community
members play an integral role in bringing about the success of the school, and also share in the
celebration with students during the various school functions and cultural programs.
Parent -Teacher meetings also provide indicators of the extent of positive change in parental
attitudes to education of their wards from indifference or helplessness to keen interest and pride
in their childs progress. This is indicative of the increasing importance given by the parents to
education of their children.
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Annexure -3: Future Plans
Govt. School Interventions:
With experience in setting up and running schools in rural districts of Tamil Nadu, Isha Vidhya is
only too aware of the challenges faced by government schools. These include:
Very high student-teacher ratio
Lack of basic facilities such as toilets, benches, library books, etc.
Lack of accountability, demotivated teachers and a high absenteeism rate
Demotivated students and a high drop-out rate
From the academic year 2013-14, the Isha Vidhya schools will leverage their experience, the
tools developed and facilities created to start interventions in Government Schools in the
vicinity. These interventions by Isha Vidhya schools acting as demonstration and training
centres, will aim to enhance the quality of education in Govt. schools. The interventions
envisaged include the following:
Hiring teachers to fill critical gaps and reduce the student-teacher ratio
Improve English language capabilities of students through other methodologies.
Train Govt. school teachers to access and use classroom educational aids and digital
content with computers and other technology that would improve their teaching abilities
while making classes more interesting.
Infusing hitherto neglected aspects like Sports, Yoga, Arts & Crafts, Health & Hygiene,Environmental education to bring all round development and sustain students interest in
coming to school.
Adding some badly needed infrastructure like toilets, computers, library books, etc.
The above are likely to enhance motivation of the Govt. school teachers and students to be
regular to school by making learning and teaching far more interesting and effective,
This is likely to result in several thousands of children benefitting from the transformation that is
achieved by a meaningful education. Isha Vidhya is presently building up its capacities for theabove interventions.
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Virtual School Project:
The vision of the endeavor is to create a platform that will support customized global education.
The initial goal is to categorize supplemental content for various curriculums like Tamil Nadu
State Board, CBSE, etc. To do this, we propose to working with a cloud-enabled platform to
create a social learning network. We look to the platform to initially help augment the existing
curriculum and eventually provide the basis for a holistic education that can be initiated,
supported and completed online. This exercise is a critical linchpin in connecting the dots across
various existing assets and capabilities, both online and offline.
NEEDFORTHE PROJECT
The internet today hosts a very large number of educational content available for free on
virtually any topic under the sun. Such content comes in the form of Audio, Video or Text.
However, for a lay user to access this content, the following problems come in the way:
Quality of content varies widely. So for a user to identify what is good would take
considerable research.
Content is not mapped to any fixed syllabus or curriculum. So appropriateness of level for
the users requirement is difficult to ascertain without going through the content first.
Content for a particular curriculum is not aggregated in a systematic manner, but is spread
all across.
With good quality teachers difficult to come by in rural areas and likely to remain a problem,
there is a need to provide support to these teachers and students, if quality of rural education
needs to be enhanced significantly.
If the content available freely on the net could be harnessed and aggregated, with mapping to
specific curricula, reviewed, rated and made easy to access, it could prove very useful to a wide
range of users, especially teachers and students from rural areas.The development of a virtualschool with use of technology, aims to fulfill this role.
If the project is taken to its fullest potential, and if technology access improves
significantly over the coming years, the Virtual School could benefit thousands of
underprivileged children across the world.
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WHATTHEPROJECTENTAILS
Isha Vidhya will use a technology platform (various alternatives are being evaluated) to
aggregate and make available suitable content for schools, mapped to a curriculum and easy toaccess through the internet, free of cost to any student, teacher or parent. Eventually, the Virtual
School will serve as global, customized, on-line classrooms.
The aggregation is sought to be done by enlisting a large team of volunteers and over a period
of time by the student and teacher community that uses the Virtual School.
Volunteers will identify appropriate content already available on the internet and
aggregate it in Cloud-based virtual classrooms, with specific reference to identified
curricula such as the Tamilnadu State Board, CBSE, etc.
This content aggregation will be facilitated by an easy to use technology platform.
The content can be downloaded, reviewed, rated, commented upon and augmented by
users of the same, who would be volunteers, teachers, students or parents with access
to internet and registered to the platform.
All these users would have free registration and access to the Virtual School through the
platform.
The more the number of volunteers who register and use the platform to add content
and rate it, the faster the Virtual School will develop. Regular users like teachers, students and parents would then find it easier to access
content and also know the appropriateness and quality of the material aggregated as the
ratings would also be more reliable when there are more users rating the content.
In later phases of the project, the content could be translated into vernacular languages,
sub-titled, etc to make it available to a wider range of users.
EXPECTEDBENEFITS
School teachers have a wealth of resources (audio, video and text) to draw upon tosupplement their teaching
School students anywhere can access appropriate material to assist their studies
Private schools in the rural areas are, perhaps, likely to be the first users of the platform.
Government schools would follow, with availability of technology in the schools and
training on their usage, which this project will seek to provide.
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Annexure 4: Funding Priorities for all Isha Vidhya Schools
Sl#
Scholarship/SubsidyDescription
UnitRate(INR
)
UnitRate(USD)
UnitRat
e(GB
P)
TotalQty
Reqd.
Amount(Rs inMn.)
Amount
($ inMn.)
Amount
( inMn.)
1
Full Educational
Support/child/per year
Covering Tuition, books,notebooks, noon-meal,
transport & uniform
20,000
480 300 245 4.90 0.12 0.07
2 Scholarship/child/yearCovering Tuition, books ¬ebooks
10,000
240 150 2000 20.00 0.48 0.30
3TransportSubsidy/child/year
5,250
130 80 150 0.79 0.02 0.01
4Noon-Meal Subsidy/child/year
3,000
72 45 2580 7.74 0.19 0.12
Total 33.43 0.80 0.50
Sl#
Infrastructurerequirement
Unit Rate(INR)
UnitRate(USD)
UnitRate(GBP)
Qty required Tot.Qty
Amount
(Rs inMn.)
Amount
($ inMn.)
Amount
( inMn.)
SGP
ERD
VAN
VIL
CUD
TUT
NGK
1Classroom (incl. com.area) 690,000
14,375
9,200 10 10 10 11 8 10 10 69 47.61 0.99 0.63
2
Furniture & Electrical
Items 60,000
1,25
0 800 10 10 10 11 8 10 10 69 4.14 0.09 0.06
3 Toilet Block 1,300,00027,0
8317,3
33 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 9.10 0.19 0.12
4 Math Lab Materials 54,0001,12
5 720 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 0.38 0.01 0.01
5 Science Lab Materials 18,800 392 251 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 0.13 0.00 0.00
6 Educational Aids 120,2002,50
41,60
3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 0.84 0.02 0.01
7 Sports Equipment 35,000 729 467 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 0.25 0.01 0.00
8 Kitchen Equipments 67,5001,40
6 900 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 0.47 0.01 0.01
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9 Office Equipment 95,0001,97
91,26
7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 0.67 0.01 0.0110
Creativity Displayboard 3,000 63 40 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 12 0.04 0.00 0.00
11 Library Shelves 2,200 46 29 0 4 4 1 3 0 2 14 0.03 0.00 0.0012
Replace., Misc.Furniture
121,600(Avg.)
2,533
1,621 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 0.85 0.02 0.01
1
3
Computers, Elect.
Items
52,000
(Avg.) 1083 693 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 0.36 0.01 0.0014
Seedling NurseryMaterials 22,000 458 293 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 0.15 0.00 0.00
15 Other requirements
61,700(Avg.)
1,285 823 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 0.43 0.01 0.01
Total 65.45 1.36 0.87
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Annexure 4 (A): Funding priorities for Govt. School AdoptionProgram
Government School Adoption Program - CoimbatoreDistrict requirements
S.No.
School Name Village NameTeachershonorariu
m & TA
SpokenEnglish
Sports
Total
1Govt.Hr.Sec.Scho
ol,Kuniamuthur 374,000 20,000 6,000
400,000
2 Govt.High School, Kulathupalayam 235,400 20,000 6,000261,40
0
3Govt.Hr.Sec.Scho
ol,Sundakamuthur 259,400 20,000 6,000
285,400
4 Govt.HighSchool, Semmedu, 185,000 20,000 6,000211,00
0
5Govt.Hr.Sec.Scho
ol,Madvaroyapura
m,191,000 20,000 6,000
217,000
6 Govt.High School, Madampatti 225,200 20,000 6,000251,20
0
7Govt.Hr.Sec.Scho
ol,Alandurai 132,800 20,000 6,000
158,800
8 Govt.GirlsHr.Sec.School,
Thondamuthur 213,200 20,000 6,000 239,200
9Govt.Boys
Hr.Sec.School,Thodamuthur 213,200 20,000 6,000
239,200
10Govt. High
School,Devarayapuram 150,800 20,000 6,000
176,800
11 Govt.High School, Narasipuram 201,200 20,000 6,000227,20
0
12Adi Dravider andTribal Welfare
High School,Muttathuvayal 108,800 20,000 6,000
134,800
13 Govt. HighSchool, Nathe GoundenPudur 167,000 20,000 6,000 193,000
14Govt.Hr.Sec.Scho
ol,Kalveerampalya
m247,400 20,000 6,000
273,400
Grand Total 2,904,400 280,00084,00
03,268,4
00
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Government School Adoption Program - DharmapuriDistrict requirements
S.No. School NameVillage
Name
Teachershonorariu
m & TA
Spoken
EnglishSports Total
1Govt. Boys Hr.
Sec. SchoolAthiyamankot
tai424,200 28,900 6,000
459,100
2Govt. Girls Hr.
Sec. SchoolAthiyamankot
tai305,400 28,900 6,000
340,300
3Govt. Hr. Sec.
schoolLaligam 355,800 28,900 6,000
390,700
4Govt. Hr.
Sec.SchoolPalayampudu
r482,400 28,900 6,000
517,300
5Govt. Hr. Sec.
School Pandahalli 631,200 28,900 6,000666,10
0
6Govt. Hr. Sec.
SchoolIndur 562,800 28,900 6,000
597,700
7Govt. Hr.
Sec.SchoolB. Agraharam 378,000 28,900 6,000
412,900
8Govt. Hr. Sec.
SchoolKullanur 384,000 28,900 6,000
418,900
9Govt. Boys Hr.
Sec. SchoolPennagaram 607,200 28,900 6,000
642,100
10Govt. Girls Hr.
Sec. School
Pennagaram 744,000 28,900 6,000778,90
011
Govt. Hr. Sec.School
Yeriyur 669,600 28,900 6,000704,50
0
12Govt. Hr. Sec.
SchoolNerupur 339,600 28,900 6,000
374,500
Grand Total 5,884,200 346,800 72,0006,303,0
00
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District: Salem District
S.No. School Name Village Name
1Govt. Hr. Sec.school Mallur
2 Govt. Hr. Sec.SchoolPanamarthupatti
3Govt. Hr. Sec.School
Kullappanickanur
4Govt. Hr. Sec.School Thirumanur
5 Govt. high SchoolGajjalnaikanpatti
In Salem District the funding requirements of Rs. 2 million,have been sponsored locally.
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Annexure 5: Donation Information
We seek your support by joining the campaign to gift an underprivileged rural child a future. You
can donate in various ways:
All donations made from India are eligible for tax benefits under Sec 80G &
All donations made from USA are eligible for tax benefits under Sec 501.
Online donations:
For donations in India/USA: Donate through Credit/Debit Card:www.ishavidhya.org/donate
For donations in the UK: Online Donations can be paid via our Just Giving website:
http://www.justgiving.com/ishainstitute
This will enable UK Tax Payers to claim tax benefits.
Offline Donations:
Cheque/DD in favor of: Isha Education [for India], Isha Foundation Inc.[for USA & Canada] and
Isha Institute of Inner Sciences for UK . Please send our Che ues to :India USA & CANADA UK
Isha Education,
14, CA Thevar Layout,
Kannaperan Mill Road,
Udayampalayam,Coimbatore, 641 028,
INDIA.
Ph: +91 94425-44458
+91-422-4272740
Isha Foundation Inc.,
Attn: Isha Vidhya
951 Isha Lane,McMinnville,
TN 37110, USA.
Ph: +1 813-434-3515
Isha Institute of Inner Sciences
Attn: Isha Vidhya
62, Clayton Avenue,
Wembley,
Middlesex HA04JT,
United Kingdom.
Ph: +44 7837060625
Besides details of your donation amount, date and mode of donation, please also email us
personal details including name, address, phone and email ID to [email protected], so
that we may confirm the receipt of funds and also provide feedback and updates regularly.
Page 25 of 27
http://www.ishavidhya.org/donatehttp://www.ishavidhya.org/donatehttp://www.justgiving.com/ishainstitutemailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.ishavidhya.org/donatehttp://www.justgiving.com/ishainstitutemailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected] -
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Annexure 6- Additional Documents Available
1. Isha Vidhya Annual Review for 2010 (Isha Vidhya Chronicle 2010.pdf)
2. Trust Deed registered on 6th April 2005
3. Registration under Sec 12A(a) of the Income Tax Act dated 7th October 2005
4. PAN Card No.: AAATI4764K
5. Income Tax 80G Exemption Certificate
6. FCRA Approval dated 12th November 2009