1. REWARD Trust (Rural Education Welfare and Resource Development Trust)
Nagender Bandi
Rahul Batra
Limit the presentation to 10 minutes, to be followed by 5 minutes of discussion (and voting)
Keep the original presentation made 5 months ago handy.

2. Project Executive Summary
Organization: REWARD trust
Location: Koovathur which is about 20 kilometers from Anupuram township (which in turn is about 70 kilometers from Chennai)
Area (urban/rural): Rural
Primary Focus: Goal is to help upgrade government schools by recruiting qualified teachers
Purpose of Funding: Request remaining funding for the 3 schools in Koovathur village in Tamil Nadu.
Amount Requested (US$): lakhs
# of Beneficiaries: ~1650 students in 3 schools
REWARD’s Vision - Excellence in rural government schools by:
Adding full time teachers to Govt. schools which have teacher shortage
Conducting continuous teacher training
Situation on ground before REWARD
• Overcrowded class rooms
• Poor infrastructure
• Not enough teachers
• Low graduation rate
• Not enough hope for students, parents, school, principals

3. Project Description
Description - Recruit qualified teachers, conduct monthly teacher training sessions, merit based pay on student performance, peer reviews of teaching techniques, evaluate of subject matter & delivery, upgrade government schools etc.
Community Involvement - Donations
Challenges - Teacher retainment, Funding
Successes/Impact Thus Far – Kids succeeding in higher studies and contributing back

4. Project Big Picture Education Components Every bit of the funding
Non-Education Components
None
Funding
NGO: Donations + Asha funding
Project: It’s complicated
Our Component: lakhs per annum for Kovathoor for these 3 schools - Government Higher Secondary School, Govt. Primary School, Govt Adi Dravida Welfare Primary School + schools in Nerumbur, Neelamangalam.
Number of children supported: 1400 students  students students (approx) study in schools 1, 2 & 3 respectively

5. Details of Funding Requirements
Amount of Funding Requested (US$) 21K
INR lakhs [details in next slide]
Duration of Funding Request (June 2013 – June 2014)
One-Time Costs? Continuing? (None)
Other Current Sources of Funding
Plans for Self-Sufficiency (None)
Funding Timeline - How Urgent is the Need?
Urgent

6. Budget for Requested Funding
3 teachers in Higher Secondary pay scales of Rs 9500 
3 teachers in High pay scales of Rs 8500
3 teachers in Middle pay scales of Rs 7500
3 teachers in Primary Rs 6500 respectively + 1 month equivalent incentives.
Total = 12,35,000
2 installments of

7. Project Goals & Achievements
REWARD added 50 Teachers to 19 schools with 7500 students in 25 villages
Impact of REWARD
Before
In 2003, 70% students failed to graduate High School
In 2005, 5 students scoring > 80% overall
After
In 2011, 71% students passed High School
In 2011, 82 students scoring > 80% overall
REWARD’s Vision - Excellence in rural government schools by:
Adding full time teachers to Govt. schools which have teacher shortage
Conducting continuous teacher training
Situation on ground before REWARD
• Overcrowded class rooms
• Poor infrastructure
• Not enough teachers
• Low graduation rate
• Not enough hope for students, parents, school, principals
Impact of REWARD
Quality of Teaching greatly improved
Avg. graduation rate increased to 71% from 30%
Class sizes are now smaller
One teacher for every subject(in most schools)
Vision
Immediate       a) Improved performance, primarily in academics, from wherever they are.       b) Enhanced Learning outcomes. Futuristic       c) Aspiration to take to higher studies in better institutes       d) To become educationally,  economically and socio-politically empowered       e) To be a catalyst for bringing about better enabling conditions for all future students. (This year some of the students have pooled up their resources to pay for a student's admission in higher studies. One student who has got a job in Malaysia has contributed Rs 6k to REWARD Trust and has promised to make this an annual feature.And so on!) 
IMPACT on the community:
          This is difficult to tell in quantitative terms.
          There would be a slow and steady increase in the emphasis on good education, demand for good teachers and better academic environment.
          The number of students taking to higher studies is bound to increase.
          Once the current students complete their studies and get a reasonable economic & social empowerment, the role model induced persuasive forces will get unleashed to make the future students to aspire for better learning outcomes.
          We are personally earning for a day when students from these villages will knock on the doors of all leading academic institutes across the country, get employed in all prestigious institutions across the country, a large number of local professionals / entrepreneurs becoming available and so on.
Beneficiaries
          The Higher Secondary School is where the maximum number of students study - about 1300 between VI & XII.
          The number of governemnt appointed teachers remained under 25 for a long time. This year the school is expecting more appointment. We will get a clear picture after June.
          The primary schools - two in number - cater to about 100 students each.
          We can put the impact number at around 1500 ( )

8. Expected Outcomes/What After? (Update with new knowledge)
Measures of Success
Evaluation Methods
What happens to beneficiaries after this program?
Expected outcomes
Immediate       a) Improved performance, primarily in academics, from wherever they are.       b) Enhanced Learning outcomes.       c) Aspiration to take to higher studies in better institutes Measures of Success:       a) Public exam results. Overall pass % and also pass % in the subjects our teacher has handled.            (In the last public exam - the first one after a syllabus change -- a strange result emerged. Unlike the previous years, where the low school pass % correlated with low pass % in the subjects handled by the Govt teachers, last year both REWARD Teachers & Govt teachers gave higher pass % compared to overall school pass %. It appeared different students failed in different subjects!)       b) How many take to higher studies & in which institutes ( Last year two students made it Govt Professional Colleges )       c) How sustained it is over the years.       d) Degree of Cooperation & Competition between our teachers & govt teachers. ( In fact wherever this exists, the schools performance tends to become higher)       e) Performance in the SMART Exams that we conduct to test the students learning outcomes. The exam was introduced only last year. The attached excel sheet might give you an idea.
Evaluation Methods:       a)  Direct assessment whenever we visit the schools ( Sitting as a student in our teachers' classes,  interacting with students during and after the class)       b)  Assessment during the monthly Teacher Training Programmes       c)  Assessment by fellow teachers during the Training Programme       d)  Their work in projects & preparing teaching aids       e)  HM's evaluation  and in future       f) Students' evaluation of our teachers
What happens to beneficiaries after this program?
       This is a tough question to answer quantitatively. We may have to wait longer to get an answer in these terms.        To keep track of the student beneficiaries is logistical nightmare unless the students talk to us. We are not directly visible in their life.         Where the students interact with us outside school -- like coming to our home for extra learning / counseling -- the contacts remain and they give us some feed back.          The teachers who worked with us and left us for better paying jobs do contact us once in a while and tell us about their career progress. We have not put in place a systematic procedure to follow up on those who have taken to teaching.           Qualitatively we can say that students and teachers carry with the desire to raise their bars regularly.

9. Steward Thoughts/Recommendation
Fund it!
On this final slide, based on your knowledge of the project and your interactions with the people involved, please provide a recommendation to the group regarding….
Whether we should we continue to fund the project

10. Project Discussion/Decision